New Orleans

On our way to Houston for Thanksgiving, we stopped in New Orleans again this year.  It's a great place to spend the night and enjoy the local color.  On our must see list (or should I say must eat here list) was Cafe du Monde.  An icon of New Orleans, this coffee stand serves up fresh and yummy beignets with their super strong coffee.  Silly Ryan thought one order of beignets would be enough for us.  Um maybe one order each, they are so good.    

And speaking of good, we had a variety of Cajun food for dinner at Acme Oyster House.  Our hostess got a kick out of Tessa eating her gumbo.  I sure wouldn't have touched it at her age but my child loves it.  When Tessa asked where Tiana was, we answered that she must be busy in the kitchen making more gumbo.    

The next day, we toured St. Louis Cathedral and admired the beautiful painted ceilings.  Tessa was not impressed and only wanted to jump off the pews, so we didn't stay long.  

We did a little shopping in the touristy French Market.

And then we had an early lunch at Central Grocery.  One of my favorite TV travel hosts visited here and recommended the muffaletta.  It was, in fact, invented right here in this little Italian grocery in the heart of New Orleans.  Italian meats and cheeses on soft fresh bread and piled high with olive salad then drizzled with olive oil.  I am an olive lover and this sandwich was fabulous.  You can see that it's as big as Tessa so I was ok sharing this time.  The store itself is neat too, a hodgepodge of foodstuff.  I liked looking at all the imported cheeses and canned goods but the hanging dried fish weirded me out a little.  Especially when I wasn't paying attention and bumped into one with the top of my head.  Ewww!!!  Dried fish cooties in my hair!       

We used the trolley lines to zip around town and that was Tessa's favorite part.  We even bought her a  Canal Line Trolley Christmas ornament.  The only time we had trouble using the trolley was trying to get out to the Garden District.  For those of you up on your Disney trivia, that would be the part of town where Tiana's bff Charlotte lives.  We eventually gave up on the St. Charles Trolley and drove the famous street in our own car.  We passed Tulane University where Ryan was accepted.  Food for thought, we might never have met if he had gone to school here.      

With storms rolling in, we said good bye to the Big Easy and headed for Texas.