Spring Break in New Orleans

For Spring Break this year, we decided to drive on down to New Orleans.  We wanted to go somewhere we'd never been and that was within reasonable driving distance.  We had a great time!  The weather was beautiful (except for that one time in the swamp), the food was delicious, the city was beautiful and interesting, and the kids were well-behaved!  And if you want to go somewhere where you can eat lots of great food and get in enough exercise to offset it, let me suggest NOLA.  I thought I'd share a screenshot of my Fitbit email with my weekly stats while we were gone.

We walked a marathon plus!  I was really dreading stepping on the scale when I got home, but I didn't gain a pound, and now I see why!  We did have a car, and they do have public transportation, but we didn't want to pay for parking, the streetcars were mostly full, and the buses were never on time, so we walked a lot.  It's a good way to see the city anyway.

We rented a charming shotgun house on vrbo.com that was located in the Arts/Warehouse district.  It was nice having 2 bedrooms and a kitchen and the house had a lot of character.  And there was a cute coffee shop and cafe/juice bar just a couple of blocks away.  Here are some of the things we did.

• Audubon Zoo
• Audubon Aquarium
• Audubon Insectarium
• Cajun Encounters Swamp Tour
• Free Ferry ride across the Mississippi
• Shopping in the French Quarter, Magazine Street, and the French Market

We bought an Audubon package to save money which included the Zoo, Aquarium, Insectarium, and IMAX theater (which we didn't end up using).  A couple of tips on the Insectarium.  It's located in a federal building, so no knives, sharp objects, or other weapons are allowed.  Well, I had Caroline's Epi-pen and pepper spray in my purse.  At first, they weren't even going to let me bring in the Epi-pen, then they changed their minds.  They wouldn't hold the pepper spray and thankfully we had driven that day, so Mike walked the pepper spray a few blocks back to the car.  Then he got back and realized he had a multi-tool in his pocket.  Back to the car.  Then halfway back, he discovered he'd left his ticket in the car!  So he got a few extra steps in that day.  The other thing about the Insectarium.  DON'T skip the little multi-sensory theater.  We almost did because it didn't look that interesting.  I laughed so much!  It's a cartoon about bugs, but that's not all.  I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll just say some of us were jumping out of our seats.  As for the swamp tour, I'd recommend doing that in warmer weather.  The alligators were hibernating (we saw one), and it got a little (ok a lot) chilly zipping down the river getting from one area of the swamp to another.  

Now, to the food.  Oh the food, the heavenly food.  I ate so much seafood, I was starting to worry I might have a reaction!  I was also feeling a little like Forrest Gump....Shrimp Creole, Shrimp and Grits, Shrimp Salad, Stuffed Shrimp, etc., etc. And lets just say I may have eaten one too many pralines.  Here are restaurants/cafes I recommend.

• Desire Oyster bar for Desire Oysters and Shrimp and Grits
• Central Grocery Store for the Muffaletta
• Crabby Jack's for Shrimp Creole
• The Rum House for the Rum House Salad (I've got to figure out how to recreate it)
• The Corner Muse for breakfast, coffee, snoballs and snacks
• Surrey Cafe and Juice Bar for breakfast and fresh squeezed juice
• Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets

Here are some highlights of the trip in pictures.

Feelings of Fall

Fall leaves photo by Mike

Fall is in the air! My favorite time of year. I took a long walk at the park this morning and I could feel it.  I could've stayed all day just walking and thinking and listening.  When I walk I listen to music and I think.  I had my music playing on shuffle and a Ricky Skaggs song came on.  Bluegrass is one of my favorite types of music.  And it just seems to fit the fall season too.  There's something about the instruments and harmonies that I love about it.  After that song, I changed my phone to shuffle through just my bluegrass collection.  So today I was joined on my walk by Ricky, Rhonda Vincent, Allison Kraus, and IIIrd Tyme Out.  If you've never listened to Bluegrass, try it.  We've seen Rhonda in concert several times and she's great.  I wish I would've learned to play the mandolin or banjo, or even the tall bass!

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage photo by Mike

The bluegrass made me think about Silver Dollar City, Dollywood, and the Smoky Mountains.  The Smokies are one of my top 5 vacation destinations.  And I've been 5 or 6 times.  Can't get enough of the place.  2nd recommendation of the day....Go there!  And skip the strip, go to the mountains and hike and see the waterfalls.  You won't be disappointed.  One thing I have not done that I want to do is go there in the Fall.  All of those beautiful leaves....on 2nd thought maybe I shouldn't....I may never go home.

Mountain Path in the Smokies photo by Mike

And from the Smokies, my thought process took me to this book.

Can you guess why?  Actually my Mom named me after this book.  The description on the back says, "Christy Huddleston left home at 19 to teach school in the Smoky Mountains.  There she came to know and love the wild mountain people with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, their yearning for beauty and truth.  Christy found her faith severely challenged in these primitive surroundings; and confronted with two young men of unique strengths and needs, she found her own growing yearnings challenged by love."  Great book.  So my last recommendation of the day...Read it!  I think it's time I read it again.  And it was fun to find this on the inside.  I'd forgotten...

Get out and enjoy this Fall season!  Then go home and curl up with a good book.  Happy Fall ya'll!