Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

Let the good times roll! I know I haven't written in forever, but I have been a busy girl! I returned last week from a trip to New Orleans. My school paid for me (along with my mom and several other teachers) to attend a charter school conference there and my mom and I were lucky enough to be able to extend our tickets and have my Grandma Doris meet us there after the conference was over.

Louis Armstrong Parade Character

The conference turned out to be even better than I thought it was going to be. I learned several ideas on how to help your school be green, classroom gardens and project based learning type things. The conference even put on a little parade for us with different characters and music from several local area marching bands. It was great. We also had fun just hanging out in the evening. We took a haunted city tour. It turned out to be a great history of New Orleans and The French Quarter with a few haunted bits thrown in.

Mom and Grandma walking through live oak trees

The fun really started once my grandma got into town. We did so many amazing things and learned so much. We visited two plantations, took a city tour that showed some of the remaining damaged areas from Hurricane Katrina, took a steam boat cruise on the Mississippi, visited a great aquarium, rode the trolley through the Garden District, not to mention all the walking and eating and just looking around at the amazing buildings and plants that make up New Orleans.

The Laura Plantation House

At the plantations in New Orleans only sugarcane is grown. It is too wet to grow cotton, so they leave that for people up the river to grow. Sugarcane grows like a grass. It comes back year after year so they only have to replant when the sugarcane plant gets weak. They replant once about every three to five years. Sugarcane grows to be about 14 feet high!

The Evergreen Plantation House

Former Slave Quarters at The Evergreen Plantation

New Orleans has an amazing history that I really encourage people to read about or take a visit. I am not sure how much I would have liked New Orleans if I hadn't had the opportunity to go out and see the plantations and take the tours...there is WAY more to the city than Bourbon Street.

xoxo~ stephanie