I thought I was way behind on my posts before, this is really bad. So sorry. Between me going (mostly to Wisconsin) and having company here I have not had much time to work on the pictures from the New Orleans cruise (there were only a couple of thousand!). I have been through a lot of them though. As you can see I did put the placeholder posts into the blog. I just have to fill them in. Unfortunately I will be heading out later this week so we'll see how much I can get done before I leave again. I am supposed to be more home than away this summer but I will make every attempt to catch up.
    Otherwise things are going well here. I have been trying to lose some weight (mostly unsuccessfully). The terrible weather has bypassed Louisville for the most part. My heart goes out to those who have lost so much. Please keep an eye on the weather and take cover if tornadoes are in your area. The risk you will get hit may be very low but it is your life you are risking.
    We have started doing some of the small house projects that have been nagging to get done. We have some big ones to do, too. I hope we can get at least one big project done this summer.
    We just got back from a two-week trip to southern California so I have more pictures to sort through and blogs to write. Looks like I will be a busy girl.

New Orleans Cruise With My Family



Discussing the cruise at Hannah's party

    This trip started with my niece's graduation last year. At her party we were discussing our then upcoming cruise that we were taking her on as her present. My aunts (my Mother's two sisters, Arlene and Grace) chimed in that they wanted to go on a cruise with us. They said just tell them when and where and they would be there.
It was too late for that cruise but I kept it in my mind so when I had some time last fall I searched around and found several possible cruises. I started discussing them with my Mother, aunts and sisters and soon several of my cousins wanted to go as well. We finally settled upon a 7-day cruise on the Norwegian Spirit leaving from New Orleans at the end of February. As an added bonus that's Mardi Gras time!

Arriving at our New Orleans hotel via airport limo

     It took a little coordinating and a long distance conference call but we finally all had our bookings done (cruise, flights and shore excursions). Our group consisted of me and two of my sisters (all in one room), my Mother and her two sisters (all in one room) and six of my female cousins (two per room). Now all we had to do was wait.
   The last week in February came and we all made our way to New Orleans!

New Orleans Cruise - Seeing the City and Mardi Gras

    Our cruise did not leave until Sunday so most of us decided to travel to New Orleans on Friday in order to have a day to see the city. My sister Terre (who lives in Indiana) and I drove down together. It's an 11 hour drive so we left at 3am in order to get there in time for dinner. Most of the group flew out of Green Bay, Wisconsin but one came from Las Vegas. A couple of my cousins could not come until Saturday.

Outside the Palace Cafe

    We all met up at our hotel, a Hampton Inn just west of Canal Street which borders the French Quarter. (For the sake of the older generation we wanted to stay away from all the craziness.) After settling into our rooms we made our way out to find a place to eat. We ended up at the Palace Cafe on Canal St. for an enjoyable dinner in elegant surroundings. After dinner a few of us wanted to check out Bourbon street but a sewer backup had the street flooded and smelling strongly of raw sewage. Needless to say we turned back and caught up to the rest of the group heading back to the hotel. So much for a night of revelry!

Damaged homes in the Lower Ninth Ward

     The next morning some of us had booked a Grayline tour of New Orleans so we headed off to the waterfront to catch our tour by the dock of the Steamer Natchez. Our tour was by bus and included driving through some of the areas of the city hard hit by Katrina as well as several other neighborhoods including the Garden District. It was sobering to see the amount of devastation still present even five years after the storm. Especially in the area of the Lower Ninth Ward the recovery is taking an agonizingly long time. One of the neighborhoods we toured has ground so damp the houses have huge poles beneath them for support. Every 20 years or so the poles have to be replaced because they rot. The streets and sidewalks buckle frequently and are constantly being fixed. Imagine the expense for all that! You have to marvel at human resiliance in the face of unrelenting nature.
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St. Louis Cemetery

    One of our stops was St. Louis Cemetery. The graves in New Orleans are above ground. Our tour guide explained that the remains are placed in the upper level of a family crypt where they remain undisturbed for about a year. Due to the heat and humidity the body will have fully decomposed in that time. 

A family crypt

The crypt is then opened and the remains gathered into an urn or other container which is placed in the lower part of the crypt. That's why you see so many names on the graves. They even have crypts you can rent for that first year in case you don't have room in your own.

