Our hotel is right on Bourbon street across from a bar that sounded like it stayed open all night long. I fell asleep to sirens and car horns and woke to screaming women. That was Friday and Saturday should be even better, I think I might have packed some earplugs. Before heading out this morning, we watched the news for the day's forecast. The high was expected to be 95 with a heat index (opposite of wind chill) of 110. Great! We walked to Cafe du Monde for beignets which we enjoyed on the steps over looking the square. From there we went to the Presbytere to see a show about the history of Mardi Gras. We saw lots of very intricate and elaborate costumes and all kinds of other essentials of the day. It was very cool in the building so it was a nice break from the heat outside, but eventually we had to get back out there to see more sites. We toured the French district and went into several shops to check out their wares and to cool off. We walked to Canal Street and then back along the river and saw an amazing Yaacov Agam sculpture designed to remember the Holocaust. There was also a sculpture by John T Scott in the park, so I felt that my trip to NO was complete, at least for the art portion. Next to check off was the food. We headed to the Central Grocery store to get a muffuletta to go. Then we went to Johnny's for a Po'Boy. We sat and ate at Johnny's and took the muffuletta with us back to the hotel for dinner. When we returned to the hotel, we planned to have a refreshing swim, but most of the other guest had the same plan, so we decided to cool off in our room for a while first. Then another big storm passed through and cleared out the streets and the outdoor pool, so once it died down, we headed back to the pool and swam. It was very refreshing with a slight drizzle left over from the storm. In the morning we drive on to Houston and we should get back to free internet, so we'll be able to add some pictures from the last couple days.