Spring Break 2012 [New Orleans]

On the way back from Florida, we drove the long bridge across Lake Ponchatrain, then stopped and stayed the night in New Orleans to see a few sights and break up the drive a bit.

This picture basically sums up how Aaron feels about New Orleans.

It's crowded. And loud. And full of crazy people. And driving there is a mess. And the kids kept commenting that it smelled bad.

But, aside from all the craziness (if you can get past that), I thought it was pretty cool. It's such a unique city. It seems like in recent years, all cities kinda look the same. Same restaurants, same stores, same houses. New Orleans is not at all like that. It is (to say the least) very interesting.

Thursday night, we went down and caught the St. Charles Trolley which took us through the heart of New Orleans all the way to the French Quarter. We saw some absolutely stunning homes and really neat areas. We walked briefly through the French Quarter, but after a while thought it better to go back.

Among our "to do's" is NOLA was to try beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Well, the line was so long that not even a pot of gold would be worth waiting in line for (especially with kids), so we went to another cafe I'd seen the night before on our trolley ride through the city -- Cafe Beignet. I loved the ambiance and the beignets were delicious!

All in all, it was interesting, but I don't know that we'd ever go back. (Though I'd love to go spend a day taking pictures.) We did, however, decide that we'd like to go camping nearby. It's beautiful near Lake Ponchatrain. I really like Louisiana -- it's forests, swamps, and rivers. Very pretty and I always love driving through!