Nascar

Im planning a weekend with Bethel at the Atl Motor Speed Way. I'm hoping to put together a paper representing the Nascar family. Collecting pictures to show the culture and atmosphere of the group that love nascar.

Truth

Louisianna

Geoff (G)and I packed five kids in the car Sunday and drove down to Mobile, Alabama. A beautiful Bay city on the Mexican gulf. We wanted to take the long route to G'sbusiness meeting and use the time to experience new cities. We decided to rest when we arrived in Mobile instead of sightseeing. Bethel was sweet and walked the little ones to the tiny indoor pool for some cooling off.

Monday: we headed to the USS Alabama. What a treat! The ship has been opened to the public to explore. I wouldnt like to be stuck in those hot closed in quarters like the poor sailors were in 1920 through to 1945.
The weather was very hot and extremely bright so the pictures didnt come out like Id hoped, but we all enjoyed the sights.

We had planned to drive out to the islands off of the shore of Alabama after the ship tour but G wanted to head towards New Orleans. The sights along the highway were beautiful. Some of the drive is over the swamp. The engineers build the road over the river instead of through the wet lands, it was strange to travel above the river when it looked like there was dry land, forests,  each side of the road.

We drove to the heart of New Orleans where our hotel was close to the French quater. Geoff and I left the kids and walked through the city. The city seemed very dirty and broken even ten years after the hurricane.

We didnt walk all the way to the cathedral, we stopped at Bubba Gump Shrimp's restuarant. G had to taste the New Orleans cuisine. The food was very well prepared and the service was great.

G had to do some conference calls Tuesday so I took the kids for a walk in the city. It was a completely new experience for them to stroll down the sidewalk of an inner city. They did well holding hands and obeying but they tired quickly. After walking to the park we headed back towards the kids museum.
What a wonderful place! The kids pretended to be captains, shopkeepers, builders, architect s and so much more. The kids wore themselves ( and me) out.

We then headed towards Lafayette. We got a surprise when we arrived and found that the hotel had messed up our reservations and we didnt have a place to stay. We called fifteen different places looking for a room, not a pleasant experience. We finally found a room at the Drury Hotel and Im glad, it was a lovely experience staying there.

Wednesday morning G and Bethel went to the business meeting and the little ones and I explored.  lafayette has grown faster then city had time to make the appropriate changes. Everywhere was extremely busy. It was interesting to see all the small homes build in a time passed but The kids got tired of my driving around and begged me to return to the rooms.

When G and Bethel returned we set out to see a small village preserved from 1740. I love seeing historical sites and trying to capture the atmosphere with my camera.

Even though it was extremely hot we decided to take a swamp tour next. We had a little time to kill before our appointment so we visited a fine book store. We all enjoy the treasure hunt of a second hand bookstore. G found some really unique books from the 1800's for his collection.
The swamp tour was amazing. We saw a lot of birds, alligators and plant life, even a couple of turtles too. If you ever have the opportunity to take a tour, I highly recommend it.