made it to the east!

We are officially on the east coast!! Hitting Georgia and adding an hour to our clocks made it official.

We have seen many things so far, I can't believe it has only been a week and a half with about 5 weeks to go. Southern Louisiana was incredible with the old plantation houses, the lush greenery, the lakes and rivers, and NEW ORLEANS! We enjoyed Bourbon street, but didn't loove it (pretty touristy). I personally hate loud crowds of drunk people and loud music, but we loved our dinner at Cooper Place where we had real southern cooking: Jambalaya Supreme and Chicken Tchoupitoulas. We also enjoyed a Cafe au Lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde during the day. We loved Frenchmen St. where we listened to live jazz music at different bars culminating in a big street production of 3 guys playing big band jazz music. There were at least 100 people surrounding them dancing in the street, including us.

We walked around the Lower 9th Ward in the rain and took pictures of the neighborhoods. Katrina hit five years ago and it still leaves its mark. Abandoned, boarded up houses with no roofs adorn the streets with "x" marks on the front doors marking how many people were evacuated. Silly of us to believe a gas station with a bathroom would be near by. We both had to pee badly and after driving from gas station to gas station we asked two guys where we could go and they said, "Yeah we have that same problem e'ryday. There's sumthin' gone wrong with plumbing on dis' street." ... So we went behind an abandoned house in the bushes...

The Lower 9th Ward was mind blowing, and probably the most important thing we've seen so far (socially). We got to walk around the new homes being built by "Make it Right Foundation."

We also went to Atlanta, GA which reminded us a lot of Los Angeles, but with some country. It was a fun city where we played pool at a live blues bar. We enjoyed our stay in ATL with my brother, Malik and his fiance Haru, in their quaint neighborhood surrounded by forest and the Chattahoochie river.

We are now in Savannah, GA and loving it. We camped out in at Skidaway Island State Park underneath live oaks with Spanish moss. It was 'the real deal campin'. Today we rented bikes and rode around the town all day. Savannah is an old town with old architecture. We took a lot of pictures and sat at the town squares that occupy every block. We look forward to finishing our stay in Savannah tonight by going to underground bars (like old speak easy's!) and visiting Tybee Beach and the Tybee Lighthouse tomorrow before we head out to the Carolinas!