Day Seven.
Another travel day but with a stop. We set off later from Orange beach because it was such a nice view and we got to wander on the beach. I went down for a wee dip in the Gulf of Mexico but it was pretty cold. The hotel obviously had a sense of humour which was nice and it was a nice relaxed way to start the day.
After our complimentary breakfast (Carol is obsessed with ‘complimentary breakfast’) we hit the road for a 3.5 hr drive to New Orleans (or N’awlins as we now call it). This was our second roadtrip that took in a stop in New Orleans. I have to say it’s a bit too much for me really.
She’s on her holidays and she shared with her brother!
Very busy, very dirty and very touristy. Bourbon street has a smell all along it which I am pretty sure is illegal unless you go to Canada or Colorado! The roads are a nightmare and it literally took us 90 mins to find a place to park and fight our way across town to get to it.
Having said all of this I think we have been getting the town at it’s worse as it was Friday night and it was Thanksgiving week. We’d like to come back at a quieter time to see if it felt as intimidating and frankly uncomfortable. A lot of homeless people and beggars and people out to make a quick buck. It’s the bane of all tourist places I suppose.
We did do the rounds though – visited the French market, had Beignets and did Bourbon street (albeit briefly). One last criticism – being from Austin and listening to excellent live music every day meant that the Bourbon street banging and crashing sounded amateurish…anyway. One of our family guilty pleasures is NCIS and Carol and I watch the New Orleans version of it so it was interesting to hit the sites from the TV show.
We visited the bar that is owned by the lead character in the show, Dwayne Pride, and it is always interesting when you see TV sets. The bar looks the same on the outside but obviously it’s a sound stage for the show so is completely different on the inside. The same with the main office location. It’s a realtors car park but they use it for the base in the show. Nice to see but I was glad when we paid the car park fee and got on the road.
Our last night on the road was at Lake Charles on the border between Louisiana and Texas. The journey was interesting as there was a thick fog all the way and it was dark so there were no travel highlights!
Checking into our hotel was interesting as we did it all on the Hilton app. We checked in then used my phone to open the room. So no conversation with anyone at the hotel! We’re going to see if we can check out without a single human interaction…it’s an experiment we’re not anti social ;-).
McAllen Family Adventures 