DAY 65

It has long been a goal of Brenda’s to visit New Orleans – and today she finally got that chance.

Unfortunately, what Brenda had built up in her mind is a far cry from what the French Quarter really has to offer. I haven’t visited here since college, but it’s pretty much what I remembered. Of course, all of the “fun” stuff I remembered doesn’t translate well when you’re following a hustling wife and 3 kids down Bourbon Street on a Saturday evening. Brenda wanted a touch of Beale Street in Memphis (which I highly recommend) with French architecture and southern charm. What she got was – well, you all know what it’s like there. The place was far too crowded to see much or actually “do” anything there, so after giving the quarter a quick run-around, we retired for the night and made our plans to see more in the morning when it is a bit less chaotic.

Earlier in the day, I fulfilled one of my kid promises – we stopped by at a Cabela’s in Gonzalez, LA. This is basically the closest store of this chain to our home.  Isabella had been anxious to visit one of these stores and see all of the archery gear they offer – which is a lot. We probably spent near an hour there looking over all of the stuff, half of which we had to work to properly identify.

After Cabela’s, we visited Long Oak Plantation, near Vacherie, LA. This is one (of many) old Plantation houses built right along the Mississippi River in the 1780s-1830s. In this case, the owners had 1200 acres of sugar to raise. We got probably our best “tour guide” experience on the trip visiting this house – our guide really knew his stuff and managed to make it entertaining for adults and kids.

Dinner at the Blue Dog Diner in Lafayette. This is the original restaurant, serving Cajun food & etc. This restaurant is inspired by the artist George Rodrigue – a local man made good and now internationally known for his blue dog portraits.

Subsequent to the dinner, we visited Rodrigue’s formal gallery in the French Quarter. His art is interesting, but he’s a bit of a one-note Johnny with this gimmick. Still, it’s hard to argue with success. His original oils go in the tens and hundreds of thousands. His lithograph prints sell between $5-10k each.

Reconstructed slave quarters on the Long Oak plantation.

Isabella texting her friends instead of taking it all in.
These oaks were planted somewhere around 1710-1720.. they live to be about 600 years old, so are now only “middle age”.

Holden taking it all in during the plantation tour.

Cafe du Monde in NO – home of the beignets and chicory coffee. The line was way too long.. so we agreed to come back the next day when it would be (hopefully) less busy.

Brenda did manage to pick up more street art – a pencil and watercolor drawing of a jazz musician. Here she is having the artist sign his work.

Bourbon street – at this point we’re working our way back to the hotel. It was hot and muggy, and peoples’ feet were getting sore. The parties were just getting started and Brenda had NO intention of having us join the revelry.

Holden got to add a few new “inappropriate” words to his repertoire.  The scene was a bit reminiscent of our experience in the red light district in Amsterdam. Brenda thought that, at the very least, the whores and stoners there were “classier” than the typical French Quarter denizens.

I did not lift up my shirt and thus went home beadless.

DAY 66

This morning we walked down to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee. Although we got there at about 8:30am, the place was already packed. We got lucky to find an open table for 5 and “squatted” there for at least 10 minutes before someone was able to come by and bus the table clean from the previous guests. Our meal took far too long – the beignet making machine was down and so they were having to make and fry the treats by hand. By the time we finally got our food, we were hot, cramped and thoroughly tired of the process. We quickly scarfed down our treats and headed back to our hotel. (Having said that, the kids really loved the doughy sweets).

We then headed out of town to Slidell, LA. I had researched companies that offered swamp tours and we picked one that was well recommended. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our entire trip. We spent 2 hours in a boat traveling down a river, into various bayous and swamps to see the wildlife and the people that live there. We all got a chance to see a large number of alligators – up quite close.

After the boat trip, we ate lunch and headed back to the city. We finished the afternoon with a walking tour through the Garden District of New Orleans. Many of these houses were built from the 1830’s to the 1900’s – and now serve as a very ritzy housing community. Many of these houses sell for $1-3MM and look it.

One of my lunches here – I am in heaven.

Scarfing down fried dough covered in powdered sugar. You cannot go wrong with this recipe.

Trying to be artsy in the French Quarter.

Mornings are a much better time to walk through the quarter to see things.

Goading an alligator with a piece of hot dog.

Honey Island Swamp

These guys were right outside of our boat. The tour guide had to repeatedly warn us all to keep in the boat. The alligators are big and unpredictable.

This guy was arm length from where I was sitting.

Cypress trees – showing the high water level mark when the spring rains come.

Wall of one of the famous cemeteries of NO.

Typical house in the Garden District.

View of the above ground tombs in the Lafayette Cemetery.