Down in the Swamps and City Park

Here it is: the last New Orleans post. This has taken me embarrassingly-long to get around to finishing. Oh well.

Our favorite part of this trip was when we actually left New Orleans and drove south about 30 minutes to the Jean Lafitte National Park.

Crossing the Mississippi aways seems so monumental.

From the visitors center, there are several trails to choose from. Most of them meander through the swamps with these boardwalks, which put us just inches over the wild. We never saw any alligators, but not because we weren't anxiously keeping our eyes out for them. We saw some fresh tracks through the murky areas, and a few suspicious splashes in the distance, but mostly it was just a steady hum of insects, birds, frogs... it was surprisingly noisy.
Walking through so many cypress trees dripping with the moss was beautiful.

We walked for a couple of miles before turning around. On our way back we were horrified to realize that in all of that time we'd spent scanning the swamp below for danger, we had missed the humongous spiders in webs spun across the boardwalk, just over our heads. They were frighteningly large.

Eventually I'll get around to posting more about all of the crafting I did in preparation for our trip over on my blog; but for now, here's a shot of the dress I made for the trip.

One of the mornings we drove up to City Park. Let's just say that nothing in New Orleans opens before 10 am, including park attractions. But we had a nice time admiring the ancient oaks an meeting some overly-eager ducks.

They all came waddling at us with surprising speed.

This one was especially bold.

These Canadian Geese apparently have decided to hang around all the time. It was neat to see some up close.

The history of the place seemed to be the most dominant theme in New Orleans, everywhere we went. As if the city is clinging to a bygone era. What a great opportunity to get just the smallest taste of it for a few days. I'm glad we went.