Things we learned today:
- Always have a back up plan.
- Duval St. > Bourbon St.
- Will has a beignet problem.
- Gators in LA are significantly smaller than gators in FL.
This morning started as early as all the others. Okay, maybe it was a few minutes later as we have worn these kids out so much that they are sleeping in a few minutes more each day. If we stayed away from home long enough maybe we could make them sleep in until 7am. Honestly though, Steven and I had been up off and on since about 5am anyway. Our adjoining neighbor was either hard of hearing or just inconsiderate. He turned his TV on at max volume. We didn't call about it because neither kid noticed and we were both able to tune it out some and sleep off an on even with it on. It was more work to call. Oh well. As long as the kids weren't bothered. We think the only reason we could even hear it really was because we had an actual adjoining room with a door and that's where the sound seemed to be coming from. Whatever. We lived. We went down and had breakfast. Kenzie is on a chocolate chip waffle kick but can only eat about half so we shared that. Will is obsessed with yogurt. As long as both of them eat something. Checking out was easy enough. We managed to make it out of another hotel we were in less than 24 hours with all of our stuff in tow so I'm calling it a win.
We checked out and headed for NOLA. If you have been following along on our daily updates you already know that we were called last night at 10pm and told that the Creole Queen, the paddlewheel we planned to ride today, had mechanical issues and they wanted to move us to the 2pm sailing. We did that but decided to go down to NOLA and do some sightseeing before the cruise so we could leave town right after. We ended up parking at the Hilton on the Riverfront right where the cruise would leave from (and return too obviously) and we decided to walk over to the Creole Queen to see what was going on. When we talked to the woman at the ticket booth she told us that it was a generator issue and she was waiting to hear from the mechanic to know more about whether the 2pm sailing would even go. We left our number and walked into the Hilton to determine our next course of action. After a bathroom pit stop and some decision making we walked back to the ticket booth and found out that the mechanic thought it didn't look good for us to go on the 2pm sailing. We had the option to continue waiting or we could switch our tour over to the Jean Lafitte Swamp Tour which is run by the same company. We elected to go ahead and do that. In reality, that tour was one we had researched as well and considered when we were planning this trip so although it wasn't our final choice, we knew it had good reviews. Bonus that with a coupon we had it was $8 cheaper than the paddlewheel. We took a few pictures and then headed out for the French Quarter.
It was about a .8 mile walk to the French Quarter and our main destination, Cafe du Monde. The kids weren't happy with us but they tooled along. There was a lot of shade along our walk so they were able to stay a bit cooler. Today was HOT like yesterday but the humidity was higher. While not as high as our typical, combined with the heat, it was pretty bad. The only saving grace may be that the sun is not as brutal but we found it more uncomfortable than home for the first time. Along the way we ran into a nice local that walked with us for a while and told us about some fun places to go. I was honestly trying to make sure the kids were in sight and safe so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have but I did learn that there are apparently fun hot dog carts randomly that are supposed to be really good. Also, we should have tried a snowball yesterday as they are said to be really yummy. We didn't see a snowball or hot dog cart today though.
When we got to the French Quarter we went immediately to Cafe Du Monde. We initially stood in the line in front of the cafe but a nice lady overheard us talking about getting to go beignets and told us that she thought the line for that was along the back side of the cafe. Sure enough, it was and the line was soooo much shorter obviously. If we had more time we would have waited for a table and eaten there but we were in a time crunch as we knew we needed to leave for our swamp tour by 12:45 or so. We were able to pick up an order of beignets to go and some mix to make some at home when we are missing them later this year. Then we took the beignets over to Jackson square to sit down at enjoy them. Verdict: Kenzie was so so on them. Crazy kid. I claimed her when she laid in the middle of the floor at the museum to take a pic but this makes me wonder if maybe she isn't mine. Will on the other hand... was in heaven. You would think we gave him the best food ever made. Later in the day when he finished the half of one that Kenzie didn't eat he freaked out when we tried to throw the remaining powdered sugar away that was left in the bag and told us "I want to dump that in my mouth." Yep. He gets it. They were so good!
