Sunday, July 06, 2008

Trip Continued....

Two days to cover...
First July 4, because we stopped when we were going to the pool, but after some cooling down at the pool we went to the historic district.
It was a warm day, hot, very hot... so the first thing we had to do was to go for a drink (you know us).
After that we were going to look for the spot where JF Kennedy was killed. They build a nice memorial over there, very open to remind everybody how "open minded" he was. We could not immediately detect where he had been shot. Probably we looked a lot like "lost" tourists, because in no time a guy approached us and told us he would lead us to that spot.
He gave us some information, sold us a little map... we were happy, he was happy.... and that's what counts.
Afterwards we went to a steakhouse and had good angus beef.
The fireworks for the 4th of July, we saw them out of our window in the hotel. But it did not look that impressive to us (we're used to see more spectacular fireworks in Belgium).

Saturday morning (July 5) we continued our trip to Houston. After 4 hours of driving we reached the Nasa Space Center. At the entrance it looked more like a fun place for kids... lucky for us adults there was this tour (like the ones you have at universal studios). It took us to the control room and also to a big storage place in which they keep one of these big (and I mean big) rockets.
Anyway, it was an interesting afternoon and the evening only got better after a nice meal and a refreshing dip in the pool of our hotel. Our hotel was close to the Gulf of Mexico, in Seabrook (Houston)... first time since we left Marina Del Rey for us to see boats again.

Today, July 6, we spend again like 4 hours in the car, driving from Houston to Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is the capitol of the state Louisiana. But to be honest, there is not a lot to see here. The waiter in the hotel restaurant told us this is because most of the population is very Christian and so they stay at home (and maybe in church?) on Sundays. The drive was beautiful... we saw a lot of swamps and Axelle even saw an alligator in one of them. They build big bridges over these swamps and the I-10 goes over them... so it was kind of strange to see alligators in between the two directions (water in between instead of lawns).
Because it was so hot when we arrived in our incredibly beautiful hotel (Hilton) here in Baton Rouge, we decided to go shopping in the Louisiana shopping Mall (with airco).
The dinner we were served here, was the best lamb I had in some time and Alain said he had the best fish ever (but Nancy, that's because he was not there when we (Tamzen, Nancy and me) had the incredibly good striped seabass on your bbq.

Tomorrow, on my birthday, we only have a "short" drive of about 1 hour to New Orleans. Before we go there, we will go on a trip with an airboat on the bayou swamp... Yes, we want to go and see the alligators over there... (but from a safe distance).

Alain booked a fine hotel, the Hilton Riverside, in New Orleans for my birthday. Not a cheap choice, but since it was at my special request that we are going there, he figured this might be a nice birthday present, and it is!
In New Orleans we'll stay till July 10 in the morning. From there we'll continue our trip to Montgomery and after that stop we'll go to Atlanta, where the trip and our US-adventure ends. (snif)

Axelle is getting impatient... she told me several times she wished it would already be July 12. Of course all the driving is not her favorite part of the vacation. It was however a perfect way to end our stay in the US.

More news later...

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