Road Trip--Day Six

We left the campground again under the attack of mosquitoes and headed full tilt towards New Orleans. After blasting Lake Charles, a place where I had considered stopping at for a swamp tour, I decided instead to concentrate my efforts making it to New Orleans.

On the way there I was able to contact a friend of ours who had an apartment near the French Quarter. Turns out, it would be empty and available for us to spend the night. Thank goodness for that, because I was not looking forward to camping another night in swamp territory.

We blew through Baton Rouge, forgoing lunch and any history lessons that might have been had, and were making record time when we were detoured of the direct highway to New Orleans to one that ran north of it and dropped down. Our last couple of road trips have been plagued by detours for some reason.

And then the rain started.




There is something a little disconcerting about driving into New Orleans with the rain coming down like this. I guess I've seen too much Katrina footage.

But by the time we reached our destination the rain had passed and it was quite nice.

We headed into the French Quarter, bracing for its raw tourism and tacky gift stores, keeping an eye out for some good eats, which would of course be bountiful.

We checked out K-Paul's and Arnaud's but we weren't quite up for that kind of experience. The touristy quick joints were looking so hit or miss, so we ended up somewhat in between at the Gumbo Shop.




It's a good thing we forgo breakfast and lunch because we gorged ourselves there with two kinds of gumbo, jumbalaya, red beans and rice, garlic mashed potatoes, creamed corn, finishing up with praline ice cream and bread pudding with a whisky sauce. MMM Yumm.

And then off to enjoy the ridiculousness and wonder that is the French Quarter.



I took Skye to see the Mississippi and then tried to get her to pose like the statue in the background. She was less than enthused.




After all the Absinthe I've tried and all I've read and researched on the topic, I get to it's US mecca, and can only pose outside for a quick photo, a downside to traveling with an eleven year old.



Tried to get Skye to jump up so I could get her and the sign above that reads "Road Trip" in the photo. I think that may have bought us an inch or two.

We continued to amble about the French Quarter,checking out Marie Laveau's House, Faulkner's House and a bunch of curio shops. Along the way I did secure a Hurricane for take-away as well as picking up a souvenier plastic funny shaped glass that held a horribly premixed concoction called a hand grenade. It made the Hurricane taste good and healthy by comparison. As it was night time Bourbon Street was starting to gear up, so being with my eleven year daughter, I avoided it as best we could.




We ended our evening tour at Cafe Du Monde for Hot Chocolate and beignets.