It actually makes quite a big difference – I’d been putting it on a book, then on my lap, but it was still running hot. Now it is cool as a cucumber.

We are SO excited about our holiday. A paid for the flights today, so we are going for sure. I’m doing the Google Earth all over the place, working out routes from the airport to our hotel, then from there to the resort we are staying at. I love the street view, it almost feels like you are there. We are hiring a car so that it will be easy to get around. I remember having to stuff around with a hire car, having driven from West Virginia to Washington D.C. I got so. lost.

I drove into Washington D.C., unloaded my car at the youth hostel I was staying at and realised I had to drive back out to the airport to drop the car off. Some how I ended up driving around in a massive circle before I found the airport. Then I had to wait for a shuttle bus to take me all the way back in. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was stressful at the time. I’m just looking at Dulles Airport now and I can totally see how I got lost!

Hence my decision to hire a car for the whole time and be done with it.

A is keen on buying a GPS. No idea why, I have a perfectly good sense of direction. Hmph.

Now, we are both geeking out, sitting on the lounge with our laptops, planning our holiday. Awww… Oh and he just pulled a bag of Baci chocolates out of his back pack.

I’d been staying with friends and this was the first time I’d been on my own so to speak. Only me calling the shots about where I stayed, and what I did. I’d booked 3 nights in the Royal Sonesta Hotel as a bit of a treat. It was a gorgeous place, with a pool. My hair was waist length then and when I went for a swim it nearly drowned me it was so heavy. It was so humid there that going into the pool didn’t feel like it made much of a difference.

The hotel was right on Bourbon St, so I wasn’t far from the action. Thankfully my room was at the back so when I wanted to sleep, I could.

I received an email from my boyfriend at the time to tell me that one of my Siamese cats had been hit by a car and died. I was devastated and walked down Bourbon St crying my heart out. A skinny old man told me to put a smile on my face; I just kept crying.

I booked a bus tour. Despite having been in the country for over a month and doing lots of driving, I went to get in the right side of the bus. Another Australian was on the tour and asked if I was Australian too. His name was Pete, he was in New Orleans to do some cooking classes and we ended up hanging around together until he had to leave.

The tour included a stop at one of New Orleans above ground graveyards. It was fascinating – because New Orleans is basically below sea level, anything buried in the ground is at risk of finding it’s way back up again!

Pete and I hung out at a bar for a couple of nights – there were some characters in New Orleans. I drank far too many Mint Juleps! I had made a rule that I wouldn’t get drunk with strangers, but I broke that one pretty quickly. Still alive to tell the tale!

I loved the French architecture, it was so different to the modern architecture of the west coast. One of the shops we looked in was an antique shop which had a wide selection of antique guns. I’d only even seen my Poppa’s hunting rifle before, so I was morbidly fascinated with this display.

We took a quick cruise across the mighty Mississippi, to the suburb of Algiers. It was more to say that we’d crossed it because there wasn’t anything very interesting on the other side!

We caught the last ferry back and went out for Creole food at a trendy micro brewery.

I left New Orleans on a train, heading for Atlanta.

Post script: When Hurricane Katrina hit, I felt devastated. Obviously not as devastated as the residents, but New Orleans holds a special place in my heart and it was bizarre to think that buildings I had been in and places I had walked were destroyed.

This is the Willows holding a joey. She was a bit overwhelmed, but when she had enough she said “Finished!” and ran off to play with my friend’s daughter.

Willow in front of the Big Lobster. She kept calling it a monster!

Willow on the Kingston Jetty, as you can see, it was a bit windy!