Craig's blog

The boat we road on was a real paddleboat driven by a steam engine (the same steam engine that drove the calliope Jessie wrote about).  It was very cool.  I went down to the engine room (it was 106 degrees inside) and walked around.  They have signs up describing how it works as you watch the pistons push the paddle wheel.  It was pretty impressive.

The bus tour of New Orleans was impressive.  I had signed us up for the Katrina version, because I wanted to hear more about it.  I couldn’t believe the number of homes that are still destroyed 7 years later.  It’s also amazing so many people continue to choose to live 10’ below sea level, surrounded by water. 

We didn’t get to hear as much music in New Orleans as I hoped (other than the street bands we heard which were fun).  We walked down Bourbon Street as I had done as a kid, but it was pretty risqué and the girls were very uncomfortable, so we just walked right through.