New Orleans

After the reunion, we decided to drive to New Orleans to spend the day. It was on our way home and we had no idea when we would ever be back with our entire family. Big thanks to my sister-in-law Meghan who had all the information we needed to have a great, quick trip. It was extremely hot and humid and our kids did not last long in the steamy heat but we hit the highlights of the city. We did the French Quarter first.

Saint Louis Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in N. America. It was founded in 1720:
The park in Jackson square: There were a ton of artists and vendors painting and drawing right outside this park.

Of course, if you go to New Orleans you HAVE to get the food. We got beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde:

And an awesome Muffuletta at Central Grocery (no pic of the actual sandwich but Al and I LOVED it):

We walked along the Mississippi River and saw the river boats:

By this point our kids were very hot and tired. We planned to catch a trolley car and ride up through the garden district but knew it would be a disaster for the kiddos. So, we jumped back in the car (after buying popsicles from a street vendor - this saved the day, for sure) and drove ourselves through the incredibly gorgeous garden district. We were in awe at the beautiful, southern homes.

The most fascinating parts of NO was seeing the hurricane Katrina damage throughout the city. It was amazing that 6 years after the hurricane there was still plenty of damage to see to the area. As we drove through many of the residential areas there were beautifully restored homes with trashed, water damaged homes in the same neighborhood. It was really stunning and very sad.

Both Allen and I read the book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers earlier this year. It is a true story of a man who stayed behind in NO during the hurricane. We both loved the book and Allen was dead set on finding Zeitoun's house and driving by. It was kind of stalkerish but the address had been published in the book so we decided to do it. It was super interesting to see the neighborhood after reading all about it in the book.

Our other favorite part of NO was seeing the above ground graveyards. Some of them were really old and the graves were packed in there. It reminded me a lot of the graveyards we saw last year in Puerto Rico.

We only spent a few hours in the city but we loved seeing an area of the country with such a unique and rich cultural history. The French Quarter wasn't our favorite (it was dirty and kind of trashy) but we loved seeing the rest of the city. Driving out of the city was also interesting seeing the enormous Lake Pontchartrain and driving on a freeway built for miles over swamplands. Overall we totally loved our time in the south!