Day 2, Sunday, July 3

The day began with a swamp tour near New Orleans. About 25 others and our very good tour guide crowded together on a flat bottom boat for a two hour ride. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed ... just kidding. It was a lot fun and educational. Alligators came right up to the boat, had a little too close contact with a poisonous spider, wild boars also visited up close and personal. The big boar in the photo is named Oreo. We drove close by a small community of homes way up on stilts right in the middle of the swamp. Good for them. Pee Wee pointed at a home and asked the tour guide if Bobby Bouche' lived there. (Bobby Bouche' was a character played by Adam Sandler in Waterboy). The tour guide played along and said, yes - he did live there. A lady said, "Really?" Pee Wee said yes. She said, "Wow, I learned something new." Pee Wee embarrasses me a lot but it usually ends up pretty funny. But he did gross me out when he got in the car after the swamp tour and had a snack of sardines. No crackers, no napkin, no drink, just sardines straight out of the can. Who does that? His breath stunk for hours - worse than the odor surrounding the wild boars.

Then on to New Orleans and the National World War II Museum - best war museum I've ever been in. I met and had a great conversation with a WWII Marine who fought in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 - one of the most important victories we had against Japan. I tried to thank him for his heroic service for all of us who came after him, but I was too choked up to get it out.

Pee Wee did good deed #3 at the huge theater at the museum. Just before the showing of Beyond All Boundaries he noticed a lady having a hard time walking. She explained she had recently had foot surgery. Pee Wee to the rescue - he held her hand, cleared out the crowd in front of them, and led her to her seat.

We tried to find some Cajun food around 5:00 but everywhere we went was closed - seemed kind of strange. At least I found a Mardi Gras necklace and wore it a while. If anyone not in my family can tell me the significance of my t-shirt, please leave a comment. First one wins a new car.

We're staying at a cheap Best Western in Lafayette, Louisiana. Tomorrow could just be a wandering day. Usually attractions and museums are closed on Mondays, and tomorrow is July 4th, so we don't expect much to be open. We'll bump into something interesting though. 

I did the day's second good deed after eating tonight. We try to do this deed once per trip - our hotel manager was very friendly, kind, and great to listen to with her Cajun accent. Her accent really picked up when I brought her a chocolate milk shake and a good deed doers card. Cajuns can really smile big.

That's it for day three - we'll probably be heading even more west tomorrow and hope to find a novel 4th of July celebration. For now, I'm going to see if I can pour a little Listerine down my sleeping travel buddy's gullet.