We left Montgomery with New Orleans in our sights for tonight. We've already been in Florida twice this year, but we had to enter it on this trip for it to "count" based on some totally arbitrary, self-imposed rules, so we did just that. We wound up adding a bit of a detour so that we could just drop into the very left corner of the Florida panhandle, and we spent a whopping 10 minutes in Florida before popping back into Alabama and then heading West through Mississippi and on to Louisiana. Fun note, every rest area we went into in Mississippi had a cute little tile mosaic of the word " Mississippi" in a stylized font. And the bathrooms were all clean, well-stocked, and pleasant (as far as bathrooms go). Good job, MS.
Our first stop was our hotel to unload the van (inside and out). We didn't have time to dawdle there, though, so we loaded back and headed towards the French Quarter. We found street parking and plugged the meter - one quarter bought 5 minutes of time. Oof. Luckily, we only needed a little over an hour before the street parking was free, so we didn't completely wipe out our quarter stockpile. The French Quarter is beautiful, and we walked around quite a bit here.
Our first stop was Cafe Beignet. We had to hustle our muscle for this one, because they were scheduled to close in a few minutes, so we walked past "Maskerade", past Jackson Square, and on to the little shop. Luckily, we made it! The whole crew hed beignets (prponounced "ben-yays") which are almost like donuts, but not really. They're fried dough that's less sweet than a donut, but they're covered in powdered sugar and you can get chocolate sauce or caramel sauce to drizzle over them. They were okay, but I don't think I need them again in my life.
With our time-sensitive destination under our belt, we had a much more leisurely walk ahead. We walked along the riverfront, past a few river cruise ships which were loading passengers for their dinner cruises. We stopped under the shade of a tree (did I mention it was hot here too? That seems to be a recurring theme) and listened to some of the live jazz playing from one of the ships. "C" danced happily and then we set off further. There was a small little fountain that the kids were enjoying when the maintenance worker went into a small building and turned it off. Cue sad trombone. We kept walking down towards the large aquarium where the kids admired some interesting abstract animal statue things.
We turned down Canal Street and walked along the road, taking in the sights. It felt a lot like Vegas, although the crosswalks all seemed to last about 12 seconds. It seemed like you could open carry alcohol, but we didn't try. We did walk past quite a few drug paraphernalia shops, and saw a man sitting on the street with his scale next to him, so that was fun. We walked up to Bourbon Street and turned right.
We walked down several blocks, taking in more of the sights. It was loud and busy, with quite a few people walking both directions on both sides of the street. We passed quite a few people busking on the street, most of whom were playing drums on buckets. After a bit, we turned right and walked down a block to Royal Street, and the vibe was completely different. The road was quiet and calm, with only a few people walking down the streets. We passed quite a few beautiful stores, homes, and other buildings.
It was starting to get dark, so we went into The Corner Oyster House, on the corner near Jackson Square. They advertised "kid friendly sports" and all-day breakfast. Well, apparently you have to ask for the breakfast menu which we didn't realize, but the sports were indeed kid friendly - it was essentially all golf. Whatever, we weren't there for TV. In fact, I hate it when there's a TV on where the kids are eating, because they can't seem to focus on anything else when it's on. I was still kinda full from the beignets, so "A" and I split The New Orleans Sampler, which included gumbo, jambalaya, rice and beans, shrimp creole, and bread pudding. The kids menu was super limited - chicken tenders, grilled cheese, or pasta with alfredo sauce - and kinda expensive ($11 to $16) but we bit the bullet and the kids all got chicken tenders. And these things were MASSIVE. A ton of fries and 6 chicken tenders each. Everyone left with a full belly.
We walked out and across the street where a horse and a mule were doing carriage rides, but we didn't take any rides. We wanted to walk through Jackson Square since we missed it earlier, but apparently they close it, because the gates were locked. Still made for a pretty cool photo, though.
We hiked back to the van and drove back to the hotel for the night. "A" has been a wealth of knowledge on the trip, particularly around sports complexes, so when we drove past the Superdome, he had to drop some knowledge on us. He kept telling us about how the Mercedes Benz Superdome (which is exactly what he called it every single time he said it) is located underground and the Saints play there. We were pretty immediately skeptical, especially since I had seen the dome on the way in, so we decided to fact check him. Not only is it the Caesar's Superdome (and commonly called simply " The Superdome"), but it is fully above ground. Surprised? Me neither - he has a penchant for making up facts. We love him to death though. The rest of the trip, every time we saw the building or it was mentioned on a sign, we mocked him a little bit. I made sure to maintain that I believed him that it was underground but that they haul the whole thing up above ground on game days.