A not as planned day.....

We left Slidell this morning headed towards Belle Chase and Jean Laffite NHP.  Well we arrived to find they aren't open on Mondays or Tuesdays!  It was cold and rainy but the boys and I decided to walk one of the trails for a little while anyway.  David went back to the van.  His cold is lingering and it wasn't a good idea for him to be in the rain.  We walked half an hour in and then decided to come back.  I loved it, the boys thought it was creepy.  I will say the huge palmetto made lots of noise when the wind blew.  It did kind of sound like something was following us. 

The hotel I picked looked like it was right on the Mississippi, that was the reason I put us there so far out away from everything.  Well, it was close tot eh river but you couldn't see any of the river at all.  We could see huge ships sticking up from what was undoubtedly the river but we couldn't see it :( 

We decided to find a pizza place for lunch to make up for our not so great day.  We found some really great pizza at Rotolo's Pizzaria.  I used the extra time that evening to do a couple loads of laundry.

I loved the quiet beauty of the swamp...the boys thought I was crazy.  They thought it was creepy.

 

 

Very yummy pizza 

 

Swamp tour in Slidell

Woke up to a cloudy day.  It threatened rain our whole drive from Dauphin Island to Slidell.  I was a little worried but have tried to go with the flow and let things work themselves out....we are on vacation after all.  We went to Cajun Encounters for our tour and it was the most awesome thing!  I am tired so I will just post pictures of our wonderful trip.

A nutra rat.

 

Saw a couple of snakes too :)

We saw LOTS of raccoons!

This is the Whiskey Tree its 600 years old.  Apparently in the 20's and 30's moonshiners use to meet at this tree once a week and bring their product from the week.  They all tasted each others brew and whoevers was voted the best got to put a label on it and sell it for a dollar more a bottle than the others. 

The boys and Captain Sheldon!  Anthony thought he looked like Ben Affleck.

Dauphin Island

Dauphin Island

We spent the day exploring more of the Island.  We went to Fort Gaines, a civil war fort on the eastern tip of the island.  There is another fort on another island and these two forts were suppose to guard Mobile Bay.  It was during the battle of Mobile bay that one of the captains on a ship yelled, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."  One of the union ships in the battle hit a torpedo (a mine) and sank very quickly.  This caused some confusion with the union fleet and seeing this the captain of another ship yelled these famous words.

After the fort we had a picnic lunch looking out at the water.  Michael and I walked down to the beach and he explored the rocks for a while.  He found a small piece of sea glass.  I got to pet a really cute Chihuahua and just enjoyed sitting in the sun. 

We then stopped by the Estuary and walked their boardwalk.  We didn't go inside the Sea Lab but they had a touch tank outside with Rays and a couple of tiny sharks. 

We wanted to make dinner in our hotel tonight since it has a kitchen so we stopped and picked up some eggs and English muffins.  Then on our friend Willow's advice we went and got ice cream.  It was very good...thanks for the tip Willow! 

We also spent a little time back on the beach close to the hotel.  Michael and Jacob actually went in a little.  I thought it was COLD!!

I called and made our reservation for our swamp tour tomorrow.  I am excited for that!!

 

I went to the bathroom, when I came back these we on my camera....thanks jake!

These ovens were really cool!!

Interesting story.....This "ship" was thrown into a house by a hurricane in the 1990's.  They could tell that it was built in the 1800's or before but they couldn't discover anything else about it. 

These things are everywhere here.  We thought they were oil rigs but we learned they are drilling for natural gas.  They pump it straight to the mainland from the rigs. 

 

Playing with my emotions....

For the last week I have been checking the weather channel to see what the weather was going to be like on our trip.  My main focus was on Dauphin Island Alabama since all the things to do there are outside.  Well it looked okay the day I checked, then David told me that some front was coming through and it was going to be cold.  So I looked and sure enough it said it was going to be in the 20's.  So I start checking every day, it kept bouncing back and forth.  The day before we left it said it was going to be in the high 50's.  I thought it was close enough for them to know for sure at that point.  At breakfast this morning in Athens David asks me to check the temperature on the Island.  So I google it on my phone and it says that it is 7 degrees with the high on getting to 14!!!!!!!  I was so depressed.  On the way out of Athens we stop by a Walmart to pick up a pillow.  David decided to call the hotel and ask them what the weather was like.  They told him it was sunny, they had the windows open and people were wearing shorts!  Let me just say it made my day :) 

We drove the 6 hours from Athens and got here in time to walk to the beach and watch the sun set!  It was beautiful.  I wish all my friends in the cold and snow were here with us. 

 The view from the back balcony of the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Michael took this picture...he was trying to get the sun between Jacobs legs.  He didn't exactly get it but I still think its a great picture!

Alabama!!!!

We got up this morning packed up the van and hit the road.  The drive was interesting.  The trees on the side of the highway were covered in ice almost all the way to Tennessee.  We got to Alabama and checked into our hotel then drove over to meet Michael and Anthony's sister Sam.  We didn't know she existed until a couple of years ago.  This was the first chance we had to meet her.  She has an adorable little girl named Rylee.  So that means Michael and Anthony are uncles!!  We took some pictures and the boys played with Rylee and we talked to Sam.  The boys all feel in love with Rylee.  She is adorable and has a great personality.  She kept giving Jacob her toys and by the end of the visit she just kept hugging Michael.  We had wanted to take them to dinner but to fit everything in for our trip we had to remove one of the seats and we couldn't fit everyone.  We are hoping we can come back sometime to visit and spend more time. 

We are all tired and winding down for the night.  Jacob and David are reading, Michael and Anthony are playing Magic. 

Only two more states now before we have been to all the continental states!!

 

 

 

Michael reading to Rylee

The sweetest thing!!!!!

Hitting the road tomorrow.....

So we are leaving tomorrow......and earlier this week David shared a Skittle and his cold with me!  So I have been struggling through trying to get everything done.  My list mostly got done, just not the cleaning I wanted to do. 


It has been our goal to hit all the continental states before Anthony goes to college.   We have three left and we are hitting them on this trip. 


We also get to visit a few people along the way.  Michael and Anthony's sister and their niece.   And my friend Michele who lives in Monroe Louisiana.


So here we come Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana!!!