After finishing up our yummy treat we walked across the street to Washington Artillery Park to get another view of the cathedral and the Mississippi River. I remember these stairs from when I was little. They used to often have street performers on them but we didn't see any today. Just people randomly cleaning men's shoes without asking and trying to get tips after doing it. Steven had on sneakers so they didn't even walk up to us. The kids were getting hot at this point and time was ticking away so we decided to get a few pictures and then start walking toward Bourbon Street.
So I have to preface this next part by saying that Bourbon Street is nothing either of us have ever done. Last time I was in NOLA I was a kid and my mom said she wouldn't take us to it. Steven has never been to NOLA before now. But... we actually sort of love Duval Street in Key West and during the day it is much more family friendly. Sure, there are some people that have already had too much to drink before noon but for the most part, during the day it is fine. You can eat at restaurants along it. You can shop. You can walk along and not feel out of place. (I should also mention that at this point we have seen very minimal children in NOLA. We sort of expected that. Of those we have seen, the average age was probably well into the teens so young kids are few and far between.) So anyway, we made our way to Bourbon Street. I'm not sure what we were expecting... but it didn't fit the bill. It was dirty. It was loud (mainly because of construction but also music playing from bars the kids couldn't even go in to). It was the first time there was a weird odor in the air. It wasn't any fun. Initially I had found us a small place to eat poboys along the street for lunch but I took one look at Bourbon Street and changed my mind. Nope. I guess if I were a 20 something college kid, it would be fun. So... Duval Street definitely beats Bourbon in our minds. We had to see it though while in NOLA.
We came. We saw. We
Since we had to nix our poboy idea earlier, we decided to just run into the Riverwalk Outlets and eat at the food court. We were also really get close to needing to leave the area for our swamp tour as it was now only 45 minutes until we wanted to head out so we didn't have time to run around looking for another option. The outlets were pretty nice and I think if we had time we would have liked to explore some of them but we were pressed for time. While nice, they were set up in a magnificently strange way and we had to go up random levels to get to the food court but each level was independent almost of the others. So you would walk to a dead end, go up a level, walk in the same direction and come to a dead end then go up another level. And so on and so forth. We finally found the food court at the extreme opposite end of where we entered and decided on Raising Canes which is basically like a Zaxby's. It was good but typical fast food style chicken so not too much to write home about. All that mattered was that our bellies were full and we could move on to our next adventure. That adventure wasn't the swamp tour though. It was trying to find the freaking car. I should stop and mention that if you have never been to NOLA you may not know that the streets are not in a grid pattern. That is more typical of the areas we live in at home but in NOLA, the streets twist and turn. My mom thinks maybe the planners were drunk on Bourbon Street when they mapped it all out so that would make sense. Haha! So, we weren't sure where we were in relation to the parking garage when we left the outlets. We went out the door that said parking... but ended up in a lot instead of the garage. The garage was attached to the Hilton and we had come in the Hilton earlier but we thought maybe with all the twists and turns of the streets we were actually in another location until we exited the outlets. We could see the garage so I suggested we walk through the lot and try to get into it. Never listen to me when it comes to directions. Steven knows this but we were so frustrated and worried about making our tour that he went along with me. That was a mistake. We ended up having to back track back into the outlets eventually and walk all the way back through to the Hilton. Then once in the Hilton we got lost as the signage leaves a lot to be desired. After running (well, walking for us but Will offered up this gem, "I don't want to run!" Me: "We aren't running!" Will: "I'm running. You're walking but I'm running.") through the Hilton we FINALLY found our way back to the garage. We were 15 minutes later than we wanted so Steven threw on his South Florida driving gloves and we were off. Despite crazy NOLA roads and some traffic we somehow made it out to Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours right on time. We also got to drive over the cool bridge over the Mississippi that has been in a lot of our pictures over the last few days. Whew. When we got there we were told to go to Captain Jason's boat and it wasn't long before we were off.
