We did leave the room on New Year's Day, although not for too long. Tara went shopping and the rest of us went for a walk through the French Quarter. We came across a couple of buskers in Jackson Square and they were brilliant! We tried this café for lunch that people were queuing for and the food didn't agree with any of us so we spent the evening back at the hotel room.

The next morning Tara and Brianna went on a swamp tour whilst Emma and I went to a few plantations along the Mississippi River. The first was the Laura plantation. This was a Creole plantation and the tour guide had many stories, mainly about the women who ran the plantation (Laura's grandmother and great grandmother) and the evil, manipulative women they were! The house was beautiful but the slave quarters were tiny and then the guy told us there were still people living there until the 80s. This is also the plantation where the Br'er rabbit stories were written down for the first time in the USA.

The next plantation was Oak Alley. It has 18 live oak (as opposed to dead oak maybe??) lined up each side of the driveway from the Mississippi River to the house. It is a beautiful sight. The house is beautiful, very opulent, but nowhere near as interesting as the Laura plantation.

We headed out for dinner altogether and we decided to go somewhere where we could have something other than spicy or seafood! So we went to Hard Rock Café. We were served by Amy Winehouse (she was pretty good too). They then sent over the 'Aussie' on staff. He's American but is also an Aussie citizen. He lives in QLD and is back to keep his green card valid. When we in the gift shop, the guy at the counter offered Emma free luggage tags if she would go up to him and ask if he was the John Fox that modelled for the John Fox beanie baby (the guy in the gift shop apparently reckons he looks like a beanie baby and made him a John Fox beanie baby for Christmas). So, needless to say she scored us all a free luggage tag.

We had an early night as Tara had to leave at 4:30am for her flight. We drove from New Orleans to Houston, fairly uneventful, and tomorrow we will be visiting the Space Center before driving to New Braunfels.

Total miles driven today - 394