West Monroe and Monroe Louisiana

We left Lafayette this morning heading towards Monroe.  On the way we stopped by the Cajun Pawn Stars in Alexandria.  David has been looking for a certain gun but hasn't been able to find it.  Well, they had one but it wasn't for sale.  We saw Big Daddy, and Johnnie came up to talk to us because the boys and I were petting one of the really huge dogs roaming the store.   He wanted to be sure that we saw the 2 month old puppy behind one of the counters :)  I was a little disappointed that they didn't have the goat there from one of the shows ;)  I am not sure if their show was cancelled but I haven't seen it on in a long time.

We also stopped by Duck Commander in West Monroe.  I do need to say that I don't believe the some of the same things as Phil but I do love the show and their commitment to each other.  Unfortunately Uncle Si was no where to be seen, he is my favorite :) 

Later I found out that my friend Michele who lives in Monroe is sick.  We were suppose to go to the Mardi Gras parade with her.  We went to Raising Cains to have dinner because it was on the parade route.  The boys got lots of beads, so did I! 

Coolest police car ever!!!

This wasn't even all the beads...this is about half way through the parade!  One of the guys on a float threw me a whole bag full of beads.  Going to share them with our homeschool friends back at home :)

These were the beads I caught....and I wasn't even trying!  I was getting hit in the face with them!

  

Lafayette Louisiana

Today was spent in Lafayette.  We went to one of the Jean Lafitte NHP sites, the Acadian Cultural Center.  Jacob and Michael worked on the junior ranger program.  After that we went to the Blue Dog Café.  It was owned by George Rodrigue, the artist who painted the Blue Dog.  We studied Mr. Rodrigue as part of our art class this year.  Sadly he passed away in December of lung cancer.  The restaurant walls are covered with his art.  The food was good.  I REALLY liked the dirty rice and the crusty bread! 

We checked into our hotel and I took a nap!  I very rarely take naps, but today I did.  And I had a really weird dream.  Nancy Reagan was catching puffer fish with a bucket!  I think that is one of the strangest dreams I have ever had!

 

Michael colored his dog green with red eyes, then Jacob colored his the opposite.

This place had paper on the tables and I was just sure they were meant to draw on!  I think that is what Mr. Rodrigue intended.  I drew this skull then David added the rest to make it a whole dog skeleton.

Jacob's food....that brown lump on the side was the dirty dog rice!!!! YUMMMM

Avery Island and Acadiana Guns

We drove to New Iberia today.  It is the birth place of George Rodrigue, the artist pest known for the Blue Dog.   He passed away in December.  We will be visiting one of his restaurants tomorrow and maybe one of his galleries if we have time.  Close to New Iberia is Avery Island, the home to the Tabasco Plant.  We toured the factory and got to try lots of "tabasco" flavored products including soda and ice cream!!  The soda kind of burned going down but the ice cream was pretty good :)  They gave u all little sample bottles of different kinds of Tabasco Sauce.  The boys spent the evening tasting all their little bottles.

David has been watching Glenn Flemings web shows for a little while now.  They mentioned in one of them a gun that David had but they didn't have access to.  Well David emailed them and arranged for them to see it a do a little web show about it.  Something happened on their end and they couldn't get the camera guy there for the show but they still wanted to see the gun.  They were very nice.  Glenn was on the show Sons of Guns but has now branched out with his own shop.  He took us back to the workshop and let me take a picture of him with the boys.  Very nice guys that are working there.

I loved this huge moss coved oak in front of the Tabasco plant!

The tiny bottles of Tabasco they gave us on the tour.

Acadiana Guns- Glenn Fleming. 

By the way...this gun that they are standing in front of was the gun that Glen took on his interview at Red Stick. 

New Orleans!!!!!

We spent a VERY cold day in New Orleans today.  It was cloudy cold and a little misty throughout the day.  We got to the French Quarter way before our hotel was ready.  But they went ahead and took our bags and parked our car.  We paid for a hop on hop off bus ticket and rode around the city for a while.  The only seats available on the bus were on top in the open.  Did I mention it was cold?!?!?  If it had been warmer that would have been a great place to see the city!  We stopped and got beignets and hot chocolate.  We got off and toured the St Lewis cemetery.  We  were a little afraid to go in without a tour group but this was one of the smaller cemeteries and it was so cold we didn't think there would be to many thieves out and about.  There were other people in there with us as well, we didn't have any issues.  We got a very late lunch close to our hotel.  Jacob got a crawfish po boy.  Everyone at least tried the crawfish, Michael didn't like it.  He got a seafood gumbo that he did like.  Anthony and David got jambalaya. 

Our room was finally ready so we checked in and had our bags brought to our room.  Michael, Anthony and I decided to explore Bourbon Street a little before it got very late.  We saw lots of interesting shops and heard lots of live music coming out of the bars.  There wasn't really very much going on that day or that evening.  I enjoyed the city way more than I thought I would since I really prefer being out in the middle of no where.  I was sad to leave, but it may have been because the streets weren't crowded with tons of people.  Don't think I would like being there next week when Marti Gras begins!

 

 

This is Nick Cages future grave.  He purchased it before his tax problems and the government took his other 3 houses in New Orleans.  Apparently they can't take grave plots.

It was very cold...we could see our breath all day!!!

The hotel "Place d'Arms" courtyard.  Wish we could have enjoyed it more!

Dusk on Bourbon Street.

I loved the gaslights!!!