This year we decided to travel to New Orleans to see Grayson, Kevin's son . I have never met him.
We booked a trip for the Fourth Of July week. It was hard to find a place we liked to rent, so I finally chose a place right on Bourbon Street. Immersion, I called it.
The first night we got in around 7 and got ready to head out. We went to go see some music. The bands were fun and when they take a break, another performer, a DJ with tricks, comes out to entertain. They are almost as fun as the bands. Doing funny Karaoke sets and silly tricks like Hula Hoops.
It was getting late and getting really crowded with young drunk kids. We decided to head back towards our Hotel. Across the street from our hotel was a park that featured music. We went there and watched Steamboat Willy perform .
The next morning, we went back to the park for breakfast, and to watch Steamboat Willy play! They start live music at 9 am. The breakfast was ok, nothing special. I had a bignet too. Too sweet for me, but it was good. The place had green tea too! I was surprised at how much green tea I saw in this city. Perhaps from old trade routes?
Later that day, Kevin and Lulu arrived. We all went to go get Grayson. We missed his mom, who had left for work, but spent some time talking to the step dad. He was a good guy, he has a lot to do with three kids, Grayson being the oldest. The kids seemed well behaved and the house looked well kept.
We headed into New Orleans again for food. Lulu had a groupon for a New Orleans style restaurant. ; We went there .It was fancy but not too fancy. The food was good.
After that we went to Kevins Air B and B to let their dog out and check out the local park. We stopped at a mini mart right by their place. There was a security guard at the door. We saw funny stuff like these potato chips with Rap stars on the label .I think we ended up getting some Little Yachty chips! We also loaded up on beer and vodka. We went to Kevin's place .It was a small ground floor unit. Buddy was in his cage and very excited to see us. They let him out, he charged B and scratched her arm and made it bleed. Grayson ran to the bathroom and shut the door!
We finally got Buddy calmed down and we loaded up some beverages and headed for the park. Grayson played while we had a cold beverage and talked .
There is a street car that runs by the park . I looked at a map and it goes right to Bourbon Street! We crafted a plan. When park time was over, B and I hopped on board the Street car and left them for the night. The street car went through the garden district. It was very pretty.
We got off at the end of the line, a few blocks from our place .We watched a band perform and then headed up to the room . For dinner, we didn't know what to do, so we ended up going to a bar across the street. I had an amazing Po Boy and B had some good gumbo.
The next am we went to breakfast across the street at this place that does a huge dinner business. Long lines down the block to get in. No problem at breakfast and the breakfast was simply amazing. I can only imagine what dinner must be like.
Grayson and fam showed up and we spent the afternoon in the pool . Grayson doesn't know how to swim yet and there was no shallow end. he stayed clinging to the side of the pool most of the time. A group from Essence magazine had most of the pool side suites, they set up speakers and were blasting old school hip hop and R&B. It was awesome. We met many of them and Grayson met all of them. Very nice group, they come yearly for the Essence Festival, this year featuring Janet Jackson.
Kevin needed to go check on Buddy, so they left. I warned him to get back early, since it was 4th of July. It was time to go watch fireworks over the Mississippi, no sign of Kevin,
We headed out to the River. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. I guess in this town, fireworks are just one of many things happening,
The show was cool with two barges on opposite sides of the river, shooting their displays.
After the show we met up with Grayson. They caught the last bit of the show. They took the street car down and it was super crowded and slow. We went back to our room and relaxed ., Grayson quickly fell asleep. We stayed up and talked, I finally ran across the street and got more food to go from the same bar we ate at the night before! Kevin and Lulu stayed till after midnight before heading out for some fun on their own.
The next morning we got up and found breakfast and started our day ., We took Grayson to the Vans store to get him a new pair of shoes he needed . He talked to every employee for a long time. One employee was into Pokemon as Grayson is ,but was blown away by Graysons knowledge of Pokemon!
We had lunch, then back to the pool . This time Grayson really put on the charm and had all the ladies at the pool swooning over him! We spent hours at the pool. We had to get out once when we heard thunder near by, but then it cleared up and we were good to go.
We finally headed back to the room .,As soon as we got there, Kevin and Lulu showed up ready to swim! Too late .,
We went next door and had a piece of pizza and the girls got Daiquiris. We checked out all the shops and bought Grayson a harmonica ., Grayson says " I used to have a harmonica but my parents lost it" LOL!
We ended up down at the river. Kevin and Grayson were sitting by the water, when suddenly, someone started playing harmonica! Grayson ran to the man, who appeared to be homeless. The man was veryt gracious, stopped playing and spoke to the boy. Grayson showed him his harmonica., the man said you are about to get your first lesson, but not before coming and getting a handful of bills from me.
He started to play, but Grayson had questions! He again stopped and explained stuff to Grayson, then he finally got to playing. A crowd gathered. He was good!
We got back to the room, Kevin and family left for the night. Grayson wanted to stay with us again in the hotel but we had made dinner plans. Poor planning, we could have worked it out. Oh well, he was fine to go back to his dads place for the night.
We went to one of only a couple of Mexican restaurants in New Orleans. OMG it was amazing. Heck, nearly all the food we ate in New orleans was amazing. this place was spectacular .,We had guacomole and then I had three tacos, Cactus, Poblano ans Shrimp. All were awesome but the Poblano was best .
On the last day, we went to Waffle House! It was surprisingly good. They have many different types of hashbrowns ,I feel silly for ordering regular hashbrowns,
We went to another park and rented a Surrey. It was just too dang hot to pedal. We didn't last long.
After the park, we went to get a snack, then we went to get a drive through Daquari! I had a margarita ,it was really good!
We got to the airport and I was very sad to say goodbye to Grayson. We spent a while hugging and saying bye.
We absolutely loved New Orleans. The people are so dang nice! We actually had a service industry guy come up to us on the street and thank us for coming to New Orleans! I assumed he was up to something but he was truly thanking us.
We are now considering making it a yearly trip!
