My parents had been wanting to visit some family friends who live near New Orleans for a while now, and the opportunity arose pretty recently. They asked me to join them (my mom claims that I make it more fun for them, haha), so off we went.

Me 'n Mom being silly in front of the Mississippi

Day 1 was just driving (~6 hrs / 370mi). That evening, Mr. and Mrs. Jang explained in detail the tours we could go on the next day. My parents entrusted me with planning our itinerary, and so they were basically forced to do what I wanted to do. :) It consisted of a walking tour of the French Quarter (my first choice was actually a bike tour, but ... I think I'll have to do that with other like-minded people, heh), and then a swamp tour. THAT was awesome. :)

  Gator Vid 2 / Gator Vid 3 / Gator Vid 4

While headed to Jackson Square for the walking tour, a lady who saw we were blatant tourists told us she was headed that way and kindly walked with us in that direction. She told me a little about herself and how she'd moved from Arizona to New Orleans, and that if we had a chance we should go check out the Garden District. If we wanted to take a horse carriage out there, she highly recommended a man by the name of Marlin Malloy. "That's my ex-husband," she said. "Now I don't recommend him as a husband or a father, but he's a damn good tour guide, and you know he must be good if I'm recommending my ex-husband to you!" We shared a laugh, and parted ways. Never got to see if I could find Mr. Malloy amongst the horse carriage drivers and tell him that his ex-wife had recommended me. :)

I have never been interested / good at history, but I actually learned a lot about Louisiana history on all the tours we took. So excuse me if my captions are a little long-winded, I'm excited that I learned a thing or two on this trip. :) See the whole story in ze pictures!