Road Trip Day 7 - Hotter than ****

It's still HOT here. Hot, humid, sticky.

Started off the morning with a load of laundry. *whee*. Fun eh? We had breakfast in the hotel. Really getting tired of fast food for sure.

Headed off to the Bluebonnet Swamp natural area. In a word? "spider" would be the word. Plus the heat. Even at 9:30 a.m. the heat and humidity was just awful. From the parking area there were two paths to the visitor center, a boardwalk through the trees and a gravel maintenance road. We were good people and followed our instructions. Huge swamp spiders had webs strung across the boardwalk (usually over our heads, but a couple we had to bat out of the way). This was FREAKY to say the least. None of us like spiders much. And these were strangers to us. They were really colorful anyway. We did a "fear is the mind killer" reality check and finally made it to the visitor center unscathed. One of the two ladies working there was a little bit scornful of our "trial by spider". "They won't hurt you." Okay, whatever you say lady. But they are still pretty danged scary looking. They handed us a laminated trail guide and sent us on our way. We braved about 1/4 mile, but especially nice to see was an older lady power walking the trail. Needless to say, we picked HER way! It appeared she knew what she was doing. We figured, later, that the visitor entrance boardwalk was overrun because they have so few visitors. The swamp was pretty cool. I showed the kids what Cypress Knees are. *woooo* *shouts of excitement*. Oh, I also stepped on some red ants and one bit me. Luckily I didn't have many on my foot and was able to shake the rest off or kill them. Nasty critters. After hearing a couple of birds and barely seeing any (they were just too high up in the trees) we went back to the visitor center and looked at the exhibits. They had a few baby alligators which was neat, and a lot of snakes and turtles. The gal we saw power walking was with a man who seemed to be the volunteer photographer for the swamp. Many, many of his very great photos of the swamp creatures, birds and flora were posted inside the center. Excellent photos. He did comment to me that it was a slow bird day. He was down on the ground photographing a wasp as we left. We left by way of the maintenance road..... Imagine that! No spiders. It was only 10:30. As promised I did not keep the kids there more than one hour! Hooray.

Next we headed downtown. We toured the Old State Capitol building. There were some really interesting exhibits inside this building. One exhibit traced the moveable history of the Lousiana State Capitols. There were between 15 and 20 different places that the capitol was located for various reasons.

We walked over to River Road and entered the U.S.S. Kidd veterans museum. I really enjoyed this. I know any veteran would spend a lot of time here. We spent a couple of hours. First we bought sodas to rehydrate ourselves. You just cannot imagine walking around in this heat and humidity all day. We decided to tour the ship first. Mr. Leroy Jenkins who actually served on the Kidd was the ticket taker and I enjoyed talking to him about his time. He told me where his bunk was located. I asked him if he went down those little tiny stairs backwards or forwards. He said that when they would go down they would seldom use the stairs at all, just take the first two steps and then grab a bar and swing down the rest of the way. It was really fun talking to him and he showed me some pictures of his navy football days. The ship was very interesting and I took lots of pictures which I'll post later. We walked back over to the museum and toured all the exhibits there which included some personal effects of Kidd himself.

We had a little snack at the FrostyMug, a little dinner from the 50s. Awesome root beer float! Back at the hotel I watched Val Kilmer in "The Saint". We had dinner at Parrain's. Jordan and I shared an "everything" plate and had some fried alligator, oysters, crab fingers, shrimp, stuffed shrimp. They put PEANUTS in the cole slaw. It is GOOD that way too! We also got to sample the dirty rice and the seafood gumbo. Both were very good.

Time to pack and head home tomorrow.

Road Trip Day 6 - To the Ocean (and the bayou!)

Bayous, canals, and the Gulf of Mexico. That sums up the day. We started off at IHOP for breakfast. Jordan and I thought we were getting a side of sliced strawberries, but it was pie filling. Oh well. We ate the berries anyway. The long drive to Grand Isle State Park took us back towards New Orleans on the first leg, I-10 East. From the edge of Lake Pontchartrain we took I-310 south to its end at Hwy 90. From there we headed back west to LA #1 South all the way to Grand Isle. Once we were on LA1 we were alongside a canal/bayou most of the way down to the gulf. That was pretty neat. Just small towns along the way hugging the bayou, big telephone pole size boat tie-ups / docking spots all along the sides of the bayou. There were all kinds of little shacks selling shrimp and crabs along the roads. I saw more draw bridges today than I think I ever have in my whole life. We also drove by a Saint Mary shrine along the road, right next to city hall, and I got a couple of pictures of that.

