Melting

Here's the thing about New Orleans, if you didn't already know:

It's very humid.

It's drippy, and suffocatingly HUMID. The heat index has been as much as fifteen degrees more than the actual temperature. Fif.teen. degrees. Do you know what that is? That is INSANE. Especially when it's already 91 degrees out.

We also have a new family rule:

Do not get out of the car without a bottle of water.

We hit a short trail yesterday at the Barataria Preserve, in hopes of seeing an alligator. The short trail offered us no alligator, so we took a different trail instead of turning around. Over two miles later, we're back at the car, all of us limp from the lack of water. At least we were smart enough to keep our ice chest in the back of the truck, full of up water bottles!

Originally we had planned on going on a swamp boat tour, but ended up canceling that once we hit the trail at the preserve. We met a pair of scientists on the trail, who were taking pictures for an upcoming biology textbook. They were more than happy to share with us information about the local plants and animals, and tell us lots about what we found interesting on the trail. To say we were happy to run into them is an understatement! It was very patient of them to allow the children to pepper them with questions, and we found out all kinds of interesting things.

After the kids finished filling out their Jr. Ranger forms, got their badges and were "sworn" in as Jr. Rangers, they got their badges and we were ready to head out of there. To someplace with air conditioning, thankyouverymuch.

Okay, so going to the grocery store isn't *that exciting, but it is air conditioned! When we finally pulled out of the parking lot (a *Bank of America fiasco and an impromptu car seat check in the parking lot waylaid us by over an hour) we went a few more miles down the road and went across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Officially the world's longest bridge that is not a viaduct as well, it is really is quite something. Kind of boring overall and not super exciting, it met our requirements of a) air conditioned and b) budget friendly! And now we can say we've been across the bridge.

Today we're off to do some mundane things like laundry, dog walking, and car cleaning. We haven't decided on the full itinerary for the day yet, but it will likely include a trip to walk around French Quarter, and a streetcar ride. The younger ones are clamoring for food, so I suppose I'll feed them first....

Have a great day! And remember, don't forget the sunscreen and the bug spray when you head to New Orleans!



*a postscript about Bank of America, otherwise known as The Bank I Will Never Use Again While Traveling. When we were headed over this way, I used the card twice for gas. The third time I used the card, it was declined. BoA blocked the card due to "unusual activity". I had to call and approve all the transactions/attempted transactions. Card was unblocked. When we went to the grocery store, my first attempt to use the card it was blocked. As in, hi, you tried to use it but ha ha you can't! After four attempts at the register (am I putting in the wrong PIN? Maybe I pushed a wrong button) I finally figured it out - I bet they've blocked the card again! I call BoA and yes, all four attempted transactions were there for me to "approve". So let me get this straight - they want to block it from the *first use? Really? Why would you do that? It's not like Whole Foods is some sort of a red flag, either. It's groceries! I spent twenty minutes on the phone with BoA getting them to unblock it, and then made the customer rep stay on the phone while I used the card to buy my now melting groceries. And that's what happened with BoA.