The Happy Harper's: ~Louisiana and New Orleans~

We are now in State # 28. Oh how the time has flown by. We camped in a great State Park - Bayou Segnette which was about a 20 minute drive from the ferry that takes you across to downtown New Orleans. The park had great big sites, nice washrooms and FREE laundry - wow - never been in a park with free laundry!!! We did 5 loads and got "all caught up"!! Fantastic!

The following day we parked for $5 near the ferry dock and took the free ferry across.

We had such a great view of the city as we went across. This is "the" Mississippi River! We met this wonderful, Christian couple - Don and Terri Cornthwaite from Oregon who were also staying at the State Park. We rode the ferry with them and visited in the evenings.

This is the view of the French Quarter.

This is the Natchez river boat that you can do tours with. It was recommended to us not to take the boat as the free ferry gives you the same view and idea of the city.

This is Louis Armstrong - an American Jazz Trumpeter and singer from New Orleans.

We walked from the ferry dock towards the French Quarter.

This is the St. Louis Cathedral which is the oldest Cathedral in North America (1720) There are lots of horse and carriages doing tours throughout the French Quarter.

We had fun walking through the French Market.

We especially enjoyed reading all the menus from the different food stands!!

This is part of the French Quarter - there were many different shops, lots with voodoo type books and different items for sale, lots selling "Mardi Gras" stuff, lots of "Vegas" types of shops too. Not our type of "shopping"!! There were also lots of restaurants and bars etc.... We did enjoy sampling the free pralines!!

We did stop at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park where the kids did the Jr. Ranger program.

There were lots of jazz players throughout the city and............

people doing "mimes" etc...

This is the famous "Cafe du Monde" where everyone buys their coffee and beignets.

They are a French doughnut which they cover with icing sugar. We just "had" to try them out!! YUM!!

They were SO delicious!! I think we all had more icing sugar on our faces and the floor than on the doughnut!

This is Canal Street - a few roads back from the French Quarter. Lots of shops, restaurants, hotels etc.....

On our way back to the ferry we stopped at the Riverwalk Shopping Center.

One of the things they do here in New Orleans or rather "N'awlins" is eat crawdads! When you buy them they pretty well come boiled and seasoned - however.....we did not fancy Louisiana type of hot and spicy so we decided to buy some raw ones and cook them ourselves. We bought about 3 pounds (approx 70 crawdads), brought them back to the trailer, washed them 3 times to get rid of the dirt and mud on them and then cooked them for 5 minutes.