The Insectarium

This was s new one for the family.  An insectarium.  I had never heard of one before.  Even spell-check doesn't like me typing it.  But, it was what you'd expect from reading such a word.  It's a museum of insects, both alive and dead and even some fake (because you really wouldn't want to encounter the real thing).  There were some really neat exhibits and I was surprised how much the kids really wanted to see the live ones.

Despite the look on Mason's face, he really seemed to like this touch-the-bug exhibit.  There were scorpions in the tote next to the tarantula.  Did you know that scorpions (certain species, apparently) glow under ultraviolet light?  The staffer demonstrated and it was pretty cool.

The kids are crawling on an earthworm, fake, of course, but the whole exhibit was a blown-up version of what life is like in the soil.

OK, maybe not insects, but still a cool Koy pond.

There was also a butterfly house in the insectarium.  I've been in a few butterfly houses, but this one takes the cake, I think.

The two pictures above this are the same exact butterfly, one with the wings closed and the other open.  The pictures don't do it complete justice.  The difference is amazing.

The Aquarium

Part 2 of our mega pass was for the aquarium and IMAX 3D theater.  Of course, I can't show pictures of the IMAX movie, but Parker picked a deusy.  It was called "The Last Reef."  I was almost like a Disney movie.  There was a message and a side of it that only adults could pick up on, but at the same time it intrigued kids.  It was the closest that I've come to scuba diving since scuba diving.  I always though IMAX was cool, IMAX 3D puts it over the top.

But, really, this was mostly about the aquarium...

Parker the photographer, again

We were actually in a tunnel with water OVER us.  It was pretty cool.

We must get pictures with every possible prop

Petting the stingrays

More props

This was an aquarium where the kids could stick their heads up inside of the center.  I wanted to do it, but I wouldn't fit.

Despite being an aquarium, they had an outdoor parakeet aviary.  I think there was something like 200 parkeets.

The "big fish" aquarium

Audubon Zoo

I guess New Orleans is a big city.  To be honest, I think I'm growing accustomed to visiting "big" cities.  Chicago and New Orleans seem not-so-bad anymore after having visited, driven through downtown, and become lost in both.  Given the climate, it makes sense that the city has one heck of a neat zoo.  We try to hit things for the kids in addition to mom & dad attractions and zoos are a classic place for the kids that's pretty much guaranteed to please.  We bought in to a multi-package which got us tickets to the zoo, the aquarium, IMAX 3D movie, and insectarium.  No, we didn't visit all of them in the same day.  Not to mention, they are in very separate parts of the city.  So, today's post is about the zoo, and a beautiful one it was.  One of the best I've been to.

Yeah, this is the entrance

Elephants!

This guy was so cool, I couldn't help at take a few pictures.

Parker the tourist

I wish my work day was this hard

The center point of the zoo

The kids couldn't resist the jungle house and rope walk.

It really is a kid trap.  We couldn't keep our kids out of it.

The Laura Plantation

We knew that visiting a Mississippi River plantation was on our list of things to do when in the New Orleans area.  We've heard that Oak Alley (think Forrest Gump) is highly commercialized and doesn't have any slave quarters.  Why are slave quarters important?  Well, because they existed.  They were a real part of every plantation whether we like to think about it or not.  As with so many things that Andrea and I like to visit, authenticity is important.  We'd rather see it honest than see it glossed or glammed-up.  We received a tip that the Laura Plantation was one such place.  After visiting, it seemed quite so.  There are still some slave quarters, which amazingly housed workers (paid) until the 1970's.  There is a gift shop that you "must" walk through to get in or out and the house itself was rebuilt after almost complete destruction about a decade ago due to a fire.  Of course, it is no longer a working plantation, but nevertheless the history was there.

Standing out in front of the house, awaiting our tour to start.  I was amazed that there were about 5 nationalities represented in the crowd.  One person didn't even speak English (was there with a family member who could translate).

