BIG EASY- Birthday Trip

Under normal circumstances I make plans for my trips, but this time I opted to just go with it.  Unfortunately we did not get an early start and left after work and dropping kiddos off with grandparents.  I left my car @ my best buddies house and we hit the dusty trail in the Cooper.  Just outside of Tuscaloosa it came a mini monsoon so the trail wasn't so dusty from there on.  We stopped in Meridian to grab a bite of supper, the summer lightning was putting on quite a show.  It started raining again just a few minutes after we got rolling, at least we got in the car without getting wet.

The rain didn't last too long thankfully.  Seeing as we had gotten a late start we stopped for the night in Hattiesburg and got a room at the Sleep Inn.  The room was very nice and not too expensive, however the walls were not as thick as they needed to be and you could definitely hear the neighbors next door.   Anyway, we did get some sleep. 

We head out after our complimentary waffle at the hotel.  It looks like it's gonna be a pretty nice day, some clouds out but not too bad.  It is hot, but that is normal for the South in the summer.  Pat is in control of the GPS and has been doing pretty good with it.  Rolling down I-10 we cross into Louisiana and I am trying to look and drive cause I really enjoy going to new places and this is my first trip into this part of the world.  All of a sudden I start hollering (not loud) cause there in the right hand lane crossing the interstate is a gator!  It had a really goofy look to it's face and Pat almost didn't see it cause he was poking at the GPS!!  Talk about a great highlight to the trip!

We get out to Oak Alley Plantation around 10:30 am.  We go in the gift shop first and buy a Dr. Pepper then walk around the grounds.  It is gorgeous and just to think that it has been there and all the people that have walked there.  We enjoyed our visit.  We headed out around 1pm.  I wanted to drive on down River Road, we stopped by a small antique shopping area in Sorrento and had a club sandwich at the Coffee House.  I had hoped to make it to the seafood festival before 5pm but with an accident on the Causeway and the GPS telling me to drive in a circle we just missed getting there before 5pm.  Oh well, we saw some really nice classic cars and listened to some tunes.  It was nice even though it was still hot.  Yep, went to a seafood festival and didn't eat anything.  I know. . .

We didn't stay long, cause we had to find a room and I didn't want to drive out of there after dark.  We ended up at the Sleep Inn in Slidell.  It was an alright room.  Not as nice as the one in Hattiesburg and it was $20 more, go figure.  We went and got a bite to eat and headed back to the room.  At least we didn't have as active and noisy neighbors this time.

Got a better nights sleep, which is good.  Got up and showered and had hoped to have another waffle but some people are so inconsiderate and disrespectful it is ridiculous.  Needless to say if you wanted a waffle you would almost had to fight for one and they had 2 waffle makers!  Argh, we got rolling and headed for the BIG EASY.  The GPS was determined to annoy me again today with circling around an area.  Finally we get on Toulouse and scout for a parking space.  We parked up by the Armstrong park area and walk to Jackson square.  We hadn't planned on a carriage ride but decided to go on one anyway.  It was very informational and the guide James was great.  We went to St. Louis cemetery 1 and saw Marie Laveau's tomb and where Nicolas Cage paid almost a quarter of a million to put in a tomb for his bones some day.  We also learned the purpose of the spiked rings on the poles--interesting.  After the carriage ride we walked over to see the port and headed over to Bourbon street to get a bite of lunch.  We went to Ember's steakhouse and split the Cajun sampler.  I mean we were in Louisiana, it was a necessity to eat some of the food right?  It was really good, however  I thought it would be somewhat spicier.  We sat on the balcony and people watched, which was entertaining in itself.

We got the kiddos a souvenir at Voodoo Blues and figured we should probably get headed out.  We both wanted to stay longer but unfortunately reality is a b*#ch.  If I had gotten to take a vacation day for my birthday we would have driven into Texas and spent Sunday night, but I had to work on my birthday!

The trip was great though and I was glad we decided to head down to the bayou. 

Cost: Around $400 maybe a little over