89/365 Final morning in New Orleans

I had a couple hours of free time to myself on Friday morning in New Orleans, so after a breakfast of beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde, I walked from the hotel to the nearby Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.

I've always enjoyed visiting aquariums, and apparently I've started a personal trend of visiting one as a final stop before flying home from a trip. Last year on the final day of our visit to Colorado, Mom and I spent time at the Denver Downtown Aquarium before heading to the airport.

The aquarium in New Orleans is a little bigger than the one in Denver, but my enjoyment of this tour was unfortunately dampened by the hundreds of kids running rampant on a communal field trip day.

Holy cow, my patience runs a little thin when it comes to unchecked, pushy kids.

Nevertheless, my favorite creature featured was the pair of otters, who were lazily enjoying bath time. I spent the largest amount of time sitting in front of the Gulf of Mexico exhibit (below), because of both the wide variety of species contained in the large tank and the wide variety of onlookers outside the tank.

By this time I was ready to hop on my flight and head home! New Orleans was an interesting city, full of character, but nothing makes you appreciate home quite like traveling.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/4.5 at ISO 400 and 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1600