We arrived in our favorite city, left our camper in a friend's yard, and checked into a hotel downtown in the French Quarter. For our first New Orleans dinner, we went to an old favorite, just across the street from our hotel: Deanie's Seafood. Craig was dying for plain old boiled crawfish, and he finally got it. We also shared Deanie's enormous fried seafood platter. Everything was so good! Have you noticed my detailed descriptions of the food on this trip? That's half the reason for visiting Louisiana!
We spent the next morning walking around the French Quarter - exhausting but fun! We walked up to the Moonwalk, a boardwalk along the Mississippi River (in New Orleans, you have to walk UP onto the levees in order to actually see the river) and enjoyed the views of both the river and Jackson Square (that's St. Louis Cathedral in the background).
We took a little break at Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets - mmmm! Beignets are square-shaped sort of donuts - light and airy inside and covered with powdered sugar - messy but delicious.
Next, we headed to the Voodoo Museum, a tiny few rooms tucked into a quiet cobblestoned street in the French Quarter that explains what voodoo REALLY is - not the evil, voodoo doll pin-sticking thing we see in movies but a combination of Catholic beliefs and belief in (mostly benevolent) spirits. Here, Jamie and Craig are checking out an example of a voodoo offering to various spirits, requesting help.
We had a wonderful lunch at the Gumbo Shop - bowls of gumbo, jambalya, and crawfish etouffee. Yes, another great meal! As we wandered down Royal Street, headed back to our hotel, we found a wonderful street band, with a large crowd gathered. We enjoyed their music so much that we bought one of their homemade CDs to bring home with us.
Ken and the boys checked out the hotel pool while I napped, then we headed Uptown for dinner. We went to Joey K's, a little neighborhood restaurant on Magazine Street that we'd seen featured on
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The food was excellent, and it was nice to relax in a quiet spot not crowded with tourists - the other diners were mostly locals.
After dinner, we drove around a little, showing the boys some of our old favorite hang-outs (F&M's!) and just by chance, we came upon Hansen's Sno-Bliz, home of the original New Orleans' sno-balls. Sno-balls are a unique treat, created by pouring flavored syrups over very finely shaved ice. They do not resemble sno-cones even remotely! The ice is shaved so finely, it just melts on your tongue, and Hansen's - in their 71st year as you can see here! - makes all their flavorings home-made. In all the time we lived in New Orleans, Ken and I had never had a sno-ball, and I had just read all about Hansen's in a chapter of the wonderful New Orleans' food memoir,
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Way at the New Orleans Table. We enjoyed our delicious treats and headed back to the hotel.
We were all pretty worn out the next day, so we took it a little easier and sought out some quiet time. We drove to beautiful City Park, the third-largest urban park in the US, and played frisbee under the gorgeous live oaks, dripping with Spanish moss. We also walked through an amazing sculpture garden, located in the park alongside the New Orleans Museum of Art. we saw lots of interesting scupltures and enjoyed the quiet view of NOMA across the reflecting pond.
For lunch, Craig wanted more crawfish, so we headed up to the lake to an old favorite, R&O's. He got his boiled crawfish, Ken and I had po' boys, and Jamie took a break from all the rich food with pizza. Before we left, we ordered a muffeletta to go, wrapped for our cooler for lunch on the road the next day! We just had to make that Lousiana food last a little longer...
After another nap (Ken and the boys walked down to the Aquarium and found our brick!), we took a ride on the St. Charles street car, then drove out to our old neighborhood in Kenner and met up with our good friends, the Swongers, for dinner at Harbor Seafood, a tiny place close to where we used to live that features lots of seafood, simply prepared. We shared more boiled crawfish, along with shrimp, potatoes, and corn, and Jamie tried another jambalya (his favorite of the trip, but he says ours at home is still the best!). We enjoyed catching up with our old friends (they're the ones who kindly let us park our camper in their yard). It was a nice end to a wonderful New Orleans visit.
We left New Orleans Friday morning, after picking up our camper at the Swonger's house, and started on the long trip back home. We were all pretty tired by now!
After all that food in Louisiana, we were sick of overeating! During our trip back, we skipped our typical road food stops (though that southern-food restaurant in Birmingham did sound good...) and ate breakfast and dinner in the camper and even packed our own sandwiches for lunch one day.
We arrived at Claytor Lake State Park in Virginia in the early evening, set up our camper, and enjoyed a simple dinner and our last campfire of the trip. We all love sitting around the fire in the evening...and, of course, we ate s'mores, too!
