We loved our time in New Orleans! We had three days here and we packed them full of fun activities. We really felt like we captured the experience, learned a lot and got a real feel for the city.
We stopped at Barataria before unloading the trailer. We learned about the swaps of Louisiana, saw some more alligators and hiked on the boardwalks. We found it similar to South Florida, yet unique at the same time.
Our campsite only had two trees, which initially seemed like a problem for the hammock set up. Until...the triple decker hammock system was created.
We promised the girls some fun culinary experiences in Louisiana. They were most excited about beignets. I wanted to go to Café Du Monde, but we decided to just grab some the first night from a local place close to the campground. The girls enjoyed them, but honestly, I didn't think they were that good. I have had much better.
Our first full day in New Orleans took us away from the city to the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodeau, about an hour away. We learned all about the Cajun Culture, took a boat ride down the Bayou with a park ranger and toured an old plantation house once lived in by a member of the US supreme court. Our park ranger was great and told us all kinds of stories. She was super passionate about biology, but shared some great historical stories too. I love rangers that do not hold back their passion for their interests. I love learning from others.
We were in a small boat and the guy driving hit a pillar while passing under a bridge. He hit it hard; we all got jostled from our seat, the ranger got knocked down, Sienna hit her knee pretty hard and Estelle fell off her seat. We were the only people on the tour and we didn't make a big deal...but he was not a great boat driver. We rammed into the pillar. I guess that's why we had to wear life jackets.
We really enjoyed the morning out in Thibodeau, but we couldn't stay all day. We ate lunch in the car as we headed back to New Orleans to learn about The Battle of New Orleans from the War of 1812. I feel like this is the forgotten war, but we really enjoyed learning about the battle and the legion of Jean Lafitte.
While we were driving to the Battle Field, we ended up passing the neighborhood that was hit by the tornado that touched down just a couple days before. It was wild to see the path of destruction the tornado left behind.
We got to do a history talk at the battlefield and the girls got to hold one of the old guns.
We had a little time after the battlefield, so we headed into downtown; I wanted the girls to see the above ground cemeteries. They thought that was pretty cool. We walked around the sculpture garden at the art museum...and since there was a Café Du Monde, we had to taste better beignets. We all agreed that these were far superior to the ones from the night before (weight loss on this trip is not going well).
We drove around some of the neighborhoods with cool houses and then headed back across the river towards our campground. We had seen an advertisement for the Cajun Crawfish Boil Championships being this weekend and Friday night was free admission, so we decided to stop and check it out; we figured we would get some crawfish for dinner. There was some good music and lots of people setting up for the championship cookoff the next day. It smelled great, but you know what we could not get? Crawfish! We wanted to purchase some for dinner so our kids could try it. Nope, no crawfish for sale at the Crawfish championships. Still fun to get our with the locals; we had a late night bowl of cereal back at the trailer.
The next day, we headed into the heart of New Orleans, the French Quarter. It was a practically perfect day. Beautiful weather, great experiences and learning. We started at the Park Service visitor's Center. This is for Jean Lafitte and the Jazz national parks. The girls earned their ranger badges, we attended a history talk stayed for the dumb circle. This turned out to be really fun. Not only did we learn about drumming and jazz and rhythm music, but we also got to participate. We all got into it and did some drumming. Both Estelle and Hector got to do some dancing too. It was really fun.
Next stop was Cajun food for lunch. We got Alligator and Shrimp Po'Boys, boudin balls and red beans and rice. We ate way too much, but everyone enjoyed the experience.
We walked over to Jackson Square and enjoyed all the street art as we made our way to the museum. We went to The Cabildo and the Presbytere. Both museums are in historic buildings in the square where we got to learn more about Louisiana State History. We especially liked the exhibits on Jean Lafitte and Pirates and the Mardi Gras exhibit. We were all wishing that we were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The kids especially wanted to attend a parade.
After the museums closed we walked up to the top of the French Quarter to attend the Jazz and Rhythm Festival in Armstrong Park. As we walked we marveled at the unique architecture of the quarter, passed bourbon street, and miraculously got to attend a little parade.
All the sudden we see a little band turn the corner followed by some old-time cars and then some carriages pulled by horses. No idea what the parade was for, but we just ended up being at the start in the best place. So much stuff got thrown to us. This was a small parade yet we ended up with 18 moon pies...18! And they were the big ones, also bags of cracker jacks and cookies, a couple stuffed animals, beads, a random bag of top ramen (Estelle thought that was awesome) and a bunch of flowers. It was over in five minutes, but the girls loved it. Now they really want to come to Mardi Gras Parades. They got a taste and want more.
The Jazz Festival was cool and it was a great way to cap off our day. We really felt that we emersed ourselves in New Orleans and the culture here. We enjoyed some music and people watching. The food at the festival looked amazing, but we were still all stuffed from lunch.
Estelle and Natalia put on performances for us while we listened to music in park. There was a really cool urban vide and we all enjoyed being a part of it.
We said goodbye to New Orleans as we walked back to the truck. We enjoyed our last walk through the French Quarter, randomly passed an even smaller parade. Estelle got some fun beads from this one. She loves them. It was a great day; we really felt like we did New Orleans right. I do love this city. There is something special here.
We got up in the morning and went to church before loading up the trailer and heading out. This was an experience in itself. My kids are used to attending church with lots of other kids; it is very social for them. This was a very small congregation. Estelle was the only kid in the entire primary and Sienna and Natalia were the only kids in their youth class. They were worried about staying since they did not see any kids, but they all ended up enjoying their classes even though they were the only ones. It turned out to be a great experience for them. Goodness comes in many shapes and sizes.
