Our plan was to get out of the hotel by 8:30 am, but it was closer to 9. Our group went to breakfast at Coterie Hola, Restaurant and Oyster Bar.
The food was really good, and the service was even better. Kids had New Orleans style french toast (can't remember what is was called), MbMell had Eggs Benedict, DD had a omelette with crawfish, AA had a skillet, and Lola just had the regular breakfast.
Once we had breakfast, we walked to explore the french quarter. We went to Jackson Square and then the Joan of Arch Statue. T calls her Jean of the Arch, and it is very funny when he says it. It was very hot outside, and we decided to walk along the water and go get tickets for a Steam Boat down the Mississippi. We had about an hour before boarding, so we walked around, and went to Cafe Du Monde. We didn't quite have enough time so we aborted, and headed back to the boat area to board at 11am.
Once on the boat, the kids weren't too happy about going on this boat, but decided to give it a chance. We found seats on the left side of the boat, right near the texas bar. Everyone but Lola and T went for drinks, while they just held down the fort. Once the kids got their Jazz Punch this kept them entertained and much happier.
The boat started (and the steam whistle was very loud), but once going, it was rather quiet and smooth. Travelling about 15km/hr down the river, we had a great time. We were lucky to be in the shade and most of the "things" they talked about were on the side of the boat we were sitting on. We saw Boats, ships, wharfs, monument's, plantation houses, a sugar processing plant and an oil refinery. As we travelled down the Mississippi one way, they gave us all the history, and then we turned around to head back. As we turned around the music began to play, and we headed to check out the steam engine that was 99 years old. Went to the gift shop, then sat a the front of the boat to see it turn around again and dock. T and AA loved taking photos of the sky line and lots of the broken piers damaged from Hurricane Katrina.
The boat was about 2 hours long, and everyone really enjoyed it.
Next up we were going for lunch and it was almost 2 pm by this time. DD really wanted a Po Boy, but Lola couldn't eat anything there, so we split up. AA and DD went to one place and the rest went to Lolas Favourite Shake Shack (which was almost right outside their hotel). We all enjoyed our food.
We met after lunch to head to the Insectarium and Aquarium. This was definitely a cool place. The insectarium was full of really neat bugs, I can't even start to name them all.
Highlights include:
1. a variety of Mantas
2. eating bugs (B and Lola didn't, as Lola couldn't, B didn't want to)
4. learning about the tarantulas from a very nice volunteer- and we saw a full molt, and the live animal. We didn't know that they even molted. She was amazing and answered all of the kids million questions.
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| the molt |
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| the tarantella |
3. over 500 butterflies/moths with over 60 species, and a vary large moth that camouflaged with its wings to be a snake
4. Bayou animals, including a rare white alligator and baby alligators
5. over 80 year old sea Turtle
We had just enough time to visit the whole thing as we closed it out at 5pm.
Back to the hotel to relax and little and get ready for supper. Kids played some video games and the adults researched where to go for supper. DD had a recommendation from someone but couldn't find it... but he remembered "its not the most famous once, but the place across the street". So we headed to Felix's Restaurant. The adults had oysters, B tried tried a few, and T was saving room for this Gator Po Boy... yes alligator. T got the best photo of Lola and AA having their first oysters.
The food was amazing, and after we found out we went to the correct restaurant as in the recommendation.
We walked down Bourbon Street back to the hotel to get the kids in bed. AA and DD went to get some drinks from the convince store down the street. They came back to explain it was a party in there... we didn't quite understand.
We played some Uno Flip, Skip-Bo and then went to bed. It was a very busy but successful day!
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