Nola, day two

Sunday July 31.

This morning Mom, Dad, and I woke up early and went to sacrament meeting. there is only one ward in all of New Orleans and this ward has five sets of missionaries! A friend of ours is actually in the bishopric here so we surprised him when he saw us walk in! The speakers were a real Cajun/Creole man who was baptized seven years ago. He was great and it was really fun to hear his accent. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, he really did sound like the guy from Waterboy! The other speaker was a woman and she told a story about her experience during Hurricane Katrina. After sacrament meeting, we went outside to take pictures. We were very surprised to see beads in all the trees and wires everywhere, we expected it in the French Quarter, buy not in the Garden District and on St. Charles. (And in front of the church building!)

After church, we went back to get the boys and Jason and to explore the city! We got a great tip on where there is free parking and parked there almost everyday and then took the streetcars wherever we needed to go.

This is us. we just parked and are walking to the French Quarter/French Market for the first time!

My first time seeing the French Quarter.

The streetcar stop for the French Market.

The French Market is huge and very busy. lots of vendors sell stuff they make and tee shirts and things. At one end is a Farmer's Market. To the left is the Mississippi River and to the right is the French Quarter.

After exploring the French Market, we decided to ride the streetcars around to get familiar with the area.

It started to rain while riding. We all enjoyed it so much!

We finally made it Bourbon Street!

There are always police cars on Bourbon on the weekends!

In Voodoo Mark, we tried on some Mardi Gras masks.

By the time we were done in the store, it was dark and late so we walked back to the car, walking along the Moonwalk which is a path by the Mississippi that has lots of statues and sculptures along the way.