Wine Wine Wine Wine Wine Wine.  The cellar of the house was quite the wine store in it's day.  They stored and sold a lot of wine in this plantation house.

"...and this holds mommy and daddy juice."

No, we didn't teleport to Central America.  This is in the back yard of the plantation and, yes, there are bananas growing  in October.

Remaining slave quarters.  This is a duplex, if you can believe it.  In the heyday of the plantation, these houses stretched for 4 miles in two rows out from the plantation house and into the sugar cane field.

Another view of the house's backyard and beginning of the slave quarter row.

Amazingly the kids have cute moments.  We didn't even have to ask them to do this.

So earlier I said that Oak Alley was commercialized.  Well, that doesn't mean we didn't visit there, though!  Unlike Laura, we did not tour Oak Alley.  But, they have a pretty good restaurant.  Out where the plantations are located, there's not a lot of "town" there.  So, we were kinda at the mercy of what was available.  So, this was foodie stop #3 in the New Orleans area. I bought the creole sampler which resulted in a bowl of shrimp gumbo, shrimp etouffee, and andouille sausage.  It was pretty good and the price wasn't over the top, either.  As we left Oak Alley, we did like pretty much anyone going by the front of the house and just stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture.  Does it look like Forrest Gump?  I think the trees were a few years younger when it was filmed.

The entrance to Oak Alley from the Mississippi River

Plantations were abundant on the journey.  Houses like these were found all along the road as we drove back toward New Orleans.

...and this one

New Orleans

One of the two major multi-night stops that we were to make on this trip was New Orleans.  Being the foodies that we are, it was a goal to visit sometime in our life.  Having now been there, I can see us going back sometime in our travels.  In the coming days, I'll be concentrating on some of the specific places we went in New Orleans, but this post is about the city itself.  Andrea did her research on this one and had a lot of must-do's mapped out.  We also had the help of a fellow Airstreamer (that we contacted through Airforums.com) that lives locally.  He suggested the state park that we stayed at: Bayou Segnette State Park.   It was a great suggestion and he stopped by with his Airstream to say hello.  He also gave us some hints about where to get the best food.  We met another Airstream in the park.  Ironically, they ended up moving on to the same next stop as us (Gulf Shores, AL) on their way home to Georgia.

There were a lot of house like this "on the Bayou" along the interstate on the drive in.

Shrimpin' boats?

Me in my "work station"

Travelling in style, a bit bored maybe, though.

Bayou Segnette State Park is really nice and very clean. It's rather small but sites are still well spread out. There's not a lot of older and large trees for shade, but hey, you're camping on what once was and sometimes still is, a swamp. The drive from the ranger station to the campground is somewhat awkward, but in the end it's nice because it gets you far away from road noise and you get a nice view of the still ongoing levy construction. The only pain of the park was their newly constructed "speed tables" where my hitch dragged at every one. Stick to speed bumps, not "tables," please. The playgrounds are newer which was a bonus. You never know what you're going to get when you ask to be near the playground. It ranges from a basic bank of swings from 1960 to things like shown below. There are two bath houses at Bayou Segnette and both have laundry facilities. Amazingly, the laundry facilities are FREE. Yup. No quarters here and no half-dried clothes. They have the same home-type machines with all the fancy settings for wash cycle and drying time. Highly recommended campground.

The view from under our awning

The kids kinda just sleep where ever they stop.

As I took this picture of the moon over our campsite I knew that Hurricane Sandy was wreaking havoc back home, but hey, it's vacation.

We needed a pause in the middle of a downright hot day in downtown New Orleans.  There was an open-air bar with a live band so we stopped.

 

We were camped on the south side of the river so we had to take a ferry across to town.  This is a view of the french quarter from our ferry ride.

More french quarter

Downtown

Foodie stop #1

Foodie stop #2 - Mother's for a Po Boy, and a great one it was.

Whadda ya know, another National Park; in downtown New Orleans.  There really isn't much to it other than the visitors center, but the Jazz National Park was still neat and we scored 3 or 4 more cancellations for the passports.