Captain Jason was awesome. He has been driving tours on the bayou since 1998 (but he looked to be about 30 so I'm not sure how that math works out) and the man knew his gators. Since they tend to hang out in the same spots day after day, he knows where to look for them. They also tend to know the boats. Years ago they could feed them but that isn't allowed any longer. Despite that, some still come around looking for food. He literally whistled and called for them... and they came. It was quite interesting. We learned that there are half as many gators as people in LA. Florida has fewer gators overall. We also learned that it is extremely rare to have a gator attack in LA. We chalked that up to people in Florida doing dumb things like feeding gators or going too close to their nests. We also learned that gators are smaller in LA than we thought. The ones we saw were all around 5 feet. A couple bigger and a couple smaller but really close to that size. Captain Jason said that is pretty average for a gator in LA. The average size of gator caught in LA during trapping season this year was about 7.5 feet. Captain Jason was a pro alligator spotter too. The guy could see them a mile away. Other boats were radio-ing him to ask if he had seen any as they had only seen maybe 2 and we were up over 10 or so. I'm glad we got him as a guide. At the end of the trip before making the return trip home he pulled out an adorable little guy that we were able to take turns holding. Kenzie held him, of course, with no fear. He was much smaller than we are used to when we have held other gators so she was surprised that he wasn't heavy. He was tiny though comparatively. Steven held him and Will pet him while Steven had him. He loves to pet them (he said they like back rubs) but he doesn't yet ask to hold them. I had to hold the little guy of course. Super cute. The tour was definitely good. We would have liked to have gone on the Creole Queen as we have been on swamp tours before but never ridden on a paddlewheel and most definitely not on the Mississippi River, but it is what it is. We had a backup option that worked out so we won't complain. The kids enjoyed it so that is what we care about really. We would certainly recommend this tour to anyone visiting the bayou.
When the tour was over we let the kids each get a pencil with a cute gator topper in the souvenir shop before heading out. Our plan was to drive to Moss Point, MS as it would put us 2 hours closer to our next destination. We initially considered staying in NOLA overnight and leaving in the morning but it made more sense to leave when we did. So, we jumped on I-10 and said one final goodbye to NOLA. Well, three of us did. Since there is no tired like traveling tired (especially seeing as how we are now up to 3 hotels over 4 nights and over 1,000 miles driving), Will fell asleep almost immediately. He slept the entire 2 hours to Moss Point actually. We had to wake him as we got close as he doesn't usually wake up happy and we knew we wanted to eat dinner immediately if possible so he needed to be in a better mood. We did take one more trip over Lake Pontchartrain but this time we hit it at a much more narrow point so it wasn't nearly as exciting as yesterday. We also got stuck in some major traffic as everyone on our side had to stare at a pretty serious accident on the other side of the road. We realized the traffic wasn't coming towards us as we waited so we knew it was probably on the other side but we slowed substantially and lost about 25 minutes going through the area. A budget moving van had rolled over and caught fire it looked like. There were also at least two other cars involved so we just pray that everyone walked away from that one. It didn't look good. With all the driving we have been doing it reiterated to us how well everything has gone up to this point.
We did finally make it to our hotel area and there was a Ruby Tuesday's in the parking lot. Steven and I both wanted the salad bar so we went there. Both kids had pizza which they each ate part of. They have been eating a lot on this trip so we got them each their own but we should have made them share. Oh well. As long as they eat. Out hotel tonight is much older than our prior ones. The lobby has been redone but the rooms are still old. It is clean though and we feel safe in it so we are good to go. We expected that from this hotel honestly. We were sort of surprised to see the lobby redone but it looks like they will be doing this hotel soon enough more than likely. I forgot to get a picture of the room before we got all set up so my only pictures is of the sofa bed already out and everything. Both kids are asleep. Kenzie was out pretty quickly once we turned the TV off. Will took longer thanks to his mega nap but he is now out too.
Tomorrow morning we will make our way to Santa Rosa Beach, FL to visit Grayton Beach State Park (which is the beach that started this entire trip basically... but more on that tomorrow) before ending up in Panama City Beach for the night. It will be our final night of the trip. We have plans to get a bit more dressed up for dinner and I hope we make that happen. It depends on timing and how tired everyone is but we are hoping it works out. This has been a whirlwind trip, especially today but we are loving it. On to tomorrow!
Day 5 - Done!
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