Day 8, New Orleans All Day

   Total tourist day today my friends. We scheduled a 9:30 combination Swamp and New Orleans City tour. The tour bus picked us up at at our hotel at 8:30 and whisked us off to Honey Island, approximately 40 minutes to the east across the Lake Pontchartrain drainage to the gulf. We arrived at the Cajun Encounters Swamp tour facility and awaited our boat guide, Captain Bishop. We doused ourselves in Deet mosquito spray and sun screen, boarded our 20 passenger open boats, heard the life vest admonition, like I'm going in that alligator infested water, and set out onto the Pearl River in search of the illusive American Alligator.

   Within minutes we saw our first alligator. Captain Bishop pulled his hat off and exclaimed, "Cindy, I thought you were dead! Apparently, the guides hadn't seen Cindy since last year when she hibernated. They call her Cindy because of the black spot on the side of her snout, not unlike Cindy Crawford. Captain Bishop threw a few marshmallows to Cindy to get her to come to the boat and then proceeded to entice her with pieces of hot dog on the end of a stick. Like a trained dog, she performed for us while the shutter bugs clicked away. I have to admit, it was pretty cool, but I wondered when they were going to cue the Hippopotamus like on the Disneyland Jungle Ride. Bishop talked about Big Al, the dominate male in the area, but he never materialized. Later we saw and fed several other smaller alligators including Little Al, and several other smaller Als, their brothers and cousins.

   Did I mention is was hot and humid in the swamp? Holly crap it was hot and humid! We cruised the last vestiages of the indigenous population's village which has been reduced to a collection of riverside shantys and boathouses masquerading as vacation homes. Our tour lasted two hours. Captain Bishop, a college educated native, enlightened us with botanical and biological swamp facts punctuated with satirical quips and witty jokes. Overall, it was good experience. We recommend it.

   After a quick lunch (Po Boys sandwiches & oysters on the half shell) at Felix's Sea Food restaurant, are you starting to see a pattern here, we were picked up at our hotel by Butch, our city tour driver. Butch spent the next three hours carting us around the city and aptly describing in great detail the history of New Orleans, the local cemeteries, public buildings, restaurants and night clubs, including the devistated Ninth Ward that suffered as much as twelve feet of flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More than 1,400 people lost their lives. Hundreds of businesses were lost, many have never reopened. Again it was a very good tour and should not be missed if you visit New Orleans.

   After a quick clean-up and nose powder, the group departed the hotel for The Court of Two Sisters, a highly recommended restaurant in the French Quarter, for supper. Again, no complaints. Tomorrow, we depart the Big Easy for Florida, where I'm sure it will be . . . wait for it . . . hot and humid!

It's all right here in the diaries my friends.

John and the usual suspects.