Day 2
On Saturday morning, we were up at 7AM and loaded up in the car at 8AM to head to Swamp Tour with Cajun Encounters. My dear Lilly friend, Nikki, and her 12 year old son, Clarke, met us there for the tour. The Swamp Tour was on The Pearl River and was a very well run operation and was quite busy for this Spring Break Saturday! There was about 20 of us on the boat and our guide had grown up swimming in this river and swamp. We saw snakes warming themselves in trees, learned about all the plants of the marsh, saw 6-8 wild hogs swimming in the swamp, tons of cute raccoons (our favorite one was named Cinnamon), all which were actually pretty darn cute. We of course saw 6-8 alligators sunning on the shores or swimming in the water. They said, March is just the beginning of when you see the gator activity as they are just now coming out of hibernation. It’s really the Summer where there are hundreds of them everywhere. We learned so much about the life cycle in the swamp starting in the Spring, how the bugs come, then the lizards, then fish come, then the baby alligators, turtles, birds and ultimately the bigger 12-16 foot alligators come out more and more after being very dormant all winter. It was such a cool experience to see this type of ecosystem in the United States, something so different than anything you would find in Texas.
That afternoon, after returning from the Swamp, we had one thing on our minds - Beignets! We were a family on a quest and not even a 45 minute long to-go line could stop us... except a few blisters from brand new shoes walking all morning in a new city! To get there, the kids had their very first experience on Bourbon Street. I couldn’t have planned the exact moment of turning off Canal onto Bourbon Street, if I had tried. Let’s just say that our 30 minute walk down Bourbon street provide so many great opportunities of parenting talks with the kids.
Jackson Square was on our favorite places and time spend in the Big Easy. I remember it exactly from when we used to go all the time. It even started lightly raining while we were inside the square exploring and the rain didn't bother us, we didn't want to leave!
As I made it through the line and Carter and I ordered our beignets, we went to find the rest of the family and there was a huge street performance in Jackson Square with hundreds of people stopped watching these street performers that have been doing this show in the same locations for 30 years. I look down to see Addison smack in the middle of the circle. It was no surprise that she had been chosen to help in the show with the grand finale of being jumped over by on the performers. Our 36 hours in New Orleans couldn’t have been better experienced but with this! The warm powder sugar covered Cafe Du Monde Beignets were delicious as I remember from my first trips here when I was 12 years old. It started raining lightly, but we were having such a fun afternoon, we just played inside Jackson Square and walked around looking at the artists and street performers.
We met the Boerckel’s at Dennie’s Seafood off Bourbon Street. We had a 90 minute wait, even getting there at 5:45 but nothing we couldn’t handle with a few wall squat contests and yummy calamari and crab nacho appetizers! Carter had his first plate of fired oysters and the girls tore up their fried shrimp plates. It was fun to finally be re-united with the Boerckel’s and to start of our week long stories of catching up with the happenings of our families over the last year! We continued the party, late night style, at the JW Marriott and had the entire 2nd floor of the concierge suite to ourselves with the most amazing set of games, pool and lounge area. Andy spoiled the kis with room service deserts and us adult just talked the night away until it was late and we decided it was time to walk back to our hotel and call it a night after an incredible day!
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