Wasn’t Mardi Gras last week?

Somehow when we woke up on Wednesday morning we were already halfway through our road trip. Wow! Time really does fly when you’re having fun! After a slow morning, we packed up our things and headed back into the neighborhood for fancy coffee. One of us (not me..heh) needs coffee to function. Sneaky Beans didn’t disappoint. On the way back to the car we ran into a guy we had passed while walking to dinner the evening before. He mentioned that he hadn’t seen us before and welcomed us to the neighborhood (did I mention that this was one of my favorite stops?!)

Fortunately, we had another short drive on our side. New Orleans was a mere two and a half hours away! We hopped in the car and kept our eyes peeled for another picnic stop. Our first opportunity arrived at the Louisiana Welcome Center. The bathrooms were a little creepy and I managed to scare a few years off my life and the life of this adorable older woman who had no idea I was in there. We hauled the cooler back out and enjoyed a quick lunch before finishing the drive to New Orleans.

We were able to find an Airbnb for really cheap, but it was a couple miles outside of town. Fortunately, for a few dollars we were able to take the local bus straight to the French Quarter. We jumped off at a random stop and headed in search of dessert. It’s cool. Remember we ate lunch on the road? Our goal was to try both Café Beignet and Café du Monde in one day, but we were going to need a big break in between.

Café Beignet

Café Beignet was up first. We ordered one helping (You get three per order!) of beignets and a chickory coffee. We were just about to cash out when Dave panic ordered a mimosa (be prepared..it was pricey). The beignets were delicious: a little crispy on the outside while still being soft and pillow-y on the inside. And don’t forget all the powdered sugar! Since I’m not really a coffee drinker, the chickory was okay. It didn’t seem all that different than regular coffee, but it might have actually been more bitter (Is that even possible?). The mimosa was…a mimosa. Heh. Dave enjoyed it–that’s all that really matters 😉

St. Louis Cemetery

Strangely enough, we spend a decent amount of time during our travels walking through cemeteries. I breezed over it briefly in the first post of this trip, but it’s a good way to get a little exercise, learn about the history of an area, and the cemeteries are usually beautiful (in a kind of odd and sad way). New Orleans is different from a lot of places because the water table is so high. If they were to bury their dead underground, the caskets would float. Because of this, they use above ground tombs.

St. Louis Cemetery #1 is the most popular. We encountered this one first. Due to vandalism, it has been closed. Tours are offered for a fee. St. Louis Cemetery #2, however, is open for self-guided tours daily from 0900-1500 (click here for information about some of the tombs inside). Unfortunately, we were there too late to tour, but snapped some pictures through the gates. We met a pair of middle-aged women who were college roommates like 20 years ago: they keep in touch and still road trip together–how cool is that? They were very entertaining as one appeared nervous about everything and the other kept telling her everything was fine (we joked that they kind of reminded us of ourselves–me the spontaneous one and Dave the worrier). They walked with us to #2. Cemetery #3 is huge, but it is quite a bit further away from the French Quarter. There are other cemeteries within the city, but the St. Louis ones seem to be the most wellknown.

Bourbon Street

Leaving the café, we were conveniently already on Bourbon Street, but because went to the cemetery first, we had to make our way back. Even though it was only 3:45-4 ish in the afternoon, the area was already teeming with people. One of my favorite things about New Orleans are the beautifully colored buildings with ornately styled balcony railings. To make things even more festive, the railings were still decorated for Mardi Gras. Bourbon Street is one of the most famous streets in New Orleans. The street runs for thirteen blocks and is packed with bars and strip clubs, with a few restaurants in between. It turns out it is packed with tourists at all times.

Scavenger Hunt

We made our way down Bourbon Street stopping to grab a Hand Grenade at Tropical Isle (NOLA is well-known for two drinks: the hurricane and the hand grenade) before starting a scavenger hunt (since there is no law against open containers you can drink while you walk!).

While researching for this trip I ran into a website called scavengerhunt.com where you can download an app which gives you different photo challenges and activities to help explore a city. They have 200+ different cities that you can choose from and it cost about $10.00 per person. The hunt required us to take silly pictures, videos of us dancing in public, and answer trivia questions about the city along the way. We started at Jackson Square, making our way through the streets, down towards the waterfront and aquarium before making our way back towards Bourbon Street. Upon arrival, we suddenly realized that we were super hungry. We chose Remoulade, a restaurant which served classic Creole dishes, and sat down to enjoy our food. The family seated next to us was from Texas and the oldest son was REALLY excited to talk to Dave about philosophy. It was adorable.

After dinner, we finished the scavenger hunt. It directed us back towards Jackson Square, finally putting us in front of…you guessed it! Café du Monde.

Café du Monde

Café du Monde is the more well-known of the two beignet shops in New Orleans. You can either sit or line up at the take out window outside. Either way…there’s probably going to be a line. The shop is open 24 hours a day and serves up a smaller menu than Café Beignet. Again, we split another order (still three!) of beignets. After tasting both, Dave and I were split on which were the best. I preferred Café Beignet, because they were crispier on the outside, while Dave enjoyed the fluffiness of the Café du Monde ones. Despite this, they were both delicious!

We strolled through some touristy souvenir shops to burn off some calories while waiting for the bus and headed back to the house to sleep before the next leg of our trip.