We finally got to Grand Isle State Park after a 3-1/2 hour drive. The hurricane (Katrina) really did a number on the facilities. The toilets flushed but there weren't any showers at the bath house we parked by. There were lots of crabs to be seen, many, many birds. Yes, I think we are all sunburned too. I did stop and get sunscreen, the new spray on "sweatproof" kind. But, I don't think it worked (user error). Unfortunately I walked around for about half an hour with my clothes still on in a tank top to take some pictures. The burn is following the lines of my tank top, not my swim suit. Can you say "DUMMY get on your sunscreen!"? We all got our suits on and splashed around. The kids had a lot of fun and so did I. I talked to a nice lady from about four hours away in Texas. They had come to do some crabbing, but there weren't many out in the heat of the day, although we did see lots of partially decomposed crabs above the water line. The tide started to come in. I walked around past the rock jetty to check out a bird conclave, and I SAW A FIN. Yes, I really did see a fin. It was way out there, and I took some pictures. It was kind of freaky to say the least. I wasn't worried about the people in the water or anything, as it was shallow for a long way out. I think he was probably a small one, I saw his back a couple of times when he came up and dived back down. But there was definitely a fin. About 2:30 we decided it was time to go and that's when we discovered the showers at our bath house were not working. Luckily we had a gallon of water in the trunk and used that to rinse off a bit. One other thing, we didn't come out with oil on us at all. The water seemed pretty clean to us.

The drive home was still interesting. I had to fight urges to stop every time I saw a bird. These coastal birds just fascinate me. Especially the Great Egret. It's such a pretty bird and when one or two fly over the swamps they are just beautiful. They have an interesting hunting stance too. They are so patient standing in the water until their target appears, then GULP. Dinner. Ahhh.

We drove across a little draw bridge to the other side of the bayou on LA1 for some Burger King. Cajun food just doesn't appeal to me, and I hope that doesn't disappoint any of you.

We got stopped when the draw bridge over the Intercoastal Canal (a big one) was raised to allow some boats to go by. We had one more traffic jam about 15 miles out of Baton Rouge. The traffic had to merge to one lane and it was a 20 minute process for about 2 miles.

Back at the hotel we are all interested in getting the salt off our skin, so I am patiently waiting for the shower.

Kids are anxious to check their face book accounts and e-mail of course. I try to imagine a world without computers sometimes, but I just can't. Then I remember Isaac Asimov's description of the planet Solaria (The Naked Sun novel) where all human contact, physical of course, was disdained, in favor of flawless "virtual presence" technology. Is that where we are headed?

LOTR Update: Two Towers, Gollum, Frodo and Sam in The Dead Marshes.

BIRDS: Brown pelican and more, but I have to look them up first.

Road Trip Day 5 - a swamp and Nawlins (new orleans)

John headed off to work and the rest of us got cleaned up for the day. By the time we came home we needed another shower. It's HOT today.

On our first stop for gas I got a call from work and found out I GOT THAT JOB! More later about that.

Started the day heading over to a place called Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. I wanted to find the endangered "Red Cockaded Woodpecker" . Didn't see it. We walked the boardwalk trail, about a mile, most in the burning hot sun. *whew*. I did get to see one bird to check of my list. It took me about an hour of internet searching to figure out what it was when we got back to the hotel. It was a Yellow Crowned Night Heron (juvenile). That is the only checklist bird I saw today. But hey, that's one more off my list!

After the swamp sweat, we headed through Sidell, over a 5 mile bridge to get across Lake Pontchartrain, and into New Orleans. We headed right to the French Quarter. We had lunch, I had Muffliato ? sandwich, Jordan had a shrimp sandwich. I loved seeing all the architecture, but the T-shirt shops had a lot of disgusting things on them. We stopped at Jackson Square and the Moonwalk (river front walk). We saw the Supreme Court building too. We drove by the superdome on our way out of town.

