About an hour into the trip, Jack had to use the restroom. Then by Tallahassee we were hungry for lunch so we decided to find a Zaxby's... and eat inside. An HOUR later we were back on the road. The food was good but Zaxby's during lunch hour on a Saturday is insanity.
Adam decided to use the Distance to Empty gage on the minivan to make it to the next gas station on the interstate. Which was 10 miles away according to the interstate exit signs and we supposed had 25 miles left til empty. Yeah.... those gages aren't ACCURATE. We coasted into the gas station with 1 mile left on the gage....
We stopped at a truck stop somewhere in Mississippi and I pulled Addie's diaper back to check if she was dirty and red lava poop came oozing out. It was disgusting. And it got all over her, her outfit, and her newly cleaned up carseat. It took Adam and I both holding her down while I changed her diaper, wiped her up, changed her outfit and we wiped down her carseat. Lesson learned: no pasta with red sauce the night before a road trip!
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| Lake Pontcharatrain at sunset |
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| Coming in to downtown NOLA |
We made it into New Orleans at around 7:30pm. Checked into our Priceline Name Your Price 3 star hotel in the French Quarter and were told we had a room with one king bed.... uh ok we'll deal. Oh and we're out of rollaways. Um ok... and we're out of extra bedding. Seriously? That's what we get for naming our own price I guess!
We made it up to our room... changed clothes and then headed back out for dinner. As luck would have it, my best friend from high school was also in New Orleans on her way to Florida and we were supposed to meet up somehow.
We made our way via foot on a Saturday night through the French Quarter to the Acme Oyster House. It was hot and humid and stanky and nasty and crowded with people. We passed elderly women dressed up in Playboy Bunny costumes and people making out (that's putting it nicely) in alcoves, and drunks passed out sleeping upright on the sidewalks. And my boys mouths were gaping open. Addie was in her stroller oblivious to it all, thankfully. It was about that time that I thought..... yeah... this isn't Disney World!!
We made it to the Acme Oyster House and stepped to the back of the line. It was about 20 people deep. Bless Addie's heart, as tired and hungry as she was, she was high fiving people in line and smiling at everyone. The boys were really good too!!
We finally make it into the restaurant, after about 20 mins standing in line, and were sat a group table (I'm sorry to the party of 5 we joined.... my kids were as good as they could be after being in the car for 10 hrs!)
Carol called (my high school BFF) and was outside the restaurant coming in to say hi really quickly!! A quick hug, a few pics and a food recommendation (they had just eaten there earlier in the evening) and she was off to have fun with her travel companions!
Addie chowed down hard... she ate nearly an entire adult entree of rice and beans (Adam ordered a side order but they brought us out a full order, which turned out to be a lifesaver!). I had the fried shrimp plate and shared my fries with Addie, Adam had a po boy and the boys split a burger. All good! Though as tired and hungry as we were, we probably would've eaten sawdust at this point. We all drank a ton of WATER because of how hot and humid it was.
We finished up dinner and headed back to the hotel... pushing a baby in a stroller at 9:30pm at night a block away from Bourbon Street was pretty funny. There was this group of drunk frat boys walking towards us on the very narrow sidewalk and we hear them yelling at each other "Dudes.... look out! There's a baby coming! Make room for the baby!!!" LOL It was pretty funny. Everyone was super friendly. We were definitely in the deep south!
We made it back to our room and crashed... we put the boys on a doubled over comforter on the floor and we slept with just a sheet.
None of us moved until 8:30am.
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| Addie crawled into between the boys to help wake them up. |
When we woke up, we had wanted to walk over to Cafe Du Monde but it was too far away.... and when I called and asked for a late check out, the latest they could do was noon. So we found (thanks to Yelp!) another beignet place that was much closer and we walked over to have breakfast. It was a great decision. They had more than just beignets so the kids were able to eat eggs and bacon too... and we all shared the beignets that were as big as Jack's head and incredibly good. We sat outside in a very traditional New Orleans style courtyard while someone played live music on the other side of the iron fence. Great memory!!
We had to speed walk to get back to the hotel in time, but we made it to the room with 10 mins to spare. Thankfully we had kept most of our stuff packed so it was a quick clean up! We walked out of our room at noon on the dot. We retrieved our car from the mandatory $26 a night valet (yikes!) and were on our way. We drove around the French Quarter some, taking in some of the sights our whirlwind 12 hr visit has missed and then got back on 1-10 and headed WEST!
About 8 hours later and a pit stop for Tex Mex in Houston later...
we were home!!! Aunt Missy was waiting for us with the dogs. :) It was a great vacation!! But we were so glad to be home!
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