So, the Jaquess/Beeson family decided to go on vacation together...all 15 of us. This is in celebration of our parent's 40th wedding anniversary. We agreed on a cruise leaving out of New Orleans and headed to Cozumel, Mexico. Each family is on their own to get to New Orleans. Aaron and Julia with their kiddos stopped to see Julia's best friend in Livingston, LA. Christopher and Mel hitched a ride with Dad and Mom and they stopped to see some old friends from Germany in Oxford, MS. Chris and I spent the night in Jackson, MS and got to New Orleans earlier than everyone else so we could do a little sight seeing.
Just after we left Springfield, we realized our air conditioner wasn't working as well as we thought it should. By the time we passed through Memphis, I was sweating. I had dressed warm and brought a blanket because Chris usually freezes me out in the car. We finally stopped at Wal-mart and got some stuff to charge the air conditioner and enjoyed the rest of the ride. We stopped in Canton, MS to eat dinner at McAlister's. They had a miniature menu, but were very gracious to us even ordering at 10 minutes to closing time. We were throwing our trash away and leaving when the manager brought us a free piece of banana cream pie and 2 chocolate chip cookies. She said she knew how it was traveling with little ones and hoped this would make the last of our leg a little bit easier. How nice!
We stayed at Quality Inn and Suites in Jackson last night. The hotel was in need of some repairs and updates but it was mostly clean. We woke up this morning and headed down to eat breakfast. The biscuits and gravy were completely gone. There was no mix left for waffles. There was only 1 piece of wheat bread left and the fruit was gone. We asked one of the workers and he said someone was on a grocery run for fruit but he couldn't help with anything else except the waffle mix. So, we ate waffles and the little bit of cereal they had. Just makes me look forward to the hot omelettes on the cruise. We left Jackson this morning around 9:30 and got to our hotel without any problems.
Our hotel is 1 block from Canal Street and once you get to Canal Street, about 3 blocks down to Bourbon Street. We stopped and ate at Duffy's Diner. Chris had a philly cheese steak which was really good, but I ordered the Duffy's Cajun Special. It was delicious. I had jambalaya, gumbo, and cajun rice. The only thing I realized I didn't care for is red beans and rice. Something about it just didn't work for me. That was the only thing left on my plate. We left there and headed down to the river which turned out to be quite a walk with a 2 year old. We saw a holocaust memorial which I still am not sure I understand the placement. We then walked over to Jackson Park which is probably the most beautiful place we saw today in New Orleans. We visited the Saint Louis Cathedral and then wandered around long enough to bump into Cafe Du Monde. It took forever to find a waiter even willing to talk to us. Then, he told us he couldn't place our order because we weren't in his section which was literally the table behind us. We moved to that empty table and then he took our order. It took almost 10 minutes for him to return with 4 tiny glasses of water and our 2 orders of beignets. They were good, but not any better than a good ol' funnel cake from Silver Dollar City. The dough is more dense but basically the same ingredients. Our boys were so hot and sweaty they downed the water before even taking a bite of the beignet, but since the waiter had already disappeared we couldn't even ask for a refill. We then headed back to our hotel, which by this time was quite a walk. We figured we would walk down a portion of Bourbon Street not realizing exactly where we were. We ended up walking at least 8 or 9 blocks down Bourbon Street. It is not a place I would want to be at night, especially without my husband. No one even tried to talk to us, probably because we had our two kids with us. We finally got back to about a block from our hotel and they had shut down the cross streets to all traffic, that includes walkers. Come to find out, the New Orleans Saints are getting their Superbowl rings tonight at the Roosevelt hotel which is on that stretch of road. We had to walk around the whole block to get to our hotel. That wouldn't have been a big deal if we hadn't already walked so much. On top of that, this lady was walking behind us who was obviously very upset. She was yelling all kinds of vulgar language at her friend. Her friend kept telling her to stop talking that way, there's children around. She said, well they need to learn early. I told Dylan to hang back with me a little and we let them get ahead. Crazy lady! Anyway, we finally made it back to our hotel. The boys are playing with their Dad on the other bed. Our room with two queen beds actually has two separate rooms where we can close the door tonight and have some alone time without kids staring at us and giggling at us every time we make eye contact. My parents and Christopher and Mel just called. They are down on the French Quarter now eating dinner. Nothing like calling us as they are walking into the restaurant. Guess they didn't want to hang out with us :) I think I'll enjoy the air conditioning just a little longer for now. In 24 hours I'll be on a boat in the ocean. I'm good with that.
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