Hey, how you do’in?!

I’ve been watching alot of Friends in the background lately. It’s been fun.

Anywho, we’re home!

Maybe you didn’t know we were gone? That’s okay, too.

I was fairly certain that we were skipping Spring Break this year in hopes of finishing and listing our house {yeah…things are busy ’round these parts!}. However…

About two or three weeks ago, the fellow shot me a text with one simple word :: zydeco. If you’re unfamiliar, zydeco is a type of music that blends traditional creole with a bit of jazz, rhythm and blues with a solid Africian American influence. As you may have guessed, this music originates {and is still going strong} in southern Louisiana…

Day 1 & 2

With a loose plan in our pockets of seeing some live zydeco music and to hopefully do some camping, we took off after work on a Tuesday for New Orleans. No planned stops, no reservations or timeline…just the two of us, an orange Jeep, minimal luggage and the open road.

Driving through the night is no picnic for this chick {and it’s a running joke that I don’t do much driving on our road trips anyway. Something about my speeding track record, nighttime hallucinations and too much overactive imagination time…}. I drove for a few daylight hours before the fellow took over and cruised us into the dead of night, stopping at a rest stop somewhere to catch a few winks before continuing on. Somewhere in northern Mississippi we decided it was time to look for a breakfast stop…and quickly realized that Hwy 55 in central MS is not the ideal spot for real, non-chain restaurant stops. Getting a few munchies at a gas station, we traveled on in hopes of a more fun lunch location. For the most part, we had decided to rely on our Rand McNally Road Atlas, travel guides and local recommendations instead of Googling everything {in hindsight, this turned out to be wicked fun}. I turned to my trusty Let’s Go USA travel guide for tips on a fun spot and landed on Mayflower Cafe in Jackson. It was packed with locals and provided good food with a southern flair, tasty sweet tea {in to-go cups!} and a great start to the trip.

After lunch, we estimated we had about six hours until hitting New Orleans so I tapped into my favorite lodging resource, AirBnB, and found this gem a bit off the beaten path. Located in the art district of greater New Orleans, this little cottage was walking distance to live music, eateries, corner bars and only two miles from the heart of NOLA. Sold.

{non-sponsored :: If you’re curious about using AirBnB for any of your travel needs, shoot me an email and I can hook you up with $20 off your next trip!}

Even the wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing tube man across the street was welcoming!

Day 3

Venturing down the street to Bywater Bakery {at the recommendation of our cottage owner} we were not disappointed. Strong ice coffees and morning to-geaux cups-mine was crawfish corn maque choux and grits and the fellow went for a bacon egg cheese and grits cup. Both were perfection {I love grits!!!}!

We took a walking bridge over the train tracks to Crescent Park which not only boasts beautiful skyline views of the city, but also landed us right at the entrance to the French Market.

Downtown New Orleans…be still my beating heart!

Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s in the sunshine were a must!

Live music was everywhere as we quickly realized that we hit the beginning of the French Quarter Fest!

Street performers were amazing and so many artists and sidewalk stores. It was so easy to wander and people watch and duck in for snacks and drinks whenever was necessary.
It was necessary often.

{Our to-geaux cups, oysters on the half shell at Desire Oyster Bar, some spicy -yet very flavorful!- vindaloo at some random restaurant on our walk back home that night!}

Our walk home was super safe and full of art. Everywhere. It was beautiful!

Day 4

We had to leave our homey cottage today as it was already rented out for the weekend. Bummer, but we were ready to move a bit more rustic anyway! A quick drive back downtown to start our day with a little Café Du Monde´ for beignets and strong cafe au laits before hitting the road and heading north.

Out of the city and right smack dab to the middle of nowhere for some camping at Bogue Chitto State Park.

Cooking breakfast over an open fire…yes, please!

We rented a canoe for the day to canoe down the Bogue Chitto river. Interesting experience as there were signs and warnings about alligators…but we didn’t see any. 😉
OFT, represent!

If you look just right of dead center, you’ll see the biggest freaking spider. It was larger than my hand…yikes.

