New Orleans day 2

Our second day in New Orleans dawned as beautiful as the first. After breakfast we walked down to the IMAXX theater and watched a 3D movie about dinosaurs. Before heading into the Aquarium, we stopped in at Johnny's for a delicious po-boy. The kids and I all had shrimp po-boys and David had a hamburger. I don't know if they are always this good, but sitting in the sun next to the Mississippi River can only enhance the experience!









Following lunch, we headed into the Aquarium where we saw sharks, stingrays, sea otters, penguins, even an albino alligator.









We rode the ferry across the river to Algiers, mostly for the experience of getting out on the river.
Nicholas proved that Nintendo DS is a universal icebreaker: he noticed a kid playing his DS and in a matter of minutes was huddled over him, watching intently.









And finally dinner, where we had a selection of traditional New Orleans favorites: crawfish pie, shrimp creole, jambalaya, & red beans and rice.








Sharp-eyed readers may notice that Nicholas's hat is subtly different from pictures earlier in the day. Unfortunately, we don't think that the original hat (which, you'll remember we got hustled into by the street vendor) made it back from Algiers. We were on our way back to the ferry to look for it (what else do you do when your 7 year old is crying as if his heart will break?) when ANOTHER street vendor called out "Hats, $5." This stopped us in our tracks because we had paid $10 for the original hat. Were we willing to fork out $5 to avoid walking the rest of the way to the ferry, possibly riding it back across the Mississippi, all for the very SLIM possibility that his hat was still where he left it? You bet we were! And although I'm still not sure that we weren't being completely hustled, BOTH hat vendors claimed to be raising money for a local food program. So if it's a scam, it's a very widespread and organized scam. The end result, though, was a very happy boy, who is NOT allowed to take the hat off his head!