Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama

Raymey added Mississippi and Louisiana to his list of states he's visited (I suppose Madeline did too!) . I've already been, but I tagged along for the ride:) We drove 6 hours, stayed in Jackson for the night, then drove to New Orleans the next day. It was fun because we saw the capitol in Jackson, and we were able to break up the drive for the baby. We ate alligator, turtle stew, and frog legs in New Orleans. Often it is a little hard for me to eat meat (since I worked swabbing carcasses at a slaughter house) but I'm getting much better. It was kinda funny that I was able to eat these 3 strange kinds of meat. I tried hard not to think of them as being cute, and somehow it really wasn't hard. My favorite was turtle stew, Raymey's were the frog legs, and neither of us LOVED the alligator, but it was OK. It was like fishy chicken. We went to the French Market after lunch and bought a Tabasco sucker to send to my brother in Argentina (he's a fan of hot sauce), a little purse for Madeline, and a fake alligator head. My family's tradition is to get little ornaments when they take a trip. Then they hang them on their tree at Christmas and it it fun to remember all of the things they've done. I thought it would be wonderful to have an alligator head on our tree (it is only like 3 inches long), that will make our tree unique!
We stayed in the Hilton because that is what priceline assigned us. We got a really good deal, but I would never choose them because 1) they charge you for internet, fridge use, parking and practically the air you breath, and 2) I don't want any more money to go to that crazy family. We had a great view of the city and the river from our room, and Madeline liked looking out the window to see the swimming pool (sheemee). We took a day trip to a beach in Mississippi. We were surprised at how much damage we saw, I guess there was so much destruction from Katrina that they just haven't been able to repair everything. The things we saw (on the beach) were either completely new or wiped out and not rebuilt. Along the rebuilt part of the beach there are broken trees that have been carved into birds and dolphins. We took quite a few pictures of the trip and they are all in this slide show.
On the way home we stayed in Birmingham, and since we arrived in the late afternoon there wasn't anything we could do. We saw some pipe factory that apparently is some national historical something or other, but it was closed, so we just drove by. All in all we had a nice little trip. We don't have any desire to visit the places again, but we did have fun and checked them off our list.

Make a Smilebox photobook