Day Forty-nine

So I've been getting out there and doing things :).

Today I went to see Hurricane on the Bayou, which is an IMAX documentary on the wetlands and Katrina. It was pretty emotional just seeing that and being in this town, let alone seeing what devastation is still out there waiting to be cleaned up. There was footage of the area from the Superdome down through Canal St all completely flooded, people walking down Canal St up to their waist in water in the days following. I arrived in New Orleans basically right next to the Superdome, and walked from there the 15 minutes or so down to Canal St, which is the main street that my hotel is basically on, so to see the state it was in then compared to now was kind of confronting. On Canal St they have a large number of palm trees, and I don't know if it was the same then, but now they have each corner of each palm tree secured into the ground with heavy-duty ropes.

I also went to the Audubon Insectarium, which was really, really fun. It was interactive, responsive, educational and highly entertaining. There was this walk-in section that acted like a blown-up version of underground, and sooooo many kids got the living daylights scared out of them by this massive trapdoor spider reproduction that would lunge out when you got close. Loved it. And there was this sit-in theatre that showed "Insect Awards Night" on the screen, and had all these special effects like wind, the floor shaking, smells, being stung in the back, etc, as the show progressed.

And finally also to the Audubon Aquarium, mainly because it was cheaper to get them all together; I've seen more than enough aquariums now :P. I managed to luckily just be in time for the penguin feeding show!

I also met one of the bartenders for one of the bigger clubs here, who's getting me into the VIP Lounge on Friday night for their 1980's party! Whee! So there's at least one decent night on the town here.

Tonight I plan to try some jambalaya! Wish me luck :).