Surprise, surprise - after celebrating the girls' birthdays in NY then Christmas at home, we made a quick trip to New Orleans for New Year's:
Anyone surprised?! We actually stayed at home for New Year's Eve because we did not want to be there for the craziness that evening, so we flew in Monday morning. Anyone know why?!
You got it - the Longhorns were playing in the Sugar Bowl that night! We were so excited after the Big XII Championship game that Bryan pre-emptively booked flights & hotels to New Orleans & California hedging that Texas would make the top 4 & play in one place or the other. Thank goodness he did because by the time the rankings were announced on Sunday morning, everything sold out like crazy! I haven't been to New Orleans as an adult and the girls have never been, so we thought it would be a fun quick get away. When we flew in, we grabbed lunch & I will not list every place we ate on here but I will shout out Deanie's Seafood because they had gluten free fried shrimp & they were amazing! I literally ate 16 of these bad boys:
Let me tell you how hard it is to find fried anything these days!
After lunch, we walked around the city, starting with Bourban Street. This is so random, but as soon as we got there, we ran into family friends. Small world!
I know what you are thinking - Bourban Street, with the girls? But it was safe during the day. There were college football fans everywhere, mostly wearing burnt orange, having parties & throwing beads. The girls thought this was so cool!
Don't worry, there were families everywhere. We were having so much fun we never took a picture with the infamous Bourban sign and we never went back there again. But we did walk to the French Quarter, Jackson Square, Cafe DuMond - a little bit of everywhere:
Then it was time to head to the stadium! We took the trolley from our hotel, another first for our girls:
Lots of public transportation for these ladies in the past month! Then a short walk to the Superdome:
We had a friend help us secure tickets & they were amazing! Right behind the team on the 35 yard line, 25th row. Thank goodness we took a family picture before the game started:
A couple of fun notes to point out - the lady in front of us was awesome! She was much older but she was a dedicated fan! She had so much swag, she passed it out to us also - glow in the dark bracelets, more beaded necklaces & she had posters. I hope I am as spunky as her when I am her age:
And I couldn't help but take a few pictures of Matthew McConaughey - he was right in front of us the entire time & he is so animated!
I have zero pictures after that....... It was a late night & a long game, but an exciting one. Obviously it wasn't as we expected, but man did we make a come back. We definitely weren't the same team that played the last 2 games & our poor quarterback obviously had the jitters. Their QB was on fire & just couldn't be stopped. It was a tough loss but still worth the trip & at least the girls are old enough to enjoy it also.
We slept in the next day since we didn't go to bed until 1:00 in the morning so we had a late brunch than took a hop on/hop off bus tour of the city:
I was afraid to commit to a tour of anything else because I knew they would be exhausted. And honestly, it was so cold outside. We hardly got off, we just drove around & listened for a few hours nice & warm on the bus so those are literally the only pictures I have!
For dinner we did try an amazing restaurant that is 100% gluten free that we loved! Mostly tapas so I won't share our whole meal but they had a tres leches cake that was unbelievable! I have not had one since going gf:
I take that back, Bryan & I thought it was unbelievable but the girls refused to try it. They don't know what they are missing out on so we took them for ice cream instead:
The next morning was sunnier & warmer so we walked around more. We went to brunch at the world famous Mother's:
then we walked the Mississippi river:
We were only there 48 hours so before we flew out that afternoon, we gave the girls a choice for our last afternoon. The World War II Museum is supposedly the number 1 tourist attraction there but the girls' weren't interested so we did the aquarium instead:
We have not been to an aquarium in years, probably since they were younger, but we had heard this one was recently remodeled & it was great! The girls loved it:
Sadie loved touching the sharks & the sting rays but Sophie would not!
After this, I kind of fell out of it. I started feeling really weak & shaky and could hardly make it through the aquarium - I had to keep walking ahead & finding somewhere to sit. So I didn't get many pictures after that, but I did steal a few from Bryan & Sadie. Apparently the girls did VR, swimming with the sharks & loved it:
Clearly it was the smart choice because they had the best time! Unfortunately, we had to head to the airport next & believe me it was a long trip home. I felt so sick at the airport I could barely stand, I don't know how I survived the one hour flight & by the time we got home, I passed out with 102 fever & have been sick since then. Ugh. I feel like every time I go to a big game or a big concert, this happens. The next day, Bryan was sick too but thank goodness the girls are ok so far. Not exactly the way we wanted to start 2024 with a Longhorn loss & the flu, but at least we enjoyed a quick trip to a new city with the girls!
No comments:
Post a Comment