New Orleans Anniversary Trip

June 19th-21st 2015

Let’s go to NOLA! Our 28th anniversary was approaching and I thought, “Why not go to New Orleans to celebrate?” When our kids were young we went to NOLA several times and always had fun, but we hadn’t been back since way before Hurricane Katrina. So we packed up and hit the road. NOLA is about a 5 hour drive for us so it didn’t take a super long time to get there. We had booked a reservation at Pontchartrain Landing RV Park/Marina. I did not take the following picture.

Here are the pros and cons of this RV Park. 

Pros: It’s on Lake Pontchartrain so the scenery of the lake is beautiful. The sites are clearly numbered and getting around the park is easy. It is located near the city so that’s a definite plus. There are 125 RV sites in a variety of price ranges. They offer free cable tv, wi-fi, restaurant, self service laundry, playground, pool and dumping station. 

Cons: It’s located at the end an industrial road. So you feel like you’re driving out into no man’s land. Especially on the weekend which is when we stayed there. All of the roads of the park are made of crushed concrete making it very dusty and hard on an RV filter. The posted speed limit is 5mph and trust me you don’t want to drive any faster than that because of the ensuing dust. The bathroom is a portable. I did not go in it but it looked very well kept from outside. 

After we had settled in we drove to the city to do some sightseeing and some shopping. We had lunch at Cafe Maspero. www.cafemaspero.com. Good food and our waitress was very nice and gave us lots of info about the city. We then went off in search of a souvenir for our grand daughter. David wanted to buy her a voo-doo doll but I thought that wasn’t the best idea. We finally decided on a New Orleans t-shirt. After shopping and sight seeing we returned to the RV to relax and shower for dinner.

Here comes the best tip I can give you from this trip. Parking in the city can be as expensive as $30 a day. To overcome this here’s what to do. Go to Harrah’s Casino. Park in their parking garage. Go into the casino and get a free rewards card. Place your rewards card into a slot machine and play for at least 30 minutes. You can choose the penny slots, put in $1 and play as slowly as possible making that $1 last 30 minutes. Be sure that the card is in the machine for a minimum of 30 minutes. You can of course play longer if you like and use the higher value machines. Once you are finished remove your rewards card and pocket it. There are scanners placed around where you can scan your card to make sure it was in play for 30 minutes. Now leave your car parked at the casino and walk the city. You can leave your car parked there for up to 24 hours for free by doing this. Once you are ready to leave the city pick up your car and drive to the exit of the garage. Show the attendant your rewards card. They will scan it and see that it was in play for at least 30 minutes and you will not be charged for parking. By doing this we not only got free parking but we walked out of the casino with an extra $14 in our pockets. 

For dinner we stopped in at Huck Finn’s. www.huckfinnscafe.com David had the Taste of New Orleans which is crawfish etoufee, jambalaya and red beans & rice served with french bread. He loved it! I had the Blackened Shrimp Salad. MmmmmmHmmmmm!

The next morning we slept in and laid around the RV playing with Hercules. David made himself a big ol’ breakfast of eggs over medium, bacon and toast.

Then we were off to the city for more sight seeing. We found street parking near the French Market. The French Market is an open air market much like a flea market. It goes on for 6 blocks! What makes this place stand out is the food section. So many different kinds of food to eat and sample. Gourmet, local, unique. This place is massive and wonderful. I highly recommend making this part of your trip. On the way back from the French Market we passed Cafe Du Monde. Oh, how I wanted to stop and get a beignet but the line was literally around the block. So I had to settle for this picture. 

We then made our way to St. Jackson’s Square. From here you can view the incredible church, the Mississippi River and untold street musicians. 

We made our way back to the car then took a drive down St. Charles Avenue. The mansions on this street are so beautiful! It would probably have been a better idea to walk to get better pictures but even driving it was amazing to see.

After St. Charles we set out to find Anne Rice’s house in New Orleans. I did a quick google search for the address and we found the house at 1239 First St. What a beautiful house. I’ve read most, if not all of her books so this was a real treat for me. Side note: Have your read The Witching Hour? I’m not saying it’s true but the house next door to Anne’s literally could have been the inspiration for the Mayfair House. I unfortunately did not get a good picture of that house. Here is a picture of me standing in front of Anne’s house though.

After leaving Anne’s house we stopped at Lafayette Cemetery #1. Very interesting. We even found a Weber buried there.

We were now pretty tired and in need of a nap so we headed back to the RV and relaxed. Later after our nap we got dressed and headed back into the city for the evening. We left the car at Harrah’s once again and walked around for a bit but we were still pretty tired from all the walking earlier so we settled on a place to eat pretty close to the casino. We chose Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. www.gordonbiersch.com This place was very unique. It’s an actual brewery and the food was so good. I had shrimp & lobster tacos. I couldn’t tell you what David had. :)

After dinner we were pretty wiped out and knew our trip was coming to and end. We went back to the RV and tried to recover. The next morning we bid a fond farewell to New Orleans. We had had a blast and were ready to get home to start planning our next trip. And spoiler alert: It's gonna be a BIG one!