New Orleans

We decided to go to New Orleans for the Columbus Day weekend since the kids had a three-day weekend. We didn't take any family vacations this summer since we were a little busy with a new baby and moving, so we thought it would be nice to get away for a couple days. We left Saturday morning and got to New Orleans by lunch time. We were able to check into our hotel first- we stayed at the Hilton right on the river and we had a river view out our window, so that was really nice. Then we walked down the street to Mother's Restaurant for lunch. We had to wait 30 minutes or so outside in a line just to get in and get seated, and by the time we sat down, Judson was getting tired and also very fussy. We soon realized that he was setting a precedent for almost every other mealtime that we were there. We ended up getting our food to go and eating it on a bench before heading to the Insectarium. We all had a lot of fun at the Insectarium- even Judson was happy riding in the Moby Wrap. We got to see all kinds of bugs and even a butterfly garden. The best part of the day was going to the bug cafe and sampling some real bugs!! Seriously, we actually ate bugs. Crickets and worms. The crickets were baked into chocolate chip cookies. As you can see from the pictures, the kids were not too sure about this at first, but they finally tried them and actually went back for another one! Barrett and I tried one too, of course. It wasn't that bad- more of a mind over matter thing. As a remembrance of their experience, we got Caleb and Isabelle each a t-shirt that says "I ate a bug at the Insectarium". YUM!

We did a lot of walking, and it's a good thing we purchased the ride on stroller, because Caleb and Isabelle both took turns sitting or standing on the back. We walked through the French Quarter, ate breakfast Sunday and Monday at Cafe Du Monde, walked around the Riverwalk mall, and took the free ferry ride to Algiers point and back, so the kids got to go across the river on a boat. Sunday afternoon we decided to make a trip to a local ice cream store called the Creole Creamery that we had seen featured on the Food Network. It looked like fun and they have a lot of flavors to choose from. We had never taken the street cars, so we thought that would be fun to try. First we had to walk to catch the bus, which took us to the street car, which we waited for, and then after the street car dropped us off at our stop, we still had to walk a few blocks to get to the ice cream shop. This was now just the perfect time for Judson to be fussy again. After we ate our ice cream, we went back the same way, and in the street car Judson screamed his head off the entire way back- lots of fun. So, our ice cream outing took about three hours from start to finish! All in all, we did have a good time, even though it was a little crazy at times. But hey, that's what traveling with a four month old is like. The kids had fun, so it was worth it.

Butterfly garden at the Insectarium:

The Bug Cafe:

Don't you want to try a bite?






Eating breakfast at Cafe Du Monde:


Riding the Algiers Ferry:

In front of the River: