Do I sound southern? Chris and I spent a good chunk of the week down south in New Orelans for spring break. It was so much fun, and I’ll get to all the pictures and details in a minute.
This week the girls were well loved and cared for by lots of family- and huge props to G-ma and Pa who had four nights of sleepovers with two crazy girls! And G-ma also had to do a lot of driving around in the snow for early school pickups during the snowstorm on Tuesday. Thanks for everything G-ma and Pa!!
Also, Maya had fun with Boom and Lucy on Monday, before G-ma picked her up and brought her home to play with Luna.
Chris and I got home about 1:20am this morning, and were up at 7:00am so he could go to work and I could go get the girls and take them to school. Today was special at Maya’s preschool because I stayed the whole morning for Maya’s (way early) birthday celebration.
It was adorable.
And I had to take some video too!
Ok. Now settle in for a NEW ORLEANS MEGA POST.
Chris planned this trip on his own and surprised me with it a couple months ago or so (admittedly, I was getting pretty crabby and needing to get out of town). Spring break finally arrived and we left home on Monday afternoon. The weather was getting pretty gross here, but we landed in Louisiana at sunset and it was beautiful.
After checking in to our Airbnb (a duplex in the middle of a New Orleans neighborhood), we headed to Frenchmen Street for a late dinner at Adolfo’s. It is a hole in the wall, tiny, cash-only Italian place that was recommended to Chris by a friend. It was delicious! After that we walked around and took in some street music (see the video later).
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| We had to wait in the bar for almost an hour, so Chris got a beer and I told the bartender to surprise me, so he made me a delicious cucumber concoction. There was live music in the bar, and at one point they played "Moon River" but the singer clearly did not know the words and was trying to read them off of her iPhone and it was amusing. |
On Tuesday morning we headed to Café du Monde at about 8:30 to wait in line for the famous beignets and café au lait. Yum.
Then we walked around the French Quarter- Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, and along the Mississippi.
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| Right after we took the picture on the top left, we got calls and texts from Callie's school saying that there was going to be an early release because of the snow storm, so we called G-ma and her day got a little more hectic. Thanks G-ma! |
After lunch we had a GATOR TOUR through Ultimate Swamp Adventures! We saw a few bigger gators, and then our guide spotted a baby gator and grabbed it right out of the water so we could all hold it. It was so sunny and beautiful and it felt so lovely speeding through the bayou on the air boat (see the video later).
We spent some more time in the car after seeing gators and drove across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway- the longest bridge across continuous water. It is nearly 23 miles one way across the lake, and we drove across and back. We did not realize at the start of the drive that it was so far, but after we were about half the distance across I googled it. Oops. It took longer than anticipated but we were on vacation time so it didn't really matter!
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| I did a lot of googling about the area as we drove around. I learned that the water Hurricane Katrina brought to the area combined with Lake Pontchartrain was a huge factor in how devastating the storm was, and part of the causeway was damaged. |
After a brief time back at our Airbnb, we headed to dinner at a delicious restaurant nearby called Boucherie. It was recommended by our Airbnb hostess and I had the best salad of my life there. The drinks and the rest of the food were amazing too.
While at dinner we were trying to figure out what to do next. We decided to make the trek to the infamous Bourbon Street for an after dinner drink. We went to Pat O’Brien’s and sat in the bar. It’s crazy in NOLA, but was fun to people watch- just for a couple hours. We're definitely on the fuddy duddy end of the scale of Crazy People on Bourbon Street.
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| Pat O'Brien's is where I was introduced to the infamous NOLA drink "The Hurricane." It was sweet and had a slight cough syrup vibe. I enjoyed it, but one was definitely enough. |
After lunch we drove around again for awhile, and ended up finding some pretty relevant signs and things to get pictures of around the city.
We went to Audubon Park and saw the Tree of Life. It was planted in 1740 and was majestic and beautiful (see video clip later).
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| If you look closely at the bottom left and bottom right, you can see us and understand the scale of the size of that tree! |
Then we found a cute little ice cream shop in a cute college neighborhood (NOLA has Tulane, Xavier, and Loyola all pretty close by to each other near downtown) and then headed to City Park for Mardi Gras themed mini golf!
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| I may have sent the bottom left picture to family members saying I found snow in New Orleans. Sorry to have rubbed it in a little guys. |
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| They were hilarious. Thanks to Auntie Cat for regulating Maya while she kept trying to put her face right in front of the phone. |
Our entertainment that evening was taking in an NBA Pelican’s game at the Smoothie King arena...which happens to be right next to the Mercedes Benz Superdome.
Then we went back to the French Quarter for a late dinner at a tiki bar that my friend recommended: Beachbum Barry’s Latitude 29.
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| The food in NOLA is really delicious. So are the drinks. |
Phew! That concluded our final full day. Now that I’m actually writing this all out, I’m amazed at all we packed in to those first two days!
On our last day, we kept pretty busy too. We went back to Polly’s Bywater Cafe for breakfast after driving past it previously (and then checking out the menu online, which sold us on actually going there). Then we rode the trolley car down St. Charles Avenue, which is famous for huge southern mansions. It didn’t disappoint!
Our next stop was back to Audubon Park to go to the zoo. It was packed with people, but we still had fun looking around.
After more driving around, our last stop was a local BBQ place, Cooter Brown's, and then walking around another neighborhood with beautiful houses.
Here are a few short video clips!
And that about sums it up! As you can see, we took a lot of selfies. Chris was begrudgingly accommodating to me, and I’m thankful that after a groan each time, he complied with all my picture requests (some smilier than others).
So thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. I feel so spoiled and truly grateful!
And now am glad to be back home with these crazies.
Have a great weekend!
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| Maya was a bit on the struggle us, and Luna was Luna-tic playing with her toys. The usual. |
Have a great weekend!
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