New Orleans - Day 1

After our trip to California last weekend, I was dreading our cross-country flight. It's definitely more challenging to fly with Isla now that's she mobile and wanting to walk everywhere. So, I spent a good part of the week (the little free time I had) at Value Village, the library and Michael's scrounging up any small and cheap toys/books that would be "new" to Isla and keep her entertained. I shouldn't have been so worried. She behaved like a peach for both our flights though she didn't sleep a wink despite her tired state. The new toys were definitely a smart move on my part (as was downloading the Peekaboo Barn App on Graham's I-Pod touch) and kept her busy for far longer than I could have imagined. She did learn a new phrase though before the trip was over. She began exclaiming "Own seat!" when she was tired of sitting on our laps. We improvised and tried to make her her "own seat" by raising the armrest between us and skooching as far apart as we could from each other. By our 2nd flight, she was getting pretty zoned and was quite happy to sit on the floor at our feet and sing little tunes to herself.


I must give a little "Boooo!" to the Continental staff who we found to be less than helpful at the airport. It was interesting to travel 10 days apart on 2 separate airlines and experience the difference. The flight attendants were fine but the check-in and gate people were a real pain. I was trying to ask whether the flight was full to see if we might be able to change our seats so we could have an extra for Isla. They just told me "I think that flight's pretty full." Well could ya please look!!? Turns out, it wasn't full and there were open seats all around us except for our row....grrrr.

Anyhow, because we're cheap, we took the city bus from the airport to our downtown hotel ($4 vs $40!) Us, along with our large suitcase, duffel bag, backpack, laptap man purse, real purse and car seat. I think this will be the last time we take public transit from the airport to our hotel. I can't imagine how we could possibly do it with TWO kids and TWO car seats! We are getting a rental, but we're waiting until we head out of town (to save another $100+). But yeah, our plan worked out great until the bus broke down. We didn't realize there was even a problem until the bus all of a sudden pulled off into the grass and the driver told us to get off and board the bus behind us because "this one is broken." What?? The ordeal only cost us a few minutes but meant we had to lug all our stuff from one bus to the next which probably wasn't the prettiest of sights. I'm sure our bus driver thought we were absolutely nuts and wondered how we were possibly gonna make the trek from the bus stop to our hotel (a good 12 blocks). But we managed, no problemo.

And now I'm reclining on the bed, enjoying views of the city with Lake Pontchartrain off in the distance from the windows of our 37th story room. Meanwhille, Isla is keeping busy emptying the ice bucket all over the floor...

It was 7 PM before we settled into our hotel but it didn't feel quite that late with the time change. We hit the streets immediately and began exploring the French Quarter.

We meandered about, on an indirect mission toward Le Meritage, a French restaurant recommended by our guidebook. The place was toted as being a great restaurant for traditional French foods on a budget. Maybe the white tablecloths fancy place settings should have deterred us. Or the fact that the hostess asked "May I help you?" when we walked in. (Uh yes. We'd like a table?? Like most people who walk into restaurants?) We made sure they had a high chair and decided to go for it, in hopes Isla's cheerful spirits would last through the meal. I wanted to blurt out "We took this girl on a three week tour-de-France and she did great. Trust me, she'll eat what you serve here" but I restrained myself. We ordered a handful of small plates (shrimp and crawfish bisque, cabbage salad with golden raisins and almonds and truffle oil dressing, two ways--foie gras and roasted--scallops with white bean puree and rabbit with tagliatelle). It was quite delicious and I think all of our fellow diners breathed a huge sigh of relief when they saw that Isla was not going to interrupt their nice meal. Isla LOVED the bisque and kept asking for "more meat" (shrimp/crawfish). She learned to say a lot of new proteins "shrimp, scallop, crawfish and rabbit." You should have seen the look on her face when we asked her if she liked her duck! I think it was just a coincidental expression but it was like she had "WHAT!? I ate duck!??" written all over her face. Hopefully we didn't scar her.
 
And what night in New Orleans would be complete without a walk through Jackson Square with a stop at Cafe du Monde for beignets and a cafe au lait? HEAVEN! At first Isla didn't even seem to notice we were eating again. Then out of nowhere, she just dove in and grabbed a beignet off the plate and took a bite and proceeded to eat the entire thing (I wasn't going to deprive her of the opportunity but I wasn't going to necessarily offer it to her if she didn't notice....but who can miss one of these, really?)

We headed for the riverwalk and strolled along the Mississippi River on our way back to the hotel. I loved how magically southern it all looked lit up at night!

Then came tickles and a pillow fight and then off to bed for the wee one who was pretty wiped by this point. A great start to our time in New Orleans!

This girl was not at ALL phased by the height of our hotel room...