New Orleans

     After a couple of days of 5+ hour drive days we arrived in New Orleans, one of our bucket list stops on this epic journey across America. Now that I am working the new job I have to miss out on some of the outings. I was a little disappointed in a way but after looking at the bigger picture, we get to keep going, I decided that a few missed sites isn't that big a deal.

On the first morning I drove the family in to the French Quarter so they could see the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast. As much as I wanted a Cafe and Beignet, I had to get back to the rig for a full days work.

On the first morning I drove the family in to the French Quarter so they could see the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast. As much as I wanted a Cafe and Beignet, I had to get back to the rig for a full days work.


Laura and the boys had a full day of tasting the food and seeing all that New Orleans has to offer. After work I joined them at the market and we tried our first plate of crayfish, Not impressed! We also tried some real Louisiana gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice and shrimp po'boys. While we ate this culinary feast we listened to Jazz and people watched for a while. This is truely one of my top ten stops so far and Aiden was able to get a real Mardi Gras mask for himself

Another one of my bucket list items was to see a real plantation and wouldn't you know it, there are four of them just outside of New Orleans. We chose to tour the Oak Alley plantation right on the Mississippi river just 45 minutes from our KOA. Some of the other plantation houses around were beautiful but Oak Alley was quite something.

Front Door

The large oak trees that line the path up to Oak Alley Plantation were planted somewhere around 1730, that's right, almost 300 years ago. That in itself is amazing but they don't know or have a record of who planted them or for what reason. Another fact that I didn't know is that this plantation produced only sugarcane which I thought was only found in Florida.

View From the River

This house was built by the Roman family around 1836 almost a 100 years after these trees were planted. Another fun fact about this planation was that the Roman family lost the property in 1866 and it had several owners after that but when Mr Hardin bought it in 1917 the house itself had been used as a barn for cattle. This land had a ton of history starting around the revolutionary war. We have seen and learned so much in just nine months.















 On our last couple of days Laura was able to use our reciprical museum membership at the children's museum in New Orleans where they had a blast. We did not get a chance to see the WWII museum but I think we will save that for our next visit. Now its off to San Antonio for some sun and BBQ.

Wait, Here is MY take on it!!! AKA Laura's perspective on our visit!!!!

I LOVE NEW ORLEANS!!!!  HOLY WOW!!! I had no idea!!!! Its everything, the architecture, the people, the scenery, the music, the feel and the smell. No Wait. It mostly smells like vomit and urine so not that part. But the rest is fabulous.  Each block of the French Quarter hides a little jewel i  it's center, a courtyard that is lined with tables and fountains and belongs to one of the hundreds of tiny restaurants or cafes that will make you the most mind-blowing culinary experience you have ever had until the next meal. The PEOPLE, OMG, they are fantastic, and they take the saying "big easy" seriously! Everyone has plenty of time to talk to you, share a laugh or a piece of advice, a recommendation FOR FOOD! An Indian shop keeper talked to Aiden for half an hour, giving him a hard time, then helping him pick the perfect Mardi Gras mask. The Religions, both Christian and the older Voodoo based ones, have seeped into the pores of the area, each step seems to kick up a spirit or a blessing. We even got to see a Dixieland band preparing for a funeral. We tried Gumbo and had a tutorial about how to eat it, with Tobasco. Went to the legendary Café Dumond, TWICE!  Some more yummy gator, can’t get enough! Tried crawdads and then decided they were better left to the homeless guy on the corner who loved them! Tried Jambalaya and become devout lovers of red beans and rice. At the grocery store, we got to add to our list of “foreign to us” foods with a sighting of not only pickled pigs feet but pig LIPS!

    We saw a paddleboat on the river, and studied all about the birthplace of Jazz and it’s legendary musicians. The boys even got a Junior Ranger badge for Jazz, it was given to them by a Park Ranger who played baseball for the Twins.

     The boys studied simple machines at a great Children’s museum that they adored and begged to go back to.  But my favorite was the historic plantation Oak Alley. *Sigh*  It was built by an older man to keep his young Creole bride away from the French Quarter and in the lap of luxury. But, as young people are want to do, she preferred the city, silly thing. We saw the slave quarters and were able to spend some time really looking at that piece of American history. The boys could feel the actual shackles, they saw the living conditions and we read the first hand accounts of daily life. It was an awe expiring, surreal experience. The TREES! They are 300 years old and just to be there, among them, is a spiritual experience all on it’s own!

There just are not enough words to explain the glorious place that is NEW ORLEANS! I’ll be back, again and again and again….