Road Trippin' Day 4: New Orleans

And on this day, we finally passed out of the state of Texas, and into the state of Louisiana!  And thus we come upon my first regret of this road trip...I never ate any Texas brisket while in the state of Texas.  Sad life.

But we did wake up and get donuts that morning! Great idea, Dr. Dan!

I feel like nothing says "London" more than a princess crown and a pink frosted donut with sprinkles.  The only way this moment could have been more perfect were if she were wearing a tutu.  Not quite sure how I ended up with such a girly-girl, but there ya go.

After our donuts, we headed out for New Orleans!  Originally I had planned to stop at this super awesome plantation that has been turned into a museum, but between time constraints and London's antics at the Alamo I decided to nix it. 

Louisiana looked exactly how all of us expected...but to an extreme.  Case in point: we drove on a bridge that was AT LEAST 20 miles long.  And that is no exaggeration.  It went over a swamp, two lakes, a bayou, more swamp and then maybe another lake.  It was INCREDIBLE.  The bugs were so thick I could see them swarming around before they hit our windshield.  It was like a jungle on either side of us, and so, so wet.  Amazing! 

Mississippi River.  Not a great picture, but a monumental moment!

Still crossing the Mississip.

We also crossed the Mississippi River--Dan and Carrie's first time!  After having driven over it four different times in one night during my childhood while my Grampie was searching for a hotel...I'm kind of over it.  Ok, just kidding, it's still pretty impressive.  We decided to stop for lunch in Baton Rouge.  I feel like maybe this was a mistake, because when we got to New Orleans, we weren't really hungry anymore...and then it was so stinkin' hot, we never really got hungry again.  My second big regret of our road trip--I never got to eat my beignet in New Orleans.  It really is a sad life!

St. Louis Cathedral

Obviously you could spend a whole week in New Orleans and still not see everything, but we decided to hit up some highlights: Jackson Square in the French Quarter and the Garden District.  I had wanted to ride a streetcar (...named Desire! Ha, just kidding.  Hopefully some other literary/drama nerds got that reference...).  Anyways, I had wanted to ride a streetcar between the two, but the logistics of that with two wee ones was just madness and we just weren't willing to fight that battle after the parking lot battle.  But we strolled around Jackson Square, the surrounding area in the French Quarter, and the Mississippi.  Dan kept teasing me that this wasn't exactly a "family friendly" area...but then we saw like at least five other people with strollers, so apparently I'm not the only one crazy enough to take my kids to the French Quarter.  It was definitely cool to see, but since we don't drink we probably won't be back (unless it's to get my gosh darn beignet!) 

Carrie and I in front of St. Louis cathedral

Juliet loving a break from the car!

Dancing to some jazz musicians!

Beads with his teams!

The Garden District was my favorite.  I love, love, love old houses.  I think I am already in grieving after moving away from South Pasadena and all of the beautiful old homes there, so this was therapeutic for me really.  I will just let these pictures speak for themselves, because my feeble attempts at describing this neighborhood in words won't even begin to it justice.

Making a wish at a wishing pond. :)

They had the street names like this on every corner.

Sandra Bullock's home!

This was my favorite house!

Another angle.

The wishing pond.

I loved the sidewalks so much.

 At this point, the girls (and maybe Dan...) were starting to lose it, so we packed up and headed out to our stop for the night, Mobile, Alabama.  We decided to stop at little town on the outskirts of Mobile called Theodore.  Holy Crap.  Scariest place ever... 

After we drove around in circles trying to get to the Motel 6 because the GPS on our phone just could not figure out these country roads (and there were hardly any street signs...) we finally pulled up into the parking lot.  ..and there were two cop cars parked there.  Carrie said something to me like, "Well, that's reassuring!"  Then we drove around the lot trying to find the office to check-in.  While we were driving around, Carrie then pointed out two rather sketchy-looking gentleman sitting in a super beat up old car.  It was shady business.  But whatever, we just decided to shake it off.  Dan went and checked in, we parked our cars and were getting ready to unload them, when some drunk dude from the balcony started hollerin' at us.  At first we weren't sure if he was talking to us, but then he looked right at Dan and was like, "Yeah boy, I'm talkin' to you! You better get your @$$ back to California...*slurred words we couldn't understand*...I'm talkin' to you!  I've got a Louisville slugger comin' for you if you don't"  Or something along those lines.  He definitely sounded threatening.  At that point Carrie and I were WIGGING OUT.  Dan turned to me and said, "Should we leave? That's pretty weird."  So we went back to the office, looking over our shoulders the whole time, just in case that crazy man decided to reappear.  Fortunately they let us check out and go somewhere else for the night.

So...welcome to Alabama! ;) Just kidding, almost everyone else we met in that town was super nice and helpful.  I just don't think I will ever be returning to the town of Theodore, Alabama ever again.