Mom after hitting the casino

     Our group disembarked the tour at Harrah's Casino in downtown for a rest break and something to drink. Now my Mother and her sisters are no strangers to casinos (in fact, my Aunt Grace works for one in Green Bay) and, of course, they had to check out the slots to see if they were any good. Okay I admit I had to try it out too. Nobody hit it big so we headed back up Canal street. We did some window shopping and hit a few souvenir stores before finding a place to eat some lunch. We knew that a Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to come down St. Charles Street to Canal so we chose a restaurant on St. Charles called the Pearl Oyster Bar. After eating lunch Mom chose to stay at the table where she could see the parade out the window. The rest of us including me, Terre, my sister Kathy and our Aunt Grace headed out to the street to stake out a place close to the rail. We were serious about getting some beads as they are tossed from the passing floats!

Photos from the Mardi Gras parade

   The last two of my cousins were due to be in before the parade but that day Chicago was experiencing heavy winds which was wreaking havoc on the flight schedules. They finally made it in about 8 hours late but in time to make our reservation at Emeril's Delmonico Steakhouse. What a lovely evening to cap off our whilrwind tour of New Orleans!

   

New Orleans Cruise - Cruising

    On Sunday morning we had planned to attend mass at St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. We were warned by the hotel staff that a Mardi Gras parade was planned to come down the street in front of our hotel and all the streets would be blocked to traffic after 10:00. Since we had to get to the cruise ship we had no choice but to leave early and head right to the dock. Too bad because it would have been fun to watch the parade from our hotel room.

Our cabins were quite cozy

    Arriving so early we had to wait a while before we could board the ship but thankfully there was a waiting room (I was picturing us sitting on the sidewalk in front of the port). Everyone made it on board and we were soon trying to figure out where to put all our stuff in our cabin.

Some of us had already managed to find the "Drink of the Day".

The rooms are small but they give you a lot of nooks and crannies in which to put things. My sisters and I managed to get everything tucked away. It was taking Mom and her sisters longer to figure things out. I was wondering at the wisdom of putting a group of 80ish women together in their own room but they figured it all out (even the safe eventually). All of our cabins were close to each other so we were already popping our heads in and out of each other's rooms.

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    That evening (after our life boat drill) we left our dock on the Mississippi River and started heading down to the Gulf of Mexico. It takes several hours to make it out of the river and into the gulf. Along the way we saw the New Orleans waterfront, oil refineries, sugar factories and many cargo ships.
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At the slots tournement

    Over the week we had lots of fun taking part in the shipboard activities. We attended every trivia contest we could, managing to win more than one game allowing several of us to take home the prized Norwegian Cruise Line key chain flashlight (woooo!). My cousin Bridgette has a beautiful singing voice and we became regulars at karaoke to hear her sing. My cousin Margaret and my sister Terre performed duets with Bridgette. Margaret and her sister Karen joined the pub crawl visiting every bar on the ship. The casino was a popular destination for many of our group especially my cousins Erin and Mary and my sister Kathy. At least we always knew where to find them when we needed them. We still managed to squeeze in a few games of Scrabble here and there.
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Eating was a favorite activity

   The shows on the ship were outstanding. Several lounges featured performers including a singing couple and a wonderful guitarist. The ship's orchestra performed Big Band music in the nightclub. A troupe from the Second City improvisation group was on board and performed at several different venues including a Murder Mystery lunch. Every night there was a big show in the ship theatre featuring magicians, singers and dancers, comics and acrobats. The grand finale show included elements of all of the other shows in a Cirque d'Soleil type extravaganza. It was the best show I have seen on a ship. 

New Orleans Cruise - Port of Costa Maya, Mexico

   All day Monday we were at sea so we did not pull into our first port until Tuesday at Costa Maya in the Yucatan pennisula of Mexico. There was not much there until the cruise port was built but the location is well suited for visiting several of the ancient Mayan ruins in the area. Right off the end of the dock is a shopping area with bars and a big swimming pool.

   Bridgette and Karen opted to swim with the dophins. Margaret was the photographer.
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Mayan child winking at us

Terre on the temple

   I went with my Mother, aunts and sisters on the Mayan Reality Tour. Unlike a lot of ancient civilizations that have disappeared over time, the Mayans have survived and are still living on their ancestor's lands. We were bused to a small Mayan village which does not appear that different than many Mexican towns but has the remains of a Mayan temple. The school children attend school half the day and the other half are at the temple greeting the tourists, selling hand made crafts and posing for pictures. 
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Scenes from a Mayan family farm

    Next we visited the home and farm of a Mayan family where they cooked lunch for us in a clay pot buried in a pit with hot coals. Lunch was a type of barbecued chicken served in fresh home made tortillas with home made guacamole - delicious! We were able to tour their home which was divided into different thatched huts, one for living and sleeping, one for cooking and one for worship. Lush foliage and beautiful flowers were everywhere.
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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Belize City, Belize

   On Wednesday we anchored off the shore of Belize and were taken into port on small tender boats. Belize is known for having hundreds of islands and a coral reef along its shore. This coral reef is second in size only to the Great Barrier Reef in Austrailia.

   My sister Terre, Mom and her sisters went on an airboat ride up the Belize River.
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Barb in her snorkel outfit

Underwater view of the reef

   My sister Kathy and my cousins Mary and Erin and I went on a snorkel trip followed by a visit to an island beach. Kathy was having trouble keeping the snorkel mask from leaking so one of the staff pulled her around the reef on a life preserver (I thought that was awesome of them).

Kathy, Mary and Erin at the beach

After snorkling we got all the free rum punch we could drink while we went to the private beach.

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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Roatan, Honduras

    Roatan is an island off the mainland country of Honduras in Central America.  This island is one of the prettier islands in the Caribbean with lush green covered mountains and beautiful blue water. At this port people chose many different activites.

Shipwreck in Mahogony Bay

     Terre and I took a tour of the island that was part by bus and part by boat. On the boat part we rode through the harbor where the cruise ships were docked. There are a couple of ship wrecks in the harbor. The guide said they were wrecked off shore and blown into the harbor by hurricanes. Now they are popular dive locations and serve as reefs for the fish.

View from the top of Roatan

Garifuna dancing

Our bus tour route took us around the island where we could see the villages people lived in, their schools and homes and many scenic overlooks. We stopped to view a performance by the Garifuna, the native people of Honduras. They sang, danced and cooked for us.
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Bridgette surprised by a parrot

Karen on the rope bridge

Karen with a monkey on her head

    Bridgette and Karen went to Gumbalimba Park. They toured a lush garden with rope bridges and got to interact with parrots, iguana and monkees.
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Margaret, Kathy and Grace holding a dolphin

Kathy getting kissed

.   Aunt Arlene, Aunt Grace, Betty, Kathy, Mary and Margaret went to the Dolphin Encounter at the Roatan institue for Maritime Studies (RIMS). After seeing the dophins do tricks, they each got a kiss from a dolphin and got to pet one and hold it.
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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel waterfront

    Cozumel has a pretty and lively waterfront. There is a wide sidewalk with a seawall and bench along the water. Across the road the street is lined with shops, bars, restaurants and museums. The water here has beautiful shades of deep blue to turquoise.
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With our server at Torro's

     We decided to just walk around town. I had the intent to walk to the town square but our ship docked next to a shopping plaza that you had to walk through to get into town. We got waylayed in the shops and found some good bargains. By the time we made it down to the street we were already getting tired. We decided to walk upstairs to Toro's Place restaurant which has a open air patio with a great view of the water, street and the cruise ships. A marriachi band was playing. We so enjoyed sitting up there we just stayed there until it was time to go back to the ship.

Posing on the seawall in Cozumel

New Orleans Cruise - Coming Home

    Sadly our cruise had to come to an end. We woke up Sunday monring back in New Orleans. This was the Sunday before Mardi Gras so we decided to just head home and avoid the crowds. My Mother, Aunt Arlene, Kathy and Terre drove back to Louisville with me. Some of the others flew directly home but a few spent Sunday night in New Orleans to catch some more bon times.

At the Farve shrine in Kiln

    Just over the state line in Mississippi is the tiny town of Kiln. This town is sacred to Green Bay Packer fans (okay, maybe not as sacred as it once was) because it's the hometown of their great quarterback, Brett Farve. Everyone riding with me is a big Packer fan so we just had to stop. After driving through it twice (we missed the tiny city limit sign over the top of the speed limit sign) we finally found the place. A gas station/restaurant/bar had a proper sign for everyone to pose with.

At breakfast in Clarksville

    We rolled into Clarksville, Tennessee to spend the night with my cousin, Suzanne. It was nice of her to let us use her house as a rest stop since we got in late and unfortunately had to leave early. The following morning we went out to breakfast together. That's Suzanne on the left.
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   The next day we made it back to Louisville. Terre had to head out back to Fort Wayne so she could go back to work the next day (it's so sad that people have to work). The next few days we spent touring Louisville and visiting with my remaining sister, Mary and her family.  Some of things we saw:

 The Louisville antique mall where we also ate lunch.

Churchill Downs, the race course that is home to the Kentucky Derby.

 The big bat at the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.

 Muth Candy store, the oldest candy store in Louisville where you can buy bourbon balls (chocolate creams flavored with Kentucky made bourbon) and madjeskas (caramel covered marshmallows, much better than they sound).

Lynn's Paradise Cafe the eclectic restaurant run by Lynn Winter, one of the best chefs in Louisville. This restaurant serves the best pancakes you may ever eat.

The grave of Colonel Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken at historic and beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery.