New Orleans

We left Gulf Shores early Thursday morning and headed to New Orleans for a day and night. Along the way, we stopped at the USS Alabama to tour the ships, aircraft, and submarine. It was really neat! Nathan loved it! I thought it was great until we went inside the USS Alabama. It's huge so it was like a maze seeing all of the different rooms and compartments inside. I was fine with it at first, but once we started going deeper into the ship, it got a little hot and I panicked thinking I have no idea which way is out. And then more people started coming in and I lost it! I think I almost knocked over a group of field trip kids trying to get out. While Wayne, Nathan, and Charlotte, finished touring the inside levels, I enjoyed the fresh air outside! I was nervous about going to the submarine, but it was better because it was nice and cool inside and there weren't a bunch of different levels. I knew where the exit was at all times!

After that, we drove to New Orleans. We got there a little after lunch time and hit the ground running! Wayne has been several times so he was our tour guide. We both had our FITBITS on and walked a crazy amount of steps! Nathan and Charlotte were so good, they kept up and had fun seeing all the different sights. We walked all over the French Quarter and went to lots of little shops. The first thing Nathan got was a New Orleans Saints hat and necklace that he wore the whole trip! We ate beignets at Cafe DuMonde, we rode the trolley to the Garden District and walked around looking at all of the pretty houses. And we even walked down Bourbon street. At first we were going to skip the party street but then we thought we're here, we might as well see what its like. And it was still light outside so we figured there couldn't be too many crazies out there yet. Well, if that's how it is during the day, I'm not sure I want to see it at night! As soon as we started walking down, Nathan and Charlotte's eyes were so wide! There were lots of tourists and regular people walking around having fun, but also lots of homeless people. This was something the kids had never really seen and they did think it was interesting. All over New Orleans, you see the street performers but they were out full force on Bourbon Street. Wayne gave Nathan a dollar to give to someone or a group of performers that he liked. We walked by a group of kids playing the drums on plastic buckets. It really was cool how good they were so Nathan gave them his dollar. Then Wayne was getting something out of his pocket and all of a sudden, this woman walks by topless! Her boobs were painted red and she had a sign on her back that said "Pictures, $1" I just about fainted and so did Nathan!!!! We were staring so much that we forgot to get Wayne's attention so he missed it! I think that was a good representation of Bourbon Street! 

We then headed to the River Market where they had tons of booths set up with food and souvenirs. Charlotte had been wanting a mask so she shopped and shopped until she found the perfect one! She also got a fleur de lis necklace and some beads. By the time it was night time, we were starving! We went to a traditional cajun restaurant in the French Quarter and it was amazing! I ordered gumbo and loved it. But guess who ate most of it???? Nathan! Plus Charlotte lost her 2nd tooth at the restaurant! That was the icing on the cake for her! We went back to our hotel around 9:00 and slept so good! The next day, we had one more adventure. We went on a swamp tour on our way out of town.

It was amazing how many alligators we saw! This was really neat for all of us, but especially Nathan and Charlotte. We even got to hold a baby alligator! Whenever anyone spotted an alligator, the tour guide threw out big marshmallows. Who would have thought that gators like marshmallows! That was the perfect end to our trip!