Day 55

Day 55: 7/11/15 (Houston, TX to Metairie, LA)

372 miles

We woke up this morning at 4am to pack up and get on the road to New Orleans.  Jillian slept for the first half while Rico drove and then we switched.  We arrived at Rico’s aunt’s around 10am and took some time to settle in and take some showers.  Once we were ready, we headed into the city and our first stop was to visit an Earth Cam that is set up on Bourbon Street.  Rico’s parents wanted us to go down and wave so they could see us.  Afterwards we split with Rico’s Aunt Anne so she could do some errands before church.  We backtracked a bit to get some beignets at Café Beignet.  We wanted to do a taste test to see if they were better than Café Du Monde’s.  They were nice and crisp and fresh, and Rico liked them a little bit better, but Jillian was sticking with Café Du Monde. 

We hadn’t had much planned so we just walked around the city trying samples of pralines until we found one we liked and purchased a couple.  Southern Candymakers is one of the top shops and they have a few different flavors of pralines as well as other chocolates.  We got a creamy original and a coconut one.  From there, we walked down to the water and watched the Natchez Steamboat take off.  We had a couple of hours before Anne would be out of church so we walked to Café Maspero, which is famous for its $1 daiquiris.  We got a few daiquiris and also ordered sangria and something called swamp water.  We took our drinks with us and started walked towards the restaurant we were planning to eat dinner at.  The clouds were looking a little dark so we headed into the Riverwalk Mall just in case.  It didn’t end up raining, but it was nice to get out of the heat and sit somewhere that was air conditioned.  Anne met us at the mall and we walked over to Mother’s together.  She had never been to the restaurant, but she said there was always a line so it must be good.  It was set up in a way where you ordered first then found a table and a server would bring out your food.  It was a pretty short wait which was good because we were hungry!  We ended up splitting some gumbo, crawfish etouffe, and fried chicken with grits and potato salad.  We hadn’t really tried much of the local cuisine when we were in New Orleans a few years ago so we were dreaming of this moment for a while.  Everything was delicious and hit the spot.  Fried chicken was just what we needed and we didn’t even know it.  After dinner we just headed back to the car and went home.

Fact:

All cities should allow drinking on the street

Lesson:
If you want to fully experience New Orleans, you must try gumbo - you must!


Eat Well; Travel Often
Rico & Jillian