Running from Tropical Storm Lee

Our last days in America were overshadowed by Tropical Storm Lee. He was coming to the Gulf of Mexico, and that's where we were staying. It started raining so hard in Gulfport, Mississippi, but we had to drive to New Orleans to catch our flight back to the UK. So basically we drove through the preamble to the storm -- rains and wind -- and got to New Orleans. The next day we got up, turned on the TV and heard the announcer say, "He's here!" and we knew she meant Lee.

I did love all the violent weather -- first it's eerily calm, then rainy, then dries up then does something else you don't expect -- because it was so dramatic. In the UK it seems to rain all the time but in a measured predictable way -- sort of like a stereotypical English person -- but Southern weather is full of drama, like many of its inhabitants.

Anyway, I loved being in New Orleans again. My kids just grooved on the French Quarter. My son especially loved the woman in the window. First a normal shot of her then I zoomed in so you could appreciate her assets.

(As you can imagine, my teenaged son loved New Orleans instantly after this experience.)