The Lauras' Photo Album

Starting off the trip at Walt Disney World in front of the Old Key
West resort where Laura was staying (note the Princess antenna ball!)

The Blue Angel Parkway in Pensacola that goes out to Pensacola NAS

The Museum of Naval Aviation on Pensacola NAS - very nice, and *free*!

Blue Angels planes in the Atrium.

A couple of Flying Tigers! :-)

The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion in Mobile, Alabama...which was closed for Mardi Gras.
According to the guide book, considered to be one of Mobile's finest antebellum mansions,
but we wouldn't know, since it was closed...

Lauri and the mansion...imagining the days of hoop skirts and mint juleps?

A Mardi Gras float in Biloxi, Mississippi. It never occurred to us there would
be a Mardi Gras celebration in Biloxi, but it was a nice parade.

And we got LOTS of beads! :-)

(And no, we *didn't* expose any body parts to get all the beads we got...
Biloxi's parade was a nice family celebration!)

New Orleans...the morning AFTER Mardi Gras. The St. Louis Cathedral is behind us.

The St. Louis Cathedral again, with the statue of Lafayette.

Lauri lights a candle in the cathedral.

The Joan of Arc statue outside the French Market.

The typical New Orleans houses, with the intricate wrought-iron work, flowers, and Mardi Gras decorations.

Bourbon Street! Which we're sure was a QUITE different scene 12 hours earlier...

Laura's Candy Store, which was unfortunately closed.

Lauri and the Cafe du Monde.

We bought these dolls because they had nice Mardi Gras jester hats for Tigger and Bear...
the hatless dolls looked rather pathetic, though.

But Tigger and Bear looked great in their hats!

Beignets at Cafe du Monde...fresh and delicious, and you can get a nice powdered sugar mustache, too!

The Laura Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana - this was a Creole plantation.

The rabbit is on the sign because the folktales that comprise "The Tales of B'rer Rabbit" were supposedly collected here.

Three Lauras - including Laura Locoul, the last Creole owner of the plantation.

The Space Shuttle cockpit at Johnson Space Center outside Houston.

The Presidential podium used by John Kennedy when he made his "going to the moon" speech.

Lauri designs her own rocket.

Different space helmets to try on!

The Alamo in San Antonio - we got there about 7 minutes before it closed for the day.

Lauri on one of the bridges above San Antonio's Riverwalk.

One of the nicely landscaped areas along the Riverwalk.

We had an outside table for dinner at an Italian restaurant.

The David Crockett Memorial in Ozona, Texas. In the art-deco style by some sculptor named McVay.
Note the inscription..."Be sure you are right then go ahead". We liked that!

Lauri descends the staircase in the Pecos Museum in Pecos, Texas.

One of many grottos in The Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

I think this was called "The Queen's Chandelier" - it's an example of something called "draperies".

Another grotto.

Stalactites point *down*...

Stalagmites point *up*...

And sometimes they meet in the middle.

This is a "column", called "The Temple of the Sun".

Tigger and Bear save Laura from the Cave Monster...or maybe she sacrifices them to save herself? :-)

The International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. Some people have waaaay too much free time.

A nightly activity...Laura studies maps and tries to figure out where we're going the next day and how to get there...

Lauri reads her email and writes LOTS of postcards!

El Morro National Monument, about halfway between Grants and Gallup, New Mexico, on Highway 53.

El Morro is known for "Inscription Rock", where there are Indian petroglyhps carved into the sandstone, as well as later inscriptions by Spanish and American passersby...the earliest dated inscription is 1605.

The Arizona border.

Petrified Forest National Park

The Painted Desert is the northern part of Petrified Forest National Park - there's no petrified wood there, though.

From Flagstaff we drove down Oak Creek Canyon and saw some beautiful red rock formations.

After our tire blowout, a couple of guys stopped to help us change it - they were very nice.

This is Cooper - the little beagle puppy at the tire store. He *loved* Lauri, and cried when she gave him back to his owner.

Back home in San Diego after 8 days - now with the Sorcerer Mickey antenna ball!