Mardi Gras World

I know, I know, it has been forever. But I just got back from a trip to visit my mom in Louisiana where she's working a temporary job so I have pics and stories to share. After what I will now begin referring to as "Stressy September," this was a much needed vacation.

I flew in Thursday evening so we pretty much went to dinner and then called it a night. We woke up bright and early Friday morning and headed out on the road. It was, and always is, my goal to see as many new places as I can on a trip so we drove east and hit Biloxi, Mississippi and then Mobile, Alabama (both within a few hours of the town my mom is living in, Covington, LA). We stopped few times along the way to put our feet in the sand and test the Gulf waters. They are beautiful and the beaches are sandy white and pristine, not to mention completely empty! People take for granted what they have I guess.

Before we hit Biloxi, we stopped in Gulfport, MS where I had to see "The Friendship Tree" I'd read about online. It's basically a 500 year old tree that's survived many a hurricane and all those who enter it's arms are destined to be friends forever. You can imagine my disappointment when we arrived at this tree and there was construction going on all around it and it was on some, seemingly deserted and run down college campus. It was still pretty impressive despite the construction fencing going through the middle of it.

The Friendship Tree from a distance.

A closer up shot but it still doesn't show how cool it looks inside.

In Biloxi we hit up the lighthouse, which is apparently the only lighthouse to be built smack dab in the middle of a highway. Other than that we went into their brand new, $20 million dollar visitors center, which was a sight in itself. It was about there we realized Mobile was only another 50 or so miles away and we decided to head off.

In Mobile, we went and saw the USS Alabama. It's a giant naval ship that served in World War II. We were too cheap to buy the tour but enjoyed checking it out from afar and then headed into Mobile's downtown to have a drink before heading home. The downtown area was pretty neat and there were a ton of bars so there's probably a pretty good nightlife there anyhow. Three new states now checked off my to see list.

Right near the USS Alabama in Mobile. City in the background.

Saturday we ventured into New Orleans, a city with as much history as drunk people walking around aimlessly on the streets. We started off in the Garden District where there are a bunch of beautiful, old mansions. We stumbled upon an old cemetery. All of the cemeteries in the area are above ground graves because of the water level and they are really cool and spooky looking. I am surprised there aren't more horror movies filmed there. There were gravestones so old that you couldn't read them and the ones you could (from the 1800's!) were all really young when they died.

Spooky old cemetery.

We took the street car into the city. Street cars in New Orleans by the way are a steal at $3 a day! Pretty much the only thing that was cheap in Louisiana. We decided to do a tour of Mardi Gras World which is where they make a majority of the floats used in the parades. Seeing some of the floats and giant signature pieces was really cool. I had no idea they change out most of the floats annually. Basically, there are teams or troops (?) and each team can have something like up to 20 floats (I am terrible at remembering numbers) and only participates in one parade a year. About 15 of the 20 floats will be brand new each year and the other 5 or so are the signature pieces in their parade troop. Suffice it to say, Mardi Gras World is a flourishing company.

After a quick bite to eat we were ready to brave the French Quarter. We went straight up to Bourbon Street which is just filled with bars and strip clubs and drunk people walking around. It was crazy on a random Saturday in October. I can't even imagine what it must be like for Mardi Gras. I'm not sure I ever care to find out unfortunately. I felt like I needed a shower (or 5) after walking on the street for a few minutes. I quickly became overwhelmed and we moved away from Bourbon Street. Once you get away from that mess, it's really cool to see all the old buildings and french architecture. The history in the area is really amazing. We hit up the French Market and then called it a day. I got my fill of it all rather quickly.

Sunday, we did a swamp tour, which was by far my favorite part of the trip. We had an awesome guide, Melvin, who took us into the swamp off of the Pearl River where we saw alligators (some big, some cute and tiny), turtles, and birds. He also took us through some of the fishing "villages" along the Pearl River where you could still see some devastation from Katrina in the fishing shacks that line the water. It was a lot of fun! All in all, a really great trip and it was good to see where my mom's been living. She may be out there til March so I might have to fit in another trip before she goes if I can swing it.

Swamp Tour headquarters. Look for gator pics on Facebook!