Mid-way through our week, we took a whole day to make a road trip. We left Alabama, drove through Mississippi, into Louisiana, across Lake Ponchartrain (wow - biggest lake I've ever seen in person!), and into New Orleans. It "gained" myself and the kids, two new states: Mississippi and Louisiana. Jack had been to Louisiana previously for work. It's about 2.5 hours of drive time from Dauphin Island to New Orleans. Naturally, it took us 3.5 hours.
I'm going ahead and making a confession now. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and I learned how terribly the city was situated, I really thought New Orleans was done for, and probably for the best. But then they re-built. I felt it was something to experience, but probably not going to rank highly on my list of favorite cities.
I was right. It's fine. It has some culture and history. Some good food. The Mississippi. But I found it smelly, rude, and full of questionable characters. So that's my concise summary of New Orleans. That said, I am glad we went. I still think it's neat to see.
Upon finally finding our reserved parking in the vacinity of the French quarter (hello, street closures!), we walked a couple blocks to Jackson Square and Cafe Du Monde. We grabbed takeout beignets and an iced (thank God!) cafe au lait from the to-go window, and parked ourselves on a bench in Jackson Square.
You will notice the children are coordinated in homemade shirts. I try to dress them alike in crowds, so they'll be easier to identify in case one becomes separated from us. So you'll notice they're dressed alike in a lot of vacation pictures.
After breakfast in the park, we strolled through the St. Louis Cathedral, then meandered the streets of the French Quarter. We walked exactly one block of Bourbon Street, which was plenty. This was Carter's least favorite part of our day. Anyone who has smelled a bar strip in the morning would have identified Bourbon Street by smell alone, as an oppressive smell of vomit lingered in the air.
We walked along the river walk next, until it was time to board our steam boat river cruise. The cruise was awesome. We ate lunch onboard (local fare), and took in the city from the middle of the Mississippi River. The boat guide provided lots of information about the city's layout, industries and history.
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| Domino sugar refinery, scooping raw sugar from barges |
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| The corner of the infamous Lower Ninth Ward |
After our lunch cruise, we walked along the river some more, and I picked up a second iced cafe au lait, at the Riverwalk location of Cafe Du Monde. The kids ducked through a fountain, and cooled off with Sno-Balls.
We popped into some shops and then decided we weren't interested in sticking around for dinner in the city. Instead, we took in a few more views of iron balconies (the kids and their legs were SO tired) on our way back to the car.
This little street in the French Quarter struck me as so charming.
After leaving the city, the kids were asleep within five minutes. We drove about half-way back to Dauphin Island, and stopped at a highly rated hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant outside of Biloxi, for dinner. Jack had local crawfish. After dinner, we drove the scenic coastal road through Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula.
