The Ambitious Odometer: {Road Trip} Day Five - On the Road to New Orleans, LA

Sunday, July 22, 2012

{Road Trip} Day Five - On the Road to New Orleans, LA

Last night, we drove pretty late into the night (make that early into the morning) and made it to Lafayette, LA. After grabbing breakfast at the hotel, we headed into town to stop for an ice cream snack. Strange for a Sunday morning right after breakfast? Yes, it is... BUT, today we celebrated Pops' birthday from afar at Borden's Ice Cream, the last retail location in the United States...

After we were completely sugared up, we decided that we needed some spice, so we headed out to Avery Island to tour the Tabasco Factory...

After loading up on sauce and other gifts & treats, we finally headed on to New Orleans...

First, we stopped in to collect our NHP stamps at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park...

This was like no other National Park office that we had visited before... By the end of the first song, someone had gotten both B and L on stage and B had found his true calling in life (L, not so much!)... No joke...the child was thoroughly enjoying himself dancing on stage to the music!

Oh, I am sooo glad that I got some good videos of this... :)

After the song ended, we headed off to Jackson Square so that B could see yet another one of his beloved U.S. Presidents. He has a special interest in Andrew Jackson since it is believed that he was born in South Carolina...

By the end of the evening, B had developed his "business plan" for at least the immediate future, obviously heavily influenced by both his "jazz experience" from earlier in the day and his observations made from walking around the French Quarter...

"Daddy, may I have your hat? Do you play an instrument? Could you please play your instrument while I tap dance?"

Oh my goodness, the things he comes up with sometimes!

We headed to Gumbo Shop and were treated to dinner thanks to B and his talents (just kidding!) and discovered that little M must take after her grandpa (my daddy)... She gobbled up every last bit of her red beans & rice!

That dish was always a favorite of my dad's and my grandmother used have it ready to go as soon as we arrived every single time that we came down to visit growing up...

After dinner, we walked around a bit more before calling it a night and both B and L LOVED catching the beads that "magically" fell from the sky...