New Orleans Part 1

For the February break, we decided to leave the kids and go for a short trip to New Orleans. We originally bought plane tickets, but ended up canceling them after we tried to get an Airbnb or hotel and they were all over $1000 for Sunday night. We were confused until we realized it was because we were arriving on Super Bowl Sunday! We decided to drive instead. We left after church and used hotel points to stay in Baton Rouge, where we had mediterranean food for dinner.

Amber had just gotten over being sick, and I started having a sore throat on Monday morning. We drove into New Orleans and left the car in a downtown parking garage then went to see if there was anything left of the Super Bowl.

We saw lots of Eagles fans (the winning team), but not a lot of Chiefs fans. There were a few NFL shops with Chiefs gear 50% off. They were taking down barricades and cleaning up, no fan activities left. But it was cool to see the stadium still decked out with Super Bowl branding.

We walked from there to the Garden District. We did a self-guided walking tour of all the famous old homes and stately live oak and magnolia trees.

We walked back to the car to get my leftover dinner for lunch, then we took our bags and dropped them off at our hotel in the French Quarter.

While we waited for check-in time, we strolled down the French Quarter River Walk.

Moored right along the walk was the luxury yacht of the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who was in town for the big game.

The hotel messaged us that we could check in early, so we walked back, checked in. Our room was right off a little private alleyway that opened into a shared courtyard.

Once we got settled, we went to Cafe du Monde for some of their famous beignets (and some hot chocolate).

We walked around the French Quarter until our early evening jazz concert at Preservation Hall. This has been the epicenter of New Orleans jazz since the early 1960s, and the concert did not disappoint.

Afterwards, we wandered the French Quarter some more, then got muffuletta sandwiches from Verti Mart for dinner. They were delicious (I love the olive salad), but soooo greasy. (This is my "too much grease" face.)

I was for sure sick at this point, so we called it a night and went to bed.