We woke up on Day 4 really early so that we could make it to church somewhere in Houston, Texas around 9 am. It was a little early for the kids, & they slept for most of it.
But church was great. It was a nice break to the long days of driving we were doing. After church we got back on the road & soon we were crossing the Mississippi River.
Once we crossed the Mississippi, it seemed like we were constantly crossing swamps & rivers. The whole area around us was wet. It was the weirdest thing. (I'm not a huge water person so I felt like I was driving over "not land" all day. It was green & beautiful, but very wet.
We hit Louisiana & the green just took over. It was gorgeous. It reminded me of Germany. The western United States just don't understand what the word GREEN means. The Eastern United States do. It's beautiful.
We hit a grand total of 7 crazy rainstorms between San Antonio & New Orleans. After being in a part of California that rarely sees rain, it was refreshing to see so much in one day.
About 6 hours before hitting New Orleans, our A/C died on us. We drove without A/C for about 2 hours before we literally couldn't take it anymore. The humidity outside was killing us, & the heat inside was unbearable. It was like driving in a wet oven. We pulled over at an auto zone to find our freon pipes completely frozen solid.
The mechanic helped us to thaw the pipes & then we added more freon & the A/C started working again. Hallelujah!
We arrived in New Orleans around 5 pm. We stayed at a cool little Airbnb in the French Corner of New Oleans. It was perfect. We had an entire 3 room apartment all to ourselves & Bourbon Street was just around the corner.
We took the kids to look at the beautiful architecture & history of New Orleans.
I will admit, I was unprepared for Bourbon Street & New Orleans in general. I knew it was crazy around Mardi Gras time, but I didn't realize it was pretty crazy every day. (It's not a place for kids. We'll just put it that way.) I had to make my kids look at the ground for the most part. It was pretty funny actually. My teenage girls kept gasping in disgust & then would shield their little brother's eyes. ha ha ha. They're good kids.
But the architecture was gorgeous. It's such an old city & it's just spectacular. I'd love to go back one day, when there's no people/bars/strip joints & just study the buildings.
The cathedral was gorgeous. There weren't a lot of people around the cathedral so we spent a lot of time there. The kids enjoyed running through the park & I loved the details of the building.
But of course we couldn't go to New Orleans without some good food. We opted for beignets for dinner. Super healthy, I know . . . but man, were they delicious.
We stopped a Cafe Beignet & it was amazing.
I will never forget those beignets. They were amazing.
Then we headed back to the Airbnb & crashed for the night. One more day of driving.
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