Friday Oct 26th Baton Rouge
Relaxed start day with a short movie on the making of the American Queen then we all split off and did our own thing. Kim went on a 10 mile training run, Pop went to the LSU Rural Life Museum and Gloria and I went to the Capitol Park Museum across from the Capitol building. They had some great exhibits on Mardi Gras history, costumes, floats etc. as well as on Louis Armstrong and all the music that sprang from the New Orleans area. She and I then self toured the Capitol building, took the elevator to the 27th floor observation deck and took pictures of the very Art Deco interior. 
We headed back towards the boat and then stopped at Poor Boy Lloyd’s for a little gumbo and a crawfish po-boy. Kim had finished his run so he joined us and had a soft-shell crab po-boy. Then the three of us walked back along the waterfront and arrived back aboard just in time for another interesting lecture by our ‘Riverlorian’ about the history and origins of steamboats on the Mississippi.
Tonight is sock-hop night so I plan to wear my swing dress and dance for the hour. Afterwards they are going to be playing some blues music so we may get a few more dances in during that hour too if we are lucky.(it was quite danceable!)
Saturday Oct. 27th St. Francisville
Known as the oldest town in this area of Louisiana, St. Francisville dates back to the late 1700’s. Many of it’s beautiful antebellum period homes are still occupied and nicely kept up.
In the old bank building there is now a store called Grandma’s Buttons which was a treasure trove of fun and lovely things. In the walk-in safe was a display of buttons from every century and made out of most everything. We walked further into town and to the town park where they were having a craft and art festival. After a meander through we came back to the boat to partake of the rare and elusive vacation nap.
Tonight’s entertainment is a country western show so I may be able to talk the family into a game. So far we’ve played Word Domination one evening but I have Banangrams, Citadels and Splendor along...so there are options.
Sunday Oct 28th Nottoway Plantation, Louisiana
No hop on hop off bus here as we are parked right in front of the plantation. My Kim read and relaxed and Kim, Gloria and I all went on the tour of the main house.
Our guide was fabulous, in costume and didn't try and gloss over how awful the plantation owner was to his slaves both before and after the war. I appreciated his candid and informative tour. The house and furnishings really were grand as well.
The afternoon was nice and relaxing and the 4 of us got to play a little bridge, which I did a terrible job of but enjoyed.
The final show of the trip was a fabulous vocalist, Clare Teal from the UK. After her show the band kept playing so we had the whole dance floor to ourselves and it was like a private concert with Kim and Gloria and one other couple watching and listening.
Part 7 New Orleans and Houma
Monday Oct 29th Disembark in New Orleans
We did the easy self walk off option which meant breakfast at 7...take your own luggage and just head off the boat. It was a quarter mile trek, ironically through the riverside shopping mall, to the spot where we could catch a taxi. After a short ride and depositing our bags, we walked a mile from our Creole House B&B in the garden district to Cemetery#1. Although I've been there before it was decades ago, and it’s always interesting to see such a different type of cemetery than we have out west.
We took the streetcar downown, walked Canal street back to where the boat was and took a ferry across to Algiers Point. The houses there were vintage and neighborhood quiet and charming. After ferrying back across we walked into the French Quarter straight to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee (I had hot chocolate). 
Then we wandered/shopped, had lunch (po-boys!), traipsed through Louis Armstrong Park, caught the bus and streetcar again and went back to the hotel to rest up before dinner.
Dinner was amazing! We went to Merils, one of Emeril Lagasse's and it was the best meal of the whole trip. Tuna lettuce cups, lamb and papardelle, crab almond pasta, lemon tart, salted caramel gelato- all excellent.
Gloria's phone said over 21000 steps at the end of the day and I believe it! We'd been going from 8am to 10pm.
Tuesday Oct 30th New Orleans Audubon Zoo
Forecast was for serious heat so we went to the Zoo to stay cool. It worked, and it never got that scorching. All of us were also still recovering from the huge walking day on Monday and the cumulative of hard touristing for the past 10 days. More po-boy sandwiches for lunch at 3 and some naptime did in the latter part of the day.
We spent about an hour riding the St. Charles Streetcar all the way to the end and back past Tulane and Loyola Universities. The St. Charles Streetcar is considered a historic landmark and is the longest continuously running streetcar in the world, since 1835! The beautiful lit up houses of the garden district were also decorated for Halloween which was fun to see.
Kim and Gloria decided to go back and catch an early night while Kim and I went out and tried the other restaurant that was recommended, Maypop. Absolutely delicious and now tied for 1st place for this trip. Smoked octopus over coconut cream Alfredo pasta and hand pulled noodles with mapo sauce pork topped with blue crab. Potato bread crostini with 6months aged pancetta, fig jam, blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms-oh my! Dessert was an 'ice cream sandwich’ sweet toasted brioche bread with pistachio gelato inside
Luckily portions were reasonable but we still walked back just to have more digest time.
Oct 31st Wed Halloween in Houma, LA
Had a leisurely breakfast with a visit from the cook to make sure we were enjoying our stay(she was quite a character!) Kim and Gloria headed to the airport for their flight home. Then Skip, my friend and boss from the dried shrimp business, picked us up. (Yes I do have a 3rd job besides Massage/Injury rehab and Travel Agent- I'm the Blum&Bergeron California Sales Rep. for domestic dried shrimp (since 1995).
We headed down to Houma and I was able to see everyone at the office that I normally talk to on the phone several times a week. It's been a few years since I was last there and they have recently moved onto a new building and expanded storage and production. That was fun for me to see (I'm sure no one else would think so but I loved my tour of the plant) The timing isn't bad either as we are just about to my busy season as holidays like Christmas, New Years and Chinese New Year make the gourmet shrimp popular.
After that we went back to Iris and Skip's house and they gave out a bunch of candy to the neighborhood kids. When the mosquitoes started showing up and the kids were down to a trickle they packed everything inside, turned off all the lights and we went out for dinner.
We had boiled shrimp and crab which we don't tend to eat normally so that was a treat.
Thursday Nov 1 Houma to Home
Kim and I had lunch with Iris and my two main bosses, Barry and Skip before a brief stop at the office for me to go over this year’s customer Christmas card list and grab some fresh samples.
Iris and Skip dropped us at the airport and we headed home. Very uneventful and easy Southwest trip home via Denver. Thanks to Stephen for coming out at midnight to give us a ride home! To our bodies it was 2am.
Friday I still managed to wake up at 7, do some massage, run errands, shop and go swing dance at Midtown Stomp to the Tropicali Flames. Of course last night it all caught up to me and I was in bed by 10!
Until the next adventure...Hugs and Love!
Dana
Clip of Tropicali Flames
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