Who Dat Nation!

Day 99 - New Orleans, LA - Sunny near 70:

We slept in a bit today and headed into the French Quater around noon. We stopped by the visitors center for a map (they were not helpful) so we then went to the Marriott (they were very helpful) and got a self-guided walking tour pamplet. I can't lie, we did about half before we gave up. None of the buildings were all that intriguing and honestly it wasn't holding our interest. We headed down to Decatur Street and got some lunch. Ben had a New Orleans traditional shrimp Po'Boy, he enjoyed it while I had a delicious burger!! From lunch we walked down to the the Mississippi River. It is a big WIDE river let me tell you. We stopped at Cafe Du Monde where they serve Beignets and coffee 24 hours a day. We didn't get anything because we had just had lunch but we will certainly give them a try tomorrow. We stopped at the tour center to book our trip to the ninth ward tomorrow. We are very interested to see how well they are recovering from Hurricane Katrina. From their we hopped back in the car and took a drive along St. Charles Avenue. This is a wealthier area where mansions line the street. Included in this was the Real World New Orleans house. It doesn't look much like it did when the show aired but it was neat to see nonetheless. The area reminded me a bit of Freeport because the Borders and McDonald's both looked like they belonged in the neighborhood and not like their traditional venues. We ended our day with a drive by the Superdome, home to so many during Katrina and now home to the Superbowl Champs. We could see the work they are doing to still fix the damage and upgrade the stadium. Tomorrow the Saints Parade will begin there...we're still not sure if we'll be in attendance...there are going to be SOO many people.

We headed back to the hotel and took a quick nap. I headed to the gym to get a few miles in while Ben organized the room. We did some laundry and caught up on our bills and stuff from home. We are now watching some TV before an early night as we have to be in town before 9am!

Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all!

Day 98 - Pensacola, FL/New Orleans, LA - Sunny Upper 50's:

We started our day in Pensacola, Florida. Ben's Gramp Daigle had told us about the National Naval Aviation Museum and so we thought we should check it out. It was quite a place. They have planes and helicopters from the entire history of Naval Air. The plans date back as far as 1915 up to today. They have Coast Guard Helicopters just like the ones they use to rescue people on Deadliest Catch. They have some of the most rare planes in the world and some of the most historical including the plane that President George Bush was flying when he was involved in an accident. They actually have a whole wall dedicated to his work.

They also have one of the most intriguing airplanes from Vietnam. The last plane to land on the Midway during the Vietnam War was a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog. A member of the Korean Airforce was trying to escape with his wife and five children when they approached the carrier. The pilot asked them to move the helicopters so that he could land to which the midway told him to land in the water and they would get him. He then flew close enough to drop a shoe with a note inside letting the crew know that he had his wife and five children on board. They quickly moved the helicopters and the plane landed safely before it ran out of fuel. We were informed that about a month ago one of the children who now lives in Ft. Myers actually came to the museum unannounced to see the plane. As you can imagine it was an emotional time for everyone!

Pensacola is the home to the Blue Angels for nine months a year. Naturally they were not there when we were because they are in California for the winter months. In the museum they have older Blue Angel planes hanging above the atrium. It is crazy because they hang about three feet apart...when in actual flight it is only 12-18 inches...SO SCARY!

Them museum has an IMAX as well as flight simulators. Had we not been on such a time crunch we would have been more likely to attend/try both of those. We however wanted to get to NOLA for the football game so we only had time for a walking tour of the building. We heard A LOT of stories...not gonna lie I can't remember much as the man talked SOOO fast. It was an incredible place and I highly recommend visiting.

We headed out of Pensacola for New Orleans. It was about a three hour drive and we arrived at hour hotel around 4:30pm. We quickly checked in and made our way to the French Quarter. This may not have been our brightest idea as we had not had dinner and EVERY single bar/restaurant/pub was PACKED. We left there and headed back to our hotel area for dinner. We tried to go to a recommended place but it had no tables so we ended up at Applebees! It turned out to be a BLAST. They staff as well as all teh patrons were having a great time and so did we as we watched the New Orleans Saints win their first Superbowl. Once the game was over we headed back to Bourbon Street. It was undoubtedly the craziest place I've been since the Patriots won their first Superbowl. Everyone was so happy, excited, and FRIENDLY. No one was fighting, no one being rude, just down right enjoyment of the moment. We spent about two hours before we were done fighting the crowds. We headed back to our hotel and hit the hay with chants of "Who dat said they gonna beat them Saints?" ringing in our ears!

**A few short videos have been added.