Nawlins

People I don't know, but they seem fun, and were followed by a band 

New Orleans is one of those storied places that everyone talks about either being from, or taking some sort of crazy weekend vacation with friends to. I had never been, and it's one of the handful of drive-able places we can get to from Houston, so we decided to take our family there for Memorial Day Weekend. That's how you normally visit New Orleans, right?? Five months pregnant and with your 2 and 5 year old children? No?? Well, luckily we had some good friends join us for the G-rated version of this incredible city. 

This place just makes you want to walk around for hours with a camera. Wraparound porches, horse drawn carriages, color, greenery and every bonkers stranger you can imagine. Everything oozes history and it feels like anywhere you walk could be a movie set. 

Gretchen being precious

If you happen to be there on vacation with your young family, the aquarium is a nice place to start. It's right on the water, so it was a pleasant walk from our hotel. Though the view from the water is more cranes and shipping than beautiful scenic landscapes, we still enjoyed pointing out the boats and passing some time.  

Aquarium entrance photo. Go Blue Jays

Alex and Rhys enjoying the animals

It's the end of May, but it's still HOT. Muggy and sticky and we can enjoy walking around town as long as we duck into air conditioning periodically and promise our little people that there is a BIG treat at the end of this walk.

The bubbles are a bonus, there is so much to see walking around the street we had very few complaints.

And the payoff treat was beyond anything they could have dreamed!






Cafe Du Monde was a hit! Beignets are sacred to anyone from the region, however as far as I'm concerned fried dough covered in sugar is delicious no matter where you get it! We had a local tip that instead of waiting in the looooong line to place an order, you can dip into an air conditioned side-room and get waited on right away. So that's what we did, and it worked like a charm!

Plotting how many beignets they can eat...

My favorite part was walking around back and watching the bakers work. There is nothing but piles and piles of powdered sugar in every nook and cranny of this kitchen, and the quaint little windows made it feel like you were peeking into a neighbor's house.

Where the magic happens

Cafe Du Monde gets two thumbs up from everyone!!

 The streetcar was another kid-friendly tourist stop for us. We had the incredible good fortune of having the happiest employee-of-the-month streetcar driver taking us around. He cheered at people we passed, waved at the other drivers and any locals, and let each child have a turn ringing the bell (FUN!) and opening the door (EVEN MORE FUN!).

Ringing the bell!

If only everyone could be this nice!

Alex was obsessed with watching for streetcars the rest of the trip

We had a great time in New Orleans, and it was a perfect way to spend a 3-day weekend without dealing with an airport. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we had also managed to leave Houston just before 12 inches of rain fell in a 10 hour time period. Our neighborhood was dry, but the bridges leading out of our area were both underwater and impassable for at least 24 hours. Somehow, we made it out in time and back just after the waters had receded so our highways were nice and clear. It was known as the Memorial Day Flood of 2016. Which was a bit worse than the Memorial Day Flood of 2015, but not quite as bad as the Tax Day Flood of 2016. It floods here quite a bit, it was nice to miss out on one of them.

Perhaps the next time we visit New Orleans it will be more of an adult-party atmosphere, but this was a perfect little weekend for us and our friends.