Out and about in the French Quarter

We'd heard lots of good things about the Aquarium of the America's, so we couldn't wait to take the kids to check it out. I even dressed them accordingly....Xander in a shark shirt and Jordis in her frog dress. When we walked in I loved how the fountain looked like fish scales.

Here's some of our favorite pictures of the creatures inside.







These are some favorite pictures of US at the aquarium.







The kids were really excited that we let them pick a souvenir at the gift shop. Xander picked his right away. Jordis wanted everything she saw, but finally settled on these mommy and baby penguins that she named Winnie and Squeak.


After the aquarium we all went to lunch and then did some shopping. We let the kids each pick out some beads. Xander got a police car and Jordis picked mermaids.

Then we went on a carriage ride. The kids had no interest in being there or having their picture taken.

Xander perked up though when our guide, Nick, let Xander *drive* the mule, Rock.


On our way back to the street car we came across this girl singing out in front of St. Louis Cathedral. She was filming a segment for the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. A crowd had gathered and we stayed to listen for awhile.


This is what she was singing. She recorded it in her kitchen and plays all of the *instruments* herself.

Dinner was at VooDoo BBQ.

Then we decided to walk back to our hotel instead of getting on the street car again. It was a nice night, but 1.4 miles with 4 kids in strollers is kind of a long hike. After the band at the hotel next door quit playing (Cinco de Mayo) we slept really well. It was a long, hot day.

On to New Orleans

Back east we traveled on Monday to go to New Orleans for three days. Of course I can't remember now where we were when I took this picture, but I've always been fascinated with trees sticking out of the water there. Jason's brother and his family also went with us. We couldn't get side-by-side rooms, but we were at least in the same hotel. We stayed right on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District, and we were able to get a room in the front so the kids could watch the streetcar. But the window was so high they had to stand on the coffee table to do it. We could also see the Superdome from our room. I had never been to this part of New Orleans, so I was excited to see this section of the city. After checking in and getting situated, we met Jeremy and Sarah in the lobby with the kids and headed across the street to wait for the streetcar. If you ride it all the way to the end it drops you off at the edge of the French Quarter, at Canal and Bourbon streets. We wanted to eat dinner at our favorite French Quarter restaurant, so it worked out perfectly. There was a private party upstairs so we couldn't have balcony seating, but the food tasted just as good in the main dining room. After dinner we meandered down Bourbon Street and went in a few gift shops. We then made our way over to Cafe du Monde to have beignets for dessert. The kids loved fried dough with powdered sugar goodness and were excited that we bought them hats. My favorite part of Cafe du Monde is people-watching and listening to the artists that sit at the edge of the cafe and play various types of music. This particular evening Tanya and Dorise were there playing electric violin and guitar. They also had a cellist. Unfortunately it looks like I was taking a video of my sister-in-law photographing her kids (sorry, Sarah!) but I was really trying to capture the music and the mood of the evening.

On the way out Jason gave Xander some money to tip the musicians, and I also bought one of their CD's.

Cafe du Monde is across the street from Jackson Square and Sarah took this gorgeous picture of it when we left at sunset.

I couldn't think of any better way to end our day.

Cajun cookin'

One of my favorite things about Louisiana is the food. A lot of it is things that you just can't find anywhere else. Or you can find them other places, but they don't taste as good as you know them to be down south.

There were a few things I didn't get pictures of, especially the appetizers Jason's uncle made. Taken apart I don't like any of the ingredients on their own (except for the bacon), but together it was an amazing treat.

And I didn't take any pictures of our breakfast fare from Rob's Donuts. We all know what donuts look like so I didn't think it was necessary, but they are truly the best donuts I've ever had.

Here are some favorites from our trip:

Cajun Potato Kitchen serves huge baked potatoes loaded with a variety of toppings. I can't even remember what mine was, I think it was steak and gravy, and Jason's was stuffed with crawfish etouffee. They're so good.

Dinner at the Half Shell was interesting. It's a local hole-in-the wall type place and all the customers seemed to know other customers. The kids also made a gentleman friend at the table next to us. This is just a crabcake sandwich, which you can get pretty much anywhere, but it's one of the best I've ever had.

We took the kids to lunch at Frostop because it served kid-friendly food. We like it for the amazing root beer served in frosty mugs.

Sarah and I had never had boudin, so a public initiation at the family cookout was set-up. This kind was synthetic so didn't have the gross casings, otherwise I don't know if I'd have tried it or not. But we thought it was tasty.

My second ever crawfish boil. This picture's a little blurry but I like it anyway. Everyone makes boiled crawfish differently with different sauces as well. I usually get pretty good at peeling it by the time I'm full. I just can't look at their beady little eyes, it creeps me out. Jason and his cousin's husband actually caught all of this crawfish for our dinner.

LaBayou is one of my favorite restaurants in the French Quarter, and it just so happens that when you ride the street car it drops you off right at the edge of Bourbon Street where the restaurant is. Jason and his brother ate here twice in three days.

Crawfish cakes with a crawfish remoulade.

Crawfish pasta had sauteed crawfish in the pasta and fried crawfish on top. The sauce was a Cajun alfredo and there was paremsan cheese on top. My sister-in-law and I shared both of these for dinner and ate every last bite.

You can't go to New Orleans without stopping at Cafe du Monde. We took the kids here for dessert. I must admit that the beignets were not the best I've ever had. They were decent, but I think they didn't hit the powdered sugar soon enough after coming out of the fryer. I was really surprised though at how much I enjoyed the frozen coffee. I really love their coffee and chicory au lait, but it was so hot that night I opted for the frozen and I'm so glad I did.

Watch Man v. Food on the Travel Channel? We saw the New Orleans episode and decided we had to eat at Mother's. This is the file gumbo. I ate the whole bowl. After a very long day in the French Quarter we got off the street car at VooDoo BBQ & Grill, a restaurant we passed every day on St. Charles Street. It was SO good. I got a platter of pulled pork and Caribbean jerk chicken with macaroni and cheese and corn pudding. The chicken was so good I gave my pulled pork to Jason before trying it. It looked good though, and they had sauces on the table for you to choose from. I think they need to get a franchise up here.

Sarah and I spent one day shopping and eating in the French Quarter and we'd been wanting to try some fried alligator, so we ate lunch at Cafe Pontalba. The beauty of the French Quarter is that all the restaurants post the menu outside, so you can find what you want before you decide where to eat. This place is right in Jackson Square across from St. Louis Cathedral and is open on two sides, so we had a great view and a fun time. The alligator was pretty tasty, too. I don't know that I'd order it again just because there's other things I'd like to try, but now that I've tasted it I wouldn't shy away from it in the future.

We also shared this crawfish fettuccine. It wasn't as good as the crawfish pasta at LaBayou, but we still liked it.
On the way back to our hotel I had to stop at NOLA and get these bourbon mashed sweet potatoes. Sarah couldn't believe I spent almost $7 for them, but it is an Emeril restaurant afterall, and you only live once, so I got them. They weren't as fantastic as I had hoped, but still good. The green onions added a nice flavor. We also stopped at The Gumbo Shop. She got some gumbo to take back to the hotel and I got bread pudding. It was really hard to find bread pudding that didn't have white chocolate in it, so I was elated when someone at the Tabasco store told me I could find it here.
Another crawfish boil, different side of the family. Also some amazing desserts this day. I think I have recreated cousin Shannon's frosting for brownies, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Thus ends the food journey (insert sad face here). I can't wait to go back and do it all again.