After a good night’s rest at the Norris’ Friday night, Chelsea planned to take us to New Orleans on Saturday. So after breakfast, the five of us made the 45 minute drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans — or “Naw-lins” as the true locals say. It had only been about a month since Mardi Gras, and tons of beads still hung from branches of trees and fence posts.
D&K in New Orleans with Frank and Kathy Norris. Mardi Gras beads still hung from the trees.
We intended to take the trolley toward the French Quarter for lunch. However, a misunderstanding of our map sent us the wrong direction on the trolley. But we didn’t mind — as we got a great sight-seeing tour of the Garden District for the $1.25 trolley fare!
Ornate iron work on old homes in the “Garden District” of New Orleans
On the New Orleans trolley
Remnants of Katrina search and rescue markings spray painted on the house.
Once we finally made it to the French Quarter, we stopped at a place on the strip for lunch. We all ordered “local” cuisine such as etouffee, gumbo, and boiled crawfish. After lunch, we walked through more of the French Quarter, said our goodbyes with the Norris family, and headed east toward Mississippi.
We ate crawfish at a place in the French Quarter.
Crawfish — according to Frank, these were embarrassingly small and overcooked.
Digging into some crawfish
We enjoyed the crawfish puppet show put on by Kathy!
D&K with the Norris Family in New Orleans. They were great hosts!
Katie holds up the Mississippi sign — sort of.
Katie stands under a “Lunar Lander” at the small space museum at the Mississippi Visitors Center. It was used as a training unit for astronauts in the 1960′s moon missions.
At our 5 minute beach trip in Gulfport, MS. Oddly enough, the highway runs about 100 feet from the shorline, with no hotels in between.