Beignets and Cafe au Lait

We made it!  We're back and things are just as we left them - with the USA in charge!   This morning we left our ship and headed out for a bus tour of New Orleans before we had to catch our plane later this afternoon. The weather in New Orleans was cold, overcast, and just plain yucky.  It was hard to get used to it after being in sun and warm the rest of the week!

Our tour guide was named Chris, and he was one of the people whose house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  He had lived in New Orleans all his life and was very knowledgeable about everything from how and why the cemeteries are the way they are and what happened after the hurricane.

We drove all over the city looking at all the sites.  Unfortunately, I think the bus ride was a little long for you because you had a complete meltdown about half way through the tour.  It took us about 15 minutes to get you to calm down and stop screaming. But in the end, you settled down and we were able to continue with only minor whining.

After the tour, we got dropped off in the French Quarter to wander around for a few hours before the bus took us to the airport.

Unfortunately for us, it happened to be Sugar Bowl weekend.  It was so crowded we could barely walk down the sidewalk! Since there wasn't much time to do things and since everything was so crowded the waits to get into places were prohibitive, we decided to just enjoy a New Orleans treat - beignets and Cafe au Lait at the Cafe du Monde. Dad stood in line for almost an half an hour (that's how crowded it was) and then we retired to Jackson Square to enjoy our snack.

While we were eating, lots of the powdered sugar on the beignets would fall on the ground.  Much to our surprise, the pigeons would come over and eat the clumps of sugar straight.  I figure they must end up with avian diabetes after ingesting so much of the stuff!

After we finished our coffee and beignets, we decided to hang out in the park and just relax instead of trying to fight the crowds to sight see.  You passed the time chasing pigeons around.