Fontainebleau State Park, Mandeville, LA August 16-???!!

We knew that we would have a long drive and hit the road in Hernando, MS early.  We were definitely breaking our 4-2-4 rule (no more than 4 hours or 200 miles of driving and be off the road by 4pm).  We were headed south to Louisiana to spend some time near New Orleans.  My birthday is coming up and I figured New Orleans would be a cool place to celebrate!

I knew that we wouldn't want to be too close to the French Quarter so decided on Fontainebleau State Park.  It's about 30 miles from New Orleans and sits right on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain.  We pulled in around 3pm and got a list of sites that were available.  The lady in the office was confident that we would like site 23.  We registered and headed to the site.  Ut-oh....big problem....there was no way that we could put our slides out!  The trees were too close to the parking pad.  One of the work -campers, Milton, came up on his John Deere gator to see if we needed any help.  He ended up driving us around the two loops so we could see which site we wanted.  We ended up at site 21 and got set up.  We took off on our pedal bikes to explore.

My favorite animal since childhood!

Deer are everywhere!

Fawns are so cute!

Great Horned Owl 

I heard the owl before I saw him.  I circled around until I spotted him and then listened to him hoot to another owl for quite awhile.  It was so neat!  We also heard (and then saw!) some wild boars but I did not get any pictures of them.

The park is absolutely beautiful....

Big trees with the moss and resurrection ferms

The skyline of New Orleans is visible from the beach area

Wonderful pier and shaded fishing/viewing area

Lovely Cypress trees

Gorgeous sunset!

We saw this vehicle during our bike ride and I just had to get a picture.  It made me chuckle!

  
We went to the Visitor's Center this afternoon and enjoyed looking at all of items and displays in it.  Stephen, one of the Park Rangers, was very friendly and helpful and told us quite a bit about the history of the State Park and the surrounding area.  He offered to let me borrow a few of his personal books about Hurricane Katrina as I had a few questions about the extent of the damage within the park.  He also gave us quite a few tips on visiting New Orleans.     Fontainebleau State Park is very high on my list of campgrounds with the "it" factor.  

There's so much to do here that I hope a week is enough!  There's a wonderful, paved Rails-to-Trails trail (Tammany Trace) that we want to pedal.  In addition to a Farmer's Market, there's also a brewery right off the trail that gives tours with "all the beer you can drink in an hour".  This is on my to-do list!  :-)   And, my sister Barbara is coming for a few days to celebrate my birthday with us.    It's going to be a fun, fun week!

Life is good!