New Orleans is my absolute favourite place so far, we have fluked being here at Mardi Gras time and the streets are filled with people enjoying themselves which creates a great atmosphere. There are so many tourist activities and different things to see and do around New Orleans. We are staying in a great location which is central to everything and makes it easy to get to different things. The weather on our first day was freezing and raining and we hired a car to drive out to the swamps for our swamp tour which was very interesting especially because our tour guide talked about the effect hurricane Katrina had on the locals. Due to the cold weather all the aligators were hiding so we weren't able to spot any but we did get to hold a live 1yr old aligator. That night we went to a basketball game to see the New Orleans Hornets play the Portland Trail Blazers, unfortunately the Hornets lost but with the seats we had we almost felt like a Kardashian, our tickets also came with a free drink, hotdog and pack of chips. That brings me to the food in New Orleans, this is definately not the place to be if you are on a diet as we are in the south and everything is deep fried and oily, there are some great local meals though like gumbo, jumbalaya, muffaletta and pulled pork sandwiches and they are into their spices and flavourings. Blake and Nat had some issues with their room at the hotel because they only had smoking rooms available so the manager gave us all free tickets to a river cruise on the Creole Queen boat that goes up the Mississippi river viewing the French Quarter, the Port of New Orleans and to the site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans and the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. When we got home we got dressed up in our Mardi Gras gear and headed to Canal Street to see a parade but after 2hrs in the cold we ditched it to have dinner and managed to catch it as we were walking home but were too cold to get into it. The next day we took a horse and cart tour through the French Quarter (think it was a mule not a horse), and saw the houses of many famous people as well as the different architecture from the spanish and french influences. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house in the French Quarter didnt have any numbers on the street, door or garage becuase people keep stealing them as momentos. Luck is definately on our side because as we were walking home we managed to be at the start of a massive parade where there were marching bands and dancing groups and heaps of floats throwing out stuffed toys, mini footballs and millions of beads, very fun and a great experience. We have also had a chance to do some great shopping here, in Australia the size 10-12's are always the first sizes of clothes to go so the best thing about the US is that you can guarantee the XL sizes will be the first to go and there is always my size left. We had take-away asian food for lunch one day and we got given a fortune cookie with it, the fortune cookie said 'you will be travelling and come into lots of money' so we have chosen to believe our fortune and hope it comes true. New Orleans has been amazing and is definately a place we would want to come back to one day.