New Orleans...Part 1

This is the first of MANY vacation posts to come.  We started our trip early Thursday morning headed to New Orleans.  We have quite the crew...Travis, Blake, Evan, Beau,  and I, Nonnie and Poppy, and NaNa, PaPa, Trisha, and Malory.  We make a pretty long caravan with 2 Suburbans and Nonnie and Poppy in the Santa Fe :)

Here we are headed out...packed to the gills!!!!

We made it to New Orleans about 6:00 on Thursday evening.  We only made 1 waitress cry on the way down (Just FYI, don't stop at the Shoney's in Natchitoches, LA).  We checked in to our really awesome hotel and went exploring.  Here is the view of New Orleans from our hotel.

The view from another direction.

We all walked down to a restaurant called Mulates and had a great Cajun dinner.  There was a live band and dancing...good entertainment.

The crew at dinner...

After a long night for Travis and I (Beau cut another tooth, but it took a night of restlessness and crying to get it in), we started out on a LONG day of exploring New Orleans.  Everyone except mom, Beau and I headed to the Aquarium of the Americas.  It was right down on the Riverwalk, and easy to walk to from our hotel. 

This was the view down the Riverwalk.  It was all so pretty, even at 100 degrees :)  Mom and I took off with Beau in his stroller to cover some serious sight-seeing ground.

We took a million pictures because everything was just SO unique.  I guess until you've been to New Orleans, you just don't realize how unique it is.  We soaked up as much culture as possible in one afternoon.  Here are Beau and I outside a cool shop in the French Quarter.

There were horse-drawn carriages everywhere.  You could take tours all over the place.

Cafe Du Monde was the one place I was DETERMINED to go.  We have watched Adam on Man Vs. Food here and we just had to try it. :)  It was as cool as I thought.  Here is a picture of the street scene.  There was an awesome street band playing right outside.

How cool is this?!!

There was a really long wait it get in, but we happened to just walk by a table at just the right time.  A little old couple were just getting up and I think they saw us with the stroller and felt sorry for us.  They stood up and gave us their table.  It was a perfect spot with room for the stroller.  We ordered iced coffee and beignets.  Can I just say...YUM!!!

After that we did more sight-seeing.  Here is Beau asleep in his stroller in front of Jackson Square.  He was SO STINKIN' GOOD!!!  He spent the WHOLE day in the stroller and never fussed once!!  He made the day SO easy!!

First time he has EVER slept in his stroller.

Here is Nonnie posed with Beau:)

This is already the longest post ever, so I'll continue our New Orleans trip later:)  Gotta head to the beach right now!!!