NOLA Family Style

When I found out my cousin Brooke was getting married in New Orleans, I definitely had my reservations about taking my whole family down there.  Where you hear NOLA, you think of beads, boobs, and Bourbon - but I'm here to tell you, there's a lot more to it than that.  We got up the morning after the wedding and headed to Cafe Du Monde to get beignets and cafe au lait.  The line was incredibly long, but it moved really quickly.  Plus we can always find a way to entertain ourselves.

Why yes, that is a balloon animal Michelangelo.  And yes, Alli did carry him around the rest of the day, until I realized on the streetcar that I had been holding him for two hours.  And he cost me $10 and almost more than that when one of his hands popped while I was holding him.  But I digress.  The beignets and cafe au lait were delicious.  I'm wishing I had ordered more.

Side note - people kept asking Alli where she got her beads, and she kept telling them "My grandmother."  We thoroughly enjoyed that.  After Cafe Du Monde, we went to Jackson Square.

There were so many great local artists on the outside of the square, and there's talent for days in that city.  After Jackson Square, we went to St. Louis Cathedral.  Absolutely stunning.

After the cathedral we walked up to the muddy Mississippi and then along it all the way to the Audobon Aquarium.

Alli was extremely excited to go to the aquarium, but there was one exhibit I knew I would be avoiding.

I mean, do people pay money to interact with free-flying birds?  Why?

We saw sharks, turtles, seahorses, and we got to touch stingrays.  Alli was pretty scared at first, but she loved it.

How much personality does this kid have?  She cracks me up all the time.

After the aquarium, we walked down Canal Street to catch the streetcar to the Garden District.  I had to see the old beautiful houses.  I wish I had a picture but I was too busy oogling.  Obsessed.

We rushed home to get Lindsey on her plane back to Fayetteville, and then we went to dinner at Oceana.  Ryan took a little heat walking Riley back home when he had to cross Bourbon Street - "Why do you have your baby on Bourbon?"  Poor guy.  It's 6:30PM and it was between him and the hotel.

We had illusions of grandeur about going out again that night but sometimes...you're just too tired.  After a day of touring NOLA, even Alli was ready to relax.

I am pretty sure we all looked like this later that night:

So I said all of this to say - there's more to NOLA than Bourbon and beer.  It was actually a pretty great place to take the girls and to expose Alli to a lot of neat culture that you can't get anywhere else.  We left the Crescent City with some things left to do - like seeing Marie Laveau's grave and really walking the Garden District and hitting the jazz bars - but it was a great trip for everyone.