New Orleans Day 2

Thursday we drove around the Garden area to see all the old houses in that area and walked around the Lafeyette Cemetary. This was the cemetary for the German settlers and others dating from 1830. All the tombs were the above ground style  due to the marshy ground. The most interesing ones were the large tombs for the Hook and Ladder Firemen of which there were a number and one for the Home for Destitute Boys.
We then went out to the town of Laffitte, named for the pirate who supported the locals and helped win the War of Independance. This was where we hopped on an airboat for a tour around the marshes. This just has a huge fan up behind the "captain" to drive the boat over the top of the water. Our captain is a Creole man who changed to tour guide when the GFC hit business over here in 2008.. He has lived on the marshes all his life and really knew his stuff. He is amazed in the boom in tourism over recent years but for 6 months of the year this feeds his family. Apparently in winter he returns to fishing the waters instead of scooting around on top. Within the first 10 minutes he spotted an alligator and took us over to have a look. He emphasised that they are not aggressive and stories about them snatching pet dogs etc from Florida are related to Florida's  high density population and much warmer year round climate. They are indeed curious and came right up to the side of the boat with a second one soon swimming over to see if we had any food as well. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative tour about marsh ecology and I am glad we went even though it was Mike's pick and not something that I would have thought of doing.
That night we went to one of the popular Oyster restaurants as part of the scene. The food was good but it was in the tourist area and we felt as if we were being pumped through. Afterwards we walked up to a bar and listened to a fantastic group play modern music. We had to stand which shortened our stay there a little but not by much because they were so easy to listen to and entertaining to watch.
Yesterday we turned for home to start the two day drive to bring us back to Allen, Okla. We stopped in a little community on the banks of the Cane River Lake named because it used to be a branch of the Red River but is now a lake due to flooding changes  which built up the natural levies and cut off the water flow. We visited the Melrose Plantation which was founded by the son of a freed female slave. His mother had been a slave and the common law wife of a wealthy Frenchman who settled property nearby on her when he freed her and they parted after 20 years. They had 7 sons and a daughter all of whom were born slaves and were freed as they reached their majority. The house was most recently and finally occupied by the daughter when other family members moved away. She was a fascinating character who had a great personality. Because she was lonely she cultivated a retreat for writers and artists including many famous ones. We had a very enjoyable time with a talented story teller as our guide. The other interesting personality living there was a slave woman who worked on the plantation and then moved into the house as a maid. She picked up the discarded paints of the departing guests to try her hand and ulitimately became recognised as one of America's foremost primative artists. So long breakfast calls.