My New Orleans Adventure. (picture heavy)

All I have to say is WOW.! What a journey.! Our trip began on Thursday. We drove all the way to Meridian, Mississippi to stay the night. Cayle was such a good traveler. I was really impressed. He had the DVD player in to watch so he watched movies the whole ride. We ate at Logan's that night. Daddy and I talked. It was so nice to be with my dad and Cayle. Very seldom do I get alone time with Daddy. The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and hit the road and made it ALL the way to New Orleans. But when we got across the bridge and to the hotel..we got a phone call from 911. My mom had been trapped. Fifteen trees had fallen on and around her car. The fire fighters got her out. She had 3 tiny cuts on her. She was so lucky. The Tahoe..11,000 dollars worth of damage done. We got it totaled. And 9,000 dollars towards a new car. She's sharing my car. I'm so relieved she's okay. Once we got to talk to her she insisted we stay in New Orleans.
Once we got unpacked and settled in, we went downtown to sight see. This was breath taking. The buildings, the memorial gardens, the Mississippi River all of it.! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.!! We went to dinner at the Acme Oyster House. I had the best char grilled oysters I've ever had.! I love oysters, and these were out of this world.! We went to the grocery store and got snacks for the stay. The next morning we decided to do some walking downtown. I saw the Jackson square cathedral, bourbon street, the Mississippi river. And the French Market. We had lunch at another sea food place. And again, we had a dozen char grilled oysters.
The next day we went to the aquarium. Cayle LOVED this. The aquarium is about the size of the Ripley's aquarium in Gatlinburg. Maybe a little bigger. They had a WHITE alligator.! And a snake as big as a telephone pole.! Needless to say I ran from it. Hahah. We walked back down to the French Market to do some more shopping. There's a lot of art in the market. A lot of medias I've never seen before. There were street performers everywhere you turned. And people who pretended to be statues.! People do almost anything to make money down there. I got to go inside Jackson Square cathedral. My goodness..this was the most beautiful church I've ever seen. The inside was painted like the Sistine chapel. There were candles, and statues everywhere.!
That night we went to this little cafe called Morning Call. And I got my first taste of beignets and some of the strongest coffee in Nola. Beignets taste like funnel cake, but better. They're very tasty. And the coffee..lets just say I used TONS of sugar. Cayle only wanted the powdered sugar off of them. Morning Call has been around for almost 150 years. And nothing about it has changed.
We did a lot of shopping in Nola. They have about 3 malls that I saw. Daddy, Cayle and I spent the day exploring them. I got some goodies from Victoria's Secret. Cayle got a Cars play set from the Disney store (that he still hasn't put down). And Daddy got some cigars. He likes to collect them.
On our very last day in Nola, we spent it at the zoo.! And this zoo was AWESOME.!! They had everything from sea lions to white tigers.! It was such a big zoo.! Cayle liked seeing all the animals. He even knew what some of them were without me telling him. Getting to the zoo was the fun part. The houses down in Nola were so pretty.!!! I loved seeing how different everything was from where I live. We ate at a very nice sea food place that night. And continued trying the char grilled oysters. And these were the best.! We made one last stop at Morning Call for coffee and beignets and made our way back to the room.
My experience in New Orleans was one of my best vacations ever. I had so much fun being somewhere completely different from Chattanooga. And to be honest..I was pretty sad to leave it. I definitely plan to go back. This trip was exactly what I needed. I was able to buy some souvenirs. I got a ring with the fleur de lis crest on it. A cup from the zoo. And a Bourbon Street glass for Troy. Cayle got a cup from the zoo, and I'm scrapbooking our tickets and pictures soon. I have more pictures on my Facebook page if anyone is interested in seeing them :)