"Nawlins"

Our trip to New Orleans started with visit to Chalmette Battlefield where Andrew Jackson recruited and led an army that defeated the British in 1814. One of Jackson's helpers was Jean Laffite, a pirate that received a pardon after the battle.

Part of the line that was successfully defended by the Americans.

We did so many fun things in "Nawlins"!  We walked down Bourbon Street, heard jazz at Preservation Hall, ate at the Louisiana Bistro where we had our first taste of "boudins".  The next day we went to the Redfish Grill for lunch, then on to the amazing WWII Museum for the afternoon.  On our third day we walked down to Jackson Square, saw the French Market, rode the St. Charles Streetcar, the River Streetcar and sat in an outside cafe, had a Muffalo sandwich and listened to jazz.  It was an action packed few days!

Bourbon St at dusk

Strangely costumed fella on stilts

Andrew jackson with an admirer

Another admirer in Jackson Square with St. Louis Cathedral in the background

Both of us ate beignets, fried dough with powdered sugar.....YUM!

Enjoying coffee and beignets

                                                A beautiful home along St. Charles Avenue

                                                       Betty enjoying Audubon Park

Below are more pics of the park:

St. Charles Streetcar

                                                             Inside the streetcar

                                                                   WW II Museum

                                                A display of figurines on our brave soldiers

Having a very "nice " time in Niceville!

We had a great three day stay with cousins Tony and Marilyn Mefford in Niceville, Florida. Tony and Marilyn walk out of their home to the dock where their boat is moored. It is a rough life. We watched the sun set from their fishing boat on the Sarahann bayou, toured several other bayous and Tom enjoyed his plane ride. The four of us visited the Hurlbert Air Force Base and then drove to a resort town Destin, right on the Gulf of Mexico, to walk on the beach and see the results of a month-long fishing derby.

Tom and Tony go for a ride in "Dimples" Tony"s 6 place Piper plane. Tony calls the plane Dimples because it was caught in a hail storm. 

Plane taking off.

Off into the wild blue yonder

Captain Tony and First Mate Marilyn conducting bayou tours.

Two happy passengers

The four of us toured a special ops base during an open house

On the table is a sniper's rifle that has a range of more than a mile

Touring a C130 gun ship. 

On the beach at Destin.

Destin city/harbor view

Two WWII vintage planes on a fly by

Having a beer at a Destin bar watching the fishing rodeo. Largest fish caught was 90 lb.

Photo taken from Dimples.

Looking for alligators in the bayou we saw this tree. 

Savannah Wildlife Refuge and some Savannah sightings!

Today, we walked through the Savannah Wildlife Refuge which was the site of plantation and slave rice farming during the 1700 and 1800's.  It is now a preserve and has gone back to a natural state.  It is about 10 miles or so outside of Savannah, Georgia, but is actually in South Carolina.  Below are some pretty pics we took while touring the Refuge.

After exploring the Refuge we had a few fun Savannah sightings!

Found new fauna in the marsh.

                              Anybody ready to shoot full automatic machine guns for fun? It was fun!

Many of you know that Parker is my maiden name.......cigarettes on billboards is not politically correct in California!

                      Crossing over the Savannah River on the Talmadge Memorial Bridge.

Yankee Reinforcements for Fort Sumter

We spent a lovely day in Charleston seeing Fort Sumter where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

 Betty is standing on top of the parking garage with the harbor and the Ravenal Bridge in the background.  It was a beautiful sunny day, it felt like California!

Part of the Union reinforcement for Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter

One of the seven sites that shelled Fort Sumter for 32 hours to start the Civil War. These positions were pointed at the weaker portion, the backside of the fort. Col Anderson and the Union garrison surrendered the fort when they ran out of powder. 

The Stars and Stripes and SC flags over the fort. 

Damage from shelling when the Union forces recaptured the fort.  The walls were 3X higher than what appears here. The rubble was removed in 1870. 

Rifled and banded gun at Ft. Sumter. This is a cast iron gun. The band around the barrel is supposed to allow a bigger powder load and more muzzle velocity. I doubt this based on the apparent thickness of the band. I wonder how many of these cast iron guns exploded.

Shell stuck in the wall at Ft Sumter. 

The USS Yorktown museum ship on display in Charleston Harbor