Wednesday: Went to the zoo with my friend and his girlfriend's sisters. That was a small zoo and I expected it. There were more plastic animals than real animals. We watched "300" in the evening.
Thursday: New Orleans... very fun. We got to fly because my friend is going to school to be a pilot. His mom insisted on going because we were flying and she wanted us to be safe. So, of course very smooth flight, fun times to get to talk and catch up with her. New Orleans is not at all what I expected. I expected the NO Bourbon street architecture to be carried out throughout all the city and that would make the city charming. We walked about 3 miles around the city out from Bourbon Street and it wasn't. Just a few blocks from Bourbon Street the happy/carefree atmosphere was gone. There are random buildings boarded up and have been that way since Katrina. The further you walked the worse the city looked and a lot of grass needed to be mowed/flower beds needed work. There are a lot of areas that are just dirty. My friend's mom said that the charm has been lost since Katrina and if that is true, then they need to work on that.
I did form some definite opinions on the rebuilding of the city.
Toured the 9th Ward. It was unnerving to think that the water could have been so high during Katrina. We walked into a church that was about a mile from the levy and it was amazing how the water just picked everything up in the church and swept it to the front of the church. AND GET THIS... the carpet was still wet in the church 2 years after Katrina. 2 YEARS and it was like it was just freshly soaken. I am glad I got to see all of this stuff.
The church with the still soggy carpet
house in 9th Ward and the overgrown grass around it - this one did not even suffer a lot of damage in comparison to others
The fun stuff: My friend's mom is like my dad and very carefree, but knows when to be the
mother type and will. She was saying that if my friend and I wanted we could probably go to the bars and not get carded. She said that she would pretend she didn't see us and went shopping on Bourbon Street, so my friend and I hit the bar... haha... I can say I've hit the bars now. There are so many sex related shops and my friend, his mom, and I walked through them. It was a little awkward with his mom, but she was just cracking jokes (even though she is a very conservative Christian woman) and saying "maybe I should buy somehting like this for me" in response to stuff for like leather bondage and stuff like that. Then we went into a couple lingerie shops and even though my friend's mom is not the perfect shape, she was looking through the stuff, and was very open minded, my friend and I were saying what we like and stuff like that and she just laughed. It was awkward, but fun.
Friday: Went flying with my friend again. This time with his sister and dad. VERY FUN!!! My friend was daring this time since his dad was along and did things like stalled the plane in mid-air and other crazy things. That was fun!!! We flew over my friend's house and flew to Vicksburg and back, but didn't stop, just flew over the area. We watched "Fly Boys" at night and played a word game called Boggle.
Saturday: Kayaked the Okatoma River with my friend. It was a manmade river and was only 2-3 feet deep in some places. There was lots of getting stuck. MY ARMS KILLED ME after kayaking 5 miles and there really was no current, so we were pushing ourselves along. I thought my arms were in good shape... apparently no. We watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" at night.
Sunday: Went fishing. Friend caught a catfish and threw it back. I got TONS of bites, but couldn't reel in a fish. I tried. We fished for about 4 hours. It just got too dang hot. I did get a nice tan on my legs and arms. I had to laugh. I'm a Californian going to Mississippi to get a tan. Afterward we went to Wal-Mart and my friend's dad bought a new fishing pole because the one he had just got for the fishing trip was not that great. Played Phase 10 with my friend and his family. His mom won, then his girlfriend, me, his dad, and then my friend came in last.
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