from the street to the swamp

After breakfast at the hotel, my parents, Mike, Henry, and I headed down to the French Quarter to walk around for a while. (Liam and Max opted to sleep in back at the hotel.) We stopped at Cafe du Monde (bucket list item for me!) and got beignets and chickory coffee (hot chocolate for Henry). Henry was reluctant to try the beignets and insisted that he didn't need his own order and would try a bite of mine "if he had to." HA! You'll never guess what happened. That's right, he tried a beignet, and the next thing I knew, he had polished off the whole plate of them. I asked him what the deal was, and he replied, "Mom, you didn't tell me these would be so GOOD!" He was covered in powdered sugar by the time we got out of there.

We spent the rest of the morning wandering from shop to shop, just browsing and exploring. Mike and my dad went into a store with a full hot sauce bar and emerged with plenty of products in hand. Mom and I found some trinkets to take back home too, and Henry managed to sweet-talk Mom into getting him a little something in nearly every shop we ducked into.

Back at the hotel, we dropped off my parents and picked up Liam and Max, and we headed out of the city to take a swamp tour. It was a pretty rainy day, but that didn't bother me any. Nor did the fact that it's not really alligator season bug me much. We did end up seeing a small alligator, along with some interesting birds, some huge feral pigs, and about a zillion raccoons. The boys loved the swamp tour, particularly since they got to hold baby alligators in the main office before we left, and they got to throw food pellets at the raccoons and pigs. (Yes, I mean "at.")

great blue heron

some kind of coot maybe?

anhinga in the rain

omg huge feral pig

raccoons and a pig back in the distance

My folks had a relaxing afternoon napping at the hotel, and we met up with them again for dinner, and then the boys played euchre with my mom until it was bedtime. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty great first day in New Orleans!