Way down South

Scott, Orrin and I headed to Baton Rouge to visit Andrew last week. We were pretty tired on Saturday after driving straight through, so we rested up while Uncle Andrew taught Orrin how to play guitar hero.
Then he showed us around downtown Baton Rouge.
Sunday, we went to the Baton Rouge zoo. It was a lot of fun!

Monday, we wanted to see authentic Louisiana, so we headed to the swamp and took a tour. This is going under the I10 bridge. It goes on for miles!

On this tour, we saw 4 alligators. Apparently, they are just coming out of hibernation and are very hungry! (Our guide was tossing them chicken pieces) This guy came right up to the boat. After the tour, we went to a national park a few miles down the road and wandered. It was fun to see lots of turtles and jumping fish (the asian carp). This bird was very friendly, it sat a few inches above our heads and sang to us for quite awhile.

We headed down to New Orleans on Tuesday. This is the view from the Marriott right on Canal in the French Quarter- thank you priceline!That afternoon, we went to the Audubon aquarium. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for Orrin - he loves fish!!
Wednesday morning, we walked around the French Quarter, stopping at Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets. Yum!

We walked up Bourbon street and watched them clean up from the night before (yuck!). Scott had never been in a casino before, so we walked over to Harrahs. We had to leave Orrin outside while we gambled. (I'm kidding, but they really wouldn't let Orrin in)That afternoon, we drove the Mississippi coast, stopping in Waveland, which is where I was when I came down after Hurricane Katrina. For the first couple weeks I was there, we worked in military tents in a parking lot in front of a grocery store until they declared it a biohazard (because of the rotting food and flies). That grocery store is still boarded up, and the hotel that was next door is still empty.

You can see that almost none of the houses along the coast have been rebuilt! There is a lot of land for sale there. Its kind of crazy because you can still see all the front steps that used to lead to houses, and some driveways going to nothing.

Thursday we stopped at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. Let me just say, I want to go to Space Camp! I was very jealous of the kids running around there.

Its pretty amazing how huge the rocket is.A side note: Why does Darryl Waltrip own a honda dealership?

We briefly stopped in Nashville on Friday morning. This was all flooded two days later!Mammoth Caves later that afternoon.
Apparently the cool, dark cave is perfect for a nap - Orrin slept the entire tour!

These things were above our heads the whole time, but you couldn't see them until you took a flash picture. We saw a bat, too but it just looks like a small blob in the picture.
We walked around a pond near the caves. See the frogs? They were everywhere!Some snakes curled up together.

Doesn't Orrin take great pictures?Pulling into the garage - 2578 miles!

And almost 48 hours total spent in the car!