Craig's blog

Today’s entry is written by Jessie. J

Today we had eggs for breakfast. We split up into groups to do some tasks to set us up for the day.  Mom and Dad did the breakfast dishes (nobody else wanted that job), Katie and Kelli made the sandwiches for today’s lunch, and Maddie and I took a trip to the park’s store for ice. It is EXTREMELY HOT in New Orleans! When we finished all that is was about 10:00, the time when the shuttle would come to take us to town.

Once we got to town we went to Café du Monde for a little treat but the line was twice as long as the buildings length so we decided to wait. We walked to Jackson Square to look at the pretty sights. It was a nice park with a big church in the middle that you could go into to look around (Mom ended going inside because she was starting to wilt in the heat). We saw a jazz band playing in front of the church and the trombone player offered for me to sit down next to him while they played. Dad took a couple pictures and after the song they started to pack up and we got up to leave for our next activity.  At 11:30 we went to a big dock where our boat was parked. It was very big and you could hear the loud music wherever you went in the dock or boat (Dad told me the musical instrument was a calliope). We boarded the ship and sat for a couple minutes while we waited for everyone else to get on board. Luckily, we got a spot right at the front so the wind was blowing in our faces and it wasn’t to unbearably hot. After we started going, my dad and I went downstairs to the place where they were serving lunch.  You had to buy special tickets to have lunch on the boat so I was a little nervous the police were going to come and kick us out for being in that room. The only reason we were in there was because a live band was playing in there and you could see them play if you were in there. They weren’t the best band ever, but they were still pretty good. When we went back to the deck where the rest of the family was, we got out our PB&J sandwiches and Katie got out her chicken sandwich to start lunch. Just as we were starting, a voice came over the speakers. This person was telling us all about the things we were passing on the sides of the river. Just so you know, we were going on the Mississippi River for about 2 ½ hours. Once we finished lunch, Mom and Dad went to go explore the boat. They also brought back four salted pretzels for us to munch on. Yum! After taking lots of pictures and sitting in the sun for a long time the voice finally announced that we would be going back. Just outside of the dock there was someone on the street with a tip jar. At first I thought he was a statue, but then I realized it was an actual person! He was frozen in a walking position not even moving his face. We went over and watched him for a while, tipped him, and left.

We walked back to Café du Monde and there was no line at all so we sat down and ordered two plates of beignets and my parents got coffee. They were delicious! You can’t go wrong with French donuts drenched in powdered sugar. While we ate, a trumpet player was playing a few songs. He was very good, and when he wasn’t playing trumpet he was singing along to the music! I enjoyed it very much. After his last song, I went over and tipped him (with my Dad’s money, not mine of course) and he gave me a CD of him playing and singing!

Then we were supposed to go to our bus tour, but someone had to go to the bathroom, and we ran out of water. So we went to the bathroom and hurried over to the air conditioned bus and left my Dad to get the water. He couldn’t let his beautiful flowers wilt! On the tour bus it was like an airplane, except on wheels. Kelli wanted to argue that airplanes DID have wheels so my statement was invalid, but I just ignored her. It had lights and vents you could adjust so the air conditioning would blow right on you. We were on the Hurricane Katrina tour so we saw old houses that were still damaged with holes in the roof from the hurricane 7 years ago. Then we stopped by a cemetery were we could get out and walk around. We had 12 minutes to explore then get back to the bus so we all started getting off. Katie didn’t realize we had left because she was asleep the entire time! She woke up when we came back though. Then our tour guide picked back up explaining something but I wasn’t really sure what because I was ZZZZZZZZ JL   I woke up just as we were getting back to the