Mississippi and New Orleans, Lousisana...

After leaving Robert's place we made our way up to Jackson, Mississippi

to check out the capitol.  We arrived too late to visit that day, so instead spent the night in a dodgy hotel and the next morning we did a tour of the building.  Other than that, we didn't see much of Mississippi!

Next stop was Louisiana

where we had booked a couple of nights in New Orleans.  We drove across a 40km bridge to get to the city....so impressive

and found our hotel which was 2 blocks from all the "local attractions", so a great location.  The weather was pretty awful...lots of rain, but it didn't seem to stop anyone. We walked through the French Quarter checking out some of the lovely homes/apartments people live in.

made our way down to the Mississippi River...

before finding ourselves on Bourbon St.....

Bourbon St wasn't for me...during the day it wasn't so crowded, but come evening, the place was heaving with people,  there were people "inviting" you into their sleazy clubs, beads being dropped from balconies to women below in the hope they'd lift their shirts and show their boobs, loads of street drinking, drunks ...it didn't appeal to me, but was fascinating none the less.

Stu enjoyed some local food...

and some local beer...

and we did find a spot to listen to a bit of live jazz....which was great.

The next day was torrential rain

and we were wading through streets that were ankle deep in water, absolutely bucketing down, with little shelter...other than the local church!

In between showers, we did manage to get out and see some of the beautiful buildings....it is a really interesting city and once we were away from Bourbon St,

it's history shone through.

The night before we left we were walking around the streets and came across a wedding procession.  They had just left the church and we could hear the church bells ringing, and see police car lights flashing and could hear a jazz band.  So we raced towards it all in time to see the bride and groom being followed by the band and their guests, making their way down the street....dancing to the fabulous music.  they were on their way to the reception and the entire street stopped for them.  It was fantastic....the way to do a wedding!! Here is a link to a video of our time in New Orleans..NEW ORLEANS

The next day after we had checked out of our hotel we found a beautiful cemetery that we had passed on our way into the city.  It was such a peaceful place and we were able to drive around and see the very old, elaborate gravestones.

So we were really glad we spent a few days in New Orleans...there is really so much to see there and so much history. A fascinating place!