LAMSTX

From Atlanta we flew down to the Deep South to visit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, aka the sweat sock region of America. There was no sweating on this trip as the weather was cold even for winter. We're probably the only ones whose enduring memory of being outdoors in Houston is having to bundle up.

 

First stop, the great state of Mississippi

The running theme for this trip was quite a bit of grumpiness. Tessie's turn. 

 

Holiday decorations at the MS welcome center

 

 Yes, those are frog legs

 

 Tessie was brave enough try them. They did taste like chicken, chicken that lived in a swamp.

 

The Sugar Bowl football game was the next day, and we knew that NOLA would be crowded. We hadn't counted on the huge pep rally right in the French Quarter, which made it prohibitively packed for our entourage. After fighting our way to the Jean Lafite National Historic Park, we bailed on the rest of the tourist sites.

 

We bought beads and boas for the girls. If those are the only Mardi Gras beads that they ever receive, I'll be one happy Dad.

 

 Instead of Café du Monde, we went to District Donuts for huge doughnuts and tasty sliders in a hipster bar setting

 

The New Orleans Zoo was not mobbed with overfed college football fans. We saw their famous three-armed orangutan. 

 

  Mini-goats!

 

The girls found this statue

 

atop "Monkey Hill". The hill is about 30 feet high and I kid you not

 

was made by the WPA in the 1930s to afford the locals the experience of a hill. For years it was the highest point in the city. 

Luckily a few of the gators were still active and we found them at their feeding time


Chomp!


They had a rare white leucistic alligator that swam around in a small tank eyeing visitors


This guy wasn't moving very fast


Kudos to the kids for making their way through entire zoo without much moaning


On the way out of the zoo we paralleled the river for a stretch, but the levee blocked the view. Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan.


We spent New Year's Eve in Baton Rouge, which Caroline pronounced Bay-ton Ra-u-dge. Finding hotels with indoor swimming pools proved difficult in Louisiana, but we did find them.


Now that's a view of the Mississippi River


down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico


Here's our Louisiana picture
 

Lafayette was supposed to have the best Cajun food in the state. We called over 20 restaurants, and being New Year's Day, none were open, leaving us with lunch at the Golden Arches.

 

Here in the land of petrochemical processing plants, gasoline was less than $2 a gallon. The girls will probably never see that price again in their lifetimes.

 

I-10 entering Texas - only 857 miles to the next state border!

 

Everything is bigger in Texas

 

Good advice



The Houston Natural History Museum had a fantastic dinosaur exhibit.



Erin had been reading dinosaur books and liked the smaller ones



like the glyptodon



 

The Houston Zoo was even bigger and better than the NOLA zoo, and also virtually empty because the temp in the 40s was so unbearably cold

 

Like all big fish tanks these days, this one had clownfish and blue tangs, among others



Hello elephants



Yummy hay



See if you can notice a pattern in these pictures



It's hard to tell, but he's getting his treat of milk squirted at him



 Lazy lions
 

 Jaguar


More posing



The African savanna




 and posing

 

Caroline even poses while snacking





Meerkats



If only we had one of these in the car!



 

 The Houston Childrens Museum had a big outdoor water play area


 Our Tex-Mex dinner at Papacito's. It's a Tex-Mex Tess-mess.


Tessie loved the mariachi band so much that they serenaded her twice with an Elmo song in Spanish


Lest anyone think our road trips are all fun and happiness, imagine listening to this for an hour