NOLA Trip

Over Cody and Jaden's spring break, our family took a quick 3-day trip to New Orleans. The kids and I had never been, and Jason had only visited with a youth group several years ago. All of us were excited to explore this unique city! On our drive out of town, we treated ourselves to Shamrock Shakes. Yum!

Our first stop in the city was the French Market. The kids were wowed by all of the wares laid out on so many crowded tables. They especially enjoyed looking at various holographic pictures. I loved seeing all the masquerade masks.

We told our kids they could each pick out a souvenir. They didn't find anything in the open air market, but their decision was easily made later when we stopped through the Cafe Du Monde gift shop. All three of them were instantly enamored with these stuffed alligators. 

We continued walking towards Jackson Square.

Our kids thought the various street performers were quite entertaining.

This bagpiper was my favorite!

Of course, no trip to New Orleans is complete without trying a beignet. The kids' reactions were just so-so on these local treats. I don't think any of them finished the entire beignet. We were happy to say we had tasted these desserts, though!

We ended the evening by walking through Woldenberg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River-- watching the steamboats and enjoying the cool breeze.

The next day, we went on a swamp tour. When we mentioned that we were traveling to NOLA, nearly everyone we talked to said that a swamp tour was a must! This ended up being our boys' favorite part of the trip. They weren't even turned off by the alligator waiting for us in the small swamp tour shop.

We were on a large boat with 12-15 other people, so we were very comfortable. Our tour guide gave us permission to freely move around while the boat was moving. He wanted everyone to get a close-up view of the swamp wildlife.

The swampy waters were quite peaceful.

Our guide pointed out some bald eagles in this tree. They're difficult to see in this photo, but the nest, at least, is fairly visible.

We weren't sure just how many alligators we'd see on our tour, but I think all of us were surprised at how common they were. Jaden and Cody kept track and counted about 20 alligators! Most of the gators were about the size as the one in this photo--quite smaller than we had anticipated.

Our guide was always the first to spot the alligators, as he said each one tends to stick around the same area from day to day.

Alligators were definitely the most popular animal, but we enjoyed seeing a few turtles as well.

The highlight of the tour was getting to touch an alligator head...

...and a REAL (baby) alligator! 

When the boat turned around for the journey back, the guide didn't have any new information to tell us, so he turned on some fun music. This was a hit for Cody and Jaden.

That afternoon, the boys and I visited the Audubon Insectarium while Daddy stayed back with napping Adley. It was definitely cool seeing all the unique bugs this place housed.

Cody and Jaden especially appreciated how hands-on this museum was-- lots of activities as well as climbing places for kids.

The boys got such a laugh when we walked through a mock cave and this large fake spider jumped out at them. They had to walk through this cave multiple times to experience it over and over again!

Cockroaches in the kitchen-- eww!!

These arcade-type games were especially fun-- catching "bees" for the hive...

..and Build-a-Bug. For this game, the boys had to read about a particular environment and then design a bug that they thought could survive in those conditions. Definitely a cool educaitonal game! The boys loved "releasing" their bug into the enviroment and seeing what happened. Luckily there wasn't a crowd in this room, so the boys played at least a dozen times.

Other hands-on exhibits...

The last room in the Insectarium was a butterfly garden. The boys kept hoping that a butterfly would land on them, but we had no such luck. The butterflies were sure beautiful though!

We met Daddy and Adley after finishing in the museum and enjoyed a yummy fro-yo treat together.

On our last day in NOLA, we visited the Audubon Aquarium, as we heard such wonderful reviews about this place. After walking through the multi-level aquarium, we agreed that it was definitely an impressive place!

We arrived at the penguin exhibit right at feeding time.

The workers inside the exhibit explained how they had to record what each penguin ate each day, to make sure every penguin was fed and was healthy. The worker outside gave us a few more penguin facts and even did a few fun penguin activities with the kids.

One of the last exhibits we visited was the stingray touchpool. These stingrays were MUCH more active than in other touchtanks we've seen (check out the video below to see just how active they were!). Plus, the touchpool was fairly full of these fish, so it was easy to find several to touch. 

Definitely a museum well-worth our money!

Jason and I both agreed that our short getaway was the perfect length of time for our family. We enjoyed these new experiences and yet were happy to arrive back home again.