Despite having landed at 11:00 p.m. and not able to get much sleep, my girls were up and ready to go pretty early. So we were up and out of the hotel by 10:00 a.m. Avery had to get her picture taken with the brass sculpture in the lobby of the hotel before we left though.
Moving our car closer to Bourbon Street, we decided to walk down Bourbon Street. At this point in the morning it was pretty quiet and clean. That is to say, the craziness on the street had not begun yet.
As we walk down through the street, we turned towards Jackson Square to look at some of the architecture. The girls wanted to stop in some shops along the way. Norah wanted beads and Avery wanted a New Orleans sweatshirt.
We made our way to Jackson Square and it was there we realized how busy it was going to be in the city on this day. The weather was perfect and we weren't the only ones who noticed that. It seem like the whole city of New Orleans was taking advantage of the nice weather to get out of their houses.
We'd originally planned I'm going to Cafe du Monde for beignets, but the line was about 500 people deep to get in there. We decided that it was best to do breakfast down in the French Market. The girls are excited as they were able to get crepes. I ended up getting a sausage made out of gator and some apple beignets to share with the girls.
After getting some food in our systems, we walked around the market and did some shopping. The girls had a lot of fun seeing all the different vendors and what they had to offer. Norah and I even got some matching Trouble 1 / Trouble 2 t-shirts to wear.
After being in the French Market, we went over to view the Mississippi River waterfront, and got the girls some ice cream to eat along the riverfront.
From there we were able to pick up a streetcar and head north on Canal Street to look at some cemeteries.
I wanted to bring the girls to the cemeteries in New Orleans as they have never seen people buried above the ground. So we took the Cemeteries Line of the Street Car to the St. Joseph Cemetery. I know there are more famous and better cemeteries around, but my girls were getting tired and I wanted them to get a quick glimpse of what they are like.
Once back on the streetcar, we went back to Bourbon Street and one of the stores that Avery wanted to visit to buy a sweatshirt.
For our second trip down Bourbon Street, it was a much different experience. This time the partiers were out in full force and the music was loud. Too loud for the girls in fact. So we made it quickly down Bourbon Street, went to the shop Avery to visit, picked up her sweatshirt and headed back to the car to drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama to our AirBnB.
I did not leave without visiting Spirits on Bourbon. This is a place that was featured on Bar Rescue (one of my favorite shows) and I wanted to get their signature cocktail, the Resurrection in a glowing skull mug.
Since it was so crowded in downtown New Orleans, we decided to do dinner on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, in a town called Slidell. I found a restaurant along the water that had very good ratings, but most importantly they had char-broiled oysters. This was The Blue Crab Northshore.
Restaurant was awesome. They had a band playing out on the back deck, $3 beers, and a sandy playground for the kids to play on while we waited for our table.
Dinner was outstanding. At the fried shrimp dinner with a half dozen char-broiled oysters. I even got Avery to eat one. Norah didn't want any.
While at dinner, there was a guy there that I had swore I recognized. Eventually I went up to talk to him and it was the same guy I drank with a few nights prior at the Whiskey Bar in Pass Christian Mississippi. Considering that bar was an hour away, it was pretty remarkable that I ran into this guy again.
After dinner, we got in the car to drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama, where we were staying for the rest of this week. This was about a 3-hr ride away from Slidell. Along the way, we stopped at in Buc-ee's gas station. The place is amazing. I couldn't believe that they had over 200 gas pumps in the parking lot and the inside of their convenience store was the size of a small Walmart. This place was absolutely amazing. I wanted to check it out more, but it was very late and the kids were exhausted.
We finally arrived at our Airbnb in Gulf Shores, Alabama around 11:00 p.m. Everyone was exhausted from a long day of walking around New Orleans and went right to bed.
Overall, it was a long and exhausting day, but also a lot of fun. It was so great to take my family to one of my favorite cities.
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