Two interesting and productive days in New Orleans followed our arrival with talks from both the Centre for Veterinary Medicines (part of the Food & Drugs Administration - FDA) and the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO for short) who control animal feed in the US. The NASC is making great progress and, over the years, has developed a good working relationship with both the FDA and AAFCO helping companies, such as Hilton Herbs, to navigate the troubled waters of marketing feed supplements in the USA.  Another piece of good news was that we can now market probiotics in the US so our product Digest Plus, a probiotic with added Slippery Elm, Marshmallow root, and Fenugreek, can now be freely marketed for both horses and dogs.

April the 30th was our wedding anniversary and my birthday (I thought Tony would only ever be able to remember one date a year!) and we celebrated in style at a great restaurant called Nolas, in the French Quarter, and enjoyed excellent food, service and atmosphere.  It turned out that this restaurant, along with another restaurant called Emerils that we went to the next night, are both owned by a famous chef Emeril Lagasse, who is apparently a famous TV chef in the US. Both restaurants were excellent and not overly expensive.

Cafe du Monde

On the 1st May we decided to spend our last day and only day off, exploring New Orleans. We just had to visit the famous Café du Monde down in the French Market which was incredibly busy. After coffee and two portions of beignets drenched in sugar we thought that a sightseeing tour of the French Quarter would fit the bill. They have great carriages pulled by a mule that will give you a guided tour for $15 each. We took ages to choose which carriage we wanted but finally settled on one pulled by Dixie the Mule. Dixie is 24 years old and was one of the animals evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

the first Catholic cathedral in the US

Her driver was an absolute mine of information and answered all our questions. We started the tour at the main square in French Quarter and the site of the first Catholic Cathedral in the US. As luck would have it there was a wedding taking place and we timed it just right and saw the bride and groom leave the church and walk down the street accompanied by a jazz band and the congregation.

Hilary and Dixie

As we left New Orleans the next day you could still see the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and we had been told by our guide that the only reason the French Quarter survived this disaster was because it sits just 8ft higher than the surrounding land which was flooded. A clever move by the French man Jean Baptiste La Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who in 1718 established New Orleans, although at the time he wouldn't have been aware of how low lying the area was and would never have experienced a hurricane in his life!!

Hilary & Tony up for a ride!

We left New Orleans in a storm with the threat of tornados, which has been about par for the course during this trip, to start out drive back to Pennsylvania - 1,000 mile in three days.

Hilary