A little side story here…when we were on our honeymoon in the Virgin Islands, we went on a day snorkeling catamaran trip and needed to pack our own beverages and lunch for the day. Since we were unsure of how our ice would hold up in our bitty travel cooler, we brought a couple hard boiled eggs, cold fried SPAM {we are from MN after all!} and buns…and thus this amazing, easy to pack sandwich was invented and we have it on almost every trip/adventure that we go on.

After canoeing, we snagged a few horses for a stellar trail ride through the park.

Day 5

Breakfast over the fire again before packing up our tent and heading southwest!

We passed by the Global Wildlife Preserve on our way, but were unable to take the full tour as the wait was over four hours. This will be a must for the next time we’re in the area!

It appears that the time is NOW for crawfish season in LA and we took advantage of trying these tiny lobsters at Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf. Cracking shells swampside and taking long pulls of local IPA were the ticket for this beautiful sunshine day. We also tried their lightly battered gator and loved it!!

Day 6

While we were in search of live zydeco music for this leg of the journey, we managed to overlook the part about it being Sunday/Monday…and the deep south pretty much closes everything on Sundays and most bars don’t have live music on Mondays. Bummer! But, there was a random silver lining as we ended up in New Iberia which is only a stone’s throw away from Avery Island…home of Tabasco! We drove over to the ‘island’ for an extremely informative tour of the hot sauce museum and plant. Barrels upon barrels of curing Tabasco sauce…

After the tour, we headed over to the 1868 restaurant for some Tabasco bloodies and boudin. A few people had told us that we needed to try boudin in the south and this was the first {of many!} times I saw it on the menu and couldn’t pass it up. It was super good. Rice, pork and spices jammed into a sausage casing served with a side of Tabasco hot pepper jelly. Yes and yes!

After our delicious snack, we hopped over to the other side of the island for the Jungle Garden tour. This…was amazing. Acres upon acres of tropical plants draped with Spanish moss, lagoons featuring gators!, birds, turtles and so many things that we didn’t see…I guess there’s a bear that roams these parts?! It was beautifully kept and wonderful to drive through. We were both pretty pumped that we had stumbled onto this diamond in the rough!

{This photo made me laugh out loud-I am becoming my grandmother. 😉 On the many road trips my grandparents took, there are SO MANY photos of my grandpa simply standing places…and I proudly will carry on the random ‘stand there!’ picture taking and memory making.}

Alright, this is just nuts to me. There are alligators in this park that visitors are encouraged to not only drive and wander through, but walk/jog through as well. No fences, these huge dudes are lounging around, waiting for some idiot to fall into their water and become delicious. I think we were about to get about six feet away from one {it was only about 5-6 feet long…!} before I got skiddish and had to create more distance. I mean, have you seen these things move on land!? They’re quick! Ha!

Bamboo ceiling for days…

Home to the Egret ‘Bird City’ since the 1890s, these birds migrate back here every spring.

From Avery Island we climbed back into the Jeep and headed a few hours north to the Grand Hotel in Natchez, Mississippi. Arriving just before sunset and in time for a couple drinks and BBQ overlooking the Mighty Missip. I would love to revisit this town-beautifully preserved buildings in a sleepily welcoming riverside city, plump with great history. You can do walking tours of the city and there are placards all over describing scenes both pre- and post Civil War about trading up and down the Mississippi River. Very cool.

Day 7

Our last day of funness on the trip, we toured Frogmore Plantation. It’s still a working cotton plantation and gin, only it opts for machines instead of human labor. Very interesting tour of both what life used to be like and what the modern process for cotton picking is now. Did you know a pound of cotton is roughly $5 now-compared to $40+/pound in its hayday? Craziness.

{haha…see! Stand there! Smile! Yay for grandma-type photo memories!}

Road trips make the perfect opportunity for delicious car sandwiches. When we road tripped as kids, my parents mom packed an assortment of meats, cheeses and accoutrements to construct readily accessible {and cheap!} lunches on the go. That also may or may not be where the whole ‘paper towel in the sandwich’ trick originated…thanks brother. But that’s neither here nor there.

😉

Cruising straight through till arrive home in Nerstrand just shy of 6am Wednesday morning. Although mildly disappointed that we never did see any real zydeco music, we decided it was most definitely an awesome vacation. Loads of good memories and fun new experiences, plus even a few places to add to our list of ‘next time’.

Oh, what a trip.

Oh, what a life.

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