Let the Good times roll!

We arrived safely in Louisiana last night - tired, but excited about our week of vacation that lay ahead.

We woke this morning and decided to hit the casino in Biloxi,Mississippi for their splendid Sunday am buffet. Gulfport/Biloxi was one of the hardest hit areas from Katrina. It was the first time we had been over there in the 2 years since... and as bad as it still looked, it was so good to see that it was cleaned up and many hotels had been rebuilt... not many homes, but quite a few hotels. The trees have finally started to grow and, if you didn't know there used to be thousands of homes along the 60 miles of gulf side estates, you might have thought it was actually a pretty area (knowing there used to be homes there made the pretty areas quite depressing to see).

Oh, and the buffet was quite delicious :)

On the agenda for the week:
A swamp tour at Honey Island Swamp Tours, a golf outing for the boys, an evening of Hurricanes at Pat O'Brians and a Hand Grenade at Tropical Isle (click here for a live webcam!) followed by beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde, and in general just sight seeing around New Orleans (French Quarter), a visit to the beach near Gulf Port, visiting with friends and former co-workers... and probably more...

One cool thing: When we got here, Jon Paul's parents gave us the phone number of a man who tracked them down to tell them that they found our fire safe box floating down by his house after the hurricane. It took him a long time of talking to people to figure out who/where to get it to... so tomorrow we will pick up a box that held our passports, social security cards, marriage license, savings bonds, and who knows what else......

I will post some pictures when I have a minute and access to a computer that I can transfer pics from memory card.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"