The drive back was unremarkable. Tomorrow we head to the Gulf Coast - Grand Isle State Park (oh the BIRDS!) Just call me a bird loser. :-)

LOTR update - we are still in Two Towers, chapter 5.
BIRDS: Yellow Crowned Night Heron - juvenile.

Road Trip Day 4 - happy birthday Steve

Started off the morning with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday for Steve who turned 15 today. After we were all clean for the morning and had our breakfast, Jordan gave Steve his present (a Green Day CD). Then we headed off to downtown. First we drove around downtown not once but twice, trying to figure out the parking dynamics of a new place. We drove by the Brand Spankin' New "Welcome Center" situated right on River Road. Found some free parking by the tracks. The ladies at the welcome center were very nice. We walked from there over to the State Capitol, which was not in session so we got to see all the chambers. We also took the elevator up to the observation deck on the 27th floor. We saw a couple of very strange bugs up there. John things one might be a palmetto bug. After that we walked back to our car and noticed an odd thing. Probably not odd to Mardi Gras savvy folks, but new to me. I saw LOTS of beads that appeared to have been thrown up into tree branches.

Next we parked at 7th and Laurel and walked to the City Deli, a little kosher luncheon place. The kids weren't hungry but I wanted to try something. I had a pulled pork sandwich and it was pretty good! We then walked about 4 blocks to St. Joseph Cathedral. We went in and looked at the inside. Apparently they have confession on Mondays at lunchtime. Oh well. We were quiet but I did take a couple of pictures. The inside of the church reminded me of my own St. James in a way. By the time we walked the 4 blocks back to the car we were HOT. It was about 95 degrees and very humid. I drove by the Capitol Lake, parked and got out to take some bird pictures. The kids sat in the car with the A/C on!!

We got back to the hotel around 1 and played, you guessed it, BURNOUT REVENGE! Although first I finished my book. Jordan and I drove around to find the pizza place Steve wanted to go to for his birthday dinner, and we also stopped at Winn Dixie to pick up a birthday cookie for his "cake".

John finally got to the hotel around 4:30 or 5. We went to pizza. I tried this appetizer with sliced tomatoes layered with mozarella and basil covered with a vinigrette. It was pretty good. The pizza was good.

Back to the hotel for more BURNOUT REVENGE!! Steve enjoyed all his birthday presents. We left one at home so John wouldn't have to bring it on the plane. It was an Effects Board for his guitar. Can't wait to hear it!

BIRDS: Today I saw a Great Egret, a Snowy Egret, and I think a Neotropical Cormorant. Got photos of all three, so I will double check on the cormorant when I get back home. The other two were pretty obvious.

Road Trip Day 3

After our free breakfast at the hotel we headed back to the car. I made the kids wait around while I tried to spot a bird making an interesting call that I didn't recognize. I never did get a good look at the bird though. Oh well.

We stopped at Walgreens and bought batteries for my camera and a gallon of water (the same price as an individual water!).

Next we headed north on I-110 and then US 61 to Centenary College State Historic Site located in Jackson Louisiana. This was a really nice tour. Our tour guide was originally from Joplin Missouri which was neat. We got some neat pictures. In one of the old dorm rooms where the old lead paint had been peeled back, this exposed some handwritten messages from the 1800's. It was very cool! 19th century college grafitti. Nothing bad. "Sophomore class of 1857" and a list of names is one example. Latin quotes was another. The really sad thing is that the Main Academic building with its 3000 seat auditorium was torn down in the 1930's. Before the days of historic preservation. There was no one to save the building. Kind of sad.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/icentenary.aspx

We headed southwest on LA 965 to the Audubon State Historic Site at Oakley Plantation. Apparently he taught their child for a few months during the time he was drawing and painting for his famous Birds of America book. We met Gus the turkey and got caught in a sudden rainstorm. Very fun. A small plantation, but really neat because it was in the same family since its beginning, until sold to the state in 1942.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/iaudubon.aspx

Well, by 1:30 we were HUNGRY. The nice lady in the visitor center at Oakley mentioned a little place called the Audubon Cafe next to an antique shop. That sounded interesting so we headed over to St. Francisville and found this place, right next to the local grocery store. The place was very homey, just old tables and chairs and a kitchen tucked into a corner. But the food, oh, the food. I swear that must have been the best egg salad sandwich I'd ever had. The kids each had something called pita pizza which was just a pita bread base for a pepperoni pizza but it looked really good. Then we splurged for dessert. Jordan had Butter Pecan Cake, Steve had Chocolate cake and I had Coconut Pie. Oh MY! Wow. We all sampled each others and WOW is all I can say.

We headed back to Baton Rouge with the thought of a nap. That actually turned into a Burnout Revenge round. Then I thought I would try and head out to Bluebonnet Swamp (to look for birds - just a few miles from our hotel) but when I looked it up on the internet, found out it closed in a half hour, so that was a no go.

Jordan and I got a load of laundry started, stopped by University Lake for a few minutes, and picked up some Wendy's for dinner. We watched the 4400 and then The Dead Zone on TV. The Dead Zone was really good. I hadn't seen it before.

BIRDS: Today I saw a Swan Goose and a Tri-Colored Heron!!!!

Road Trip Day 2

After a nice late morning start, we ended up at Cracker Barrel for breakfast at 10. Actually that was a good thing, since after that yummy homestyle breakfast, we weren't too hungry until suppertime. The drive was once again flat and dull. As the sole driver I wasn't able to enjoy the scenery. Some things I did notice:

• Older style air force jet in someone's backyard (seriously-their backyard!) that was adjacent to I-55.
• Washington Monument style obelisk, complete with viewing holes at the top, about 50-75 feet high, right on the highway in the backyard of what looked to be some kind of commercial property.
• Big red barn with a rainbow painted on it!

Okay, now here's a little tidbit. If you're taking I-55 south through Mississippi, be prepared. EVERY rest area was closed. Can you say "bummer"? We did stop at the Country Junction Truck Stop in Wesson MS. On a Saturday afternoon the restaurant section seemed to be the local hangout for old guys. However, the restrooms were clean.

We crossed into Louisiana and the Welcome Center was a great thing to behold, just one mile across the border. *sigh*. It was really nice. We picked up a lot of literature. I found an AWESOME Louisiana Gulf Coast guide to birds! WooHoo. I got my first glimpse of the "southern fox squirrel". I got a great picture of it too. You'll have to watch for my "road trip recap with pictures" post when I get home. It was a cutie.

LOTR Book on CD Update: We finished "Fellowship" and got two chapters into "Two Towers".

We easily found our hotel when we got to Baton Rouge. It was right next to an Outback, so that solved the dinner question. Kids had burgers. I just had some potato soup.

BIRDS: I saw what I think was a Great White Egret. There's a drainage ditch / creek that runs behind our hotel and the restaurant. It was just standing around. It flew off though when I tried to walk towards it, so no picture. Can't wait to get to the coast! I might try and visit a park tomorrow and see if anything interesting appears. We're on the 3rd floor and our balcony faces the trees, but all I saw was Mockingbird, Cardinal and Blue Jay. The Usual Suspects.

Okay, back upstairs to play some more BURNOUT REVENGE. Um, fellow moms, I HIGHLY recommend this Xbox game! Great for stress relief. You'll especially like it if you enjoy demolition derbies.

Road Trip Day 1

A LONG DRIVE. Nothing exciting to report. We arrived safely in Southaven MS. We listened to much of "Fellowship of the Ring" on CD. That was relaxing for me as the driver. We skipped some of the boring parts. The kids got a bit tired of the british accent. Overall a good drive. Ran through a rainstorm in southern Missouri, but nothing too awful. It didn't last too long either. After a wrong Google maps turn, we called the hotel and got the correct exit (just 2 miles away) and found our spot. This hotel computer is very, very slow though. Must be dial-up or something. No rush to get up early. We just have a 5-1/2 hour drive down to Baton Rouge. We'll finish Fellowship early and be able to start on Two Towers, which is much more exciting than Fellowship. No bird sightings to report yet. I saw something I didn't recognize but as I was driving, I couldn't exactly pull off the interstate to whip out my binoculars! Eating lots of junk food and slugging down sodas like crazy. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better food day!