Cruise Vacation day 2- New Orleans and Boarding the boat

Today has been such a long, busy, fun day!  We got up and dressed pretty early, we were out of the hotel by 8:30.  we took a nice walk down the streets of the french quarter to the Cafe du Monde.






 The last time Jon and I were here, the line was over 45 min long and wrapped around the building.  Today we walked right in and got a table right away.  We all ordered hot chocolates and beignets.  They were sooooo good!  We had to wait a while for them to arrive, but it was worth it.  The chocolate was too hot at first so after we finished the doughnuts we took our cups to go and walked down to the french market.








 We browsed down the isles for a while and Damon and Andrea got some souvenirs for their kids.  Jon got me a beautiful glass starfish necklace and I got Jon an alligator sausage to eat.  By the time we finished there, it was about time to start meandering back to the hotel.










  We took a quick walk around Jackson square and then went to get our things from the hotel.  We got there with just a few min to spare before checkout.  We got checked our and went to find the port.  We got a bit lost due to one way streets and bad directions, but made it to the parking garage in the end so all was well.  We had to wait in a long line to drop off our baggage and park then more long lines to board the boat.  Jon's bag got flagged by security because of his contact juggling balls so we got pulled aside while we proved it was safe.



Once on board, we checked our our rooms, got lunch at the buffet, went to the safety briefing then headed up to the top to watch us leave New Orleans and head down the river.  We stayed on deck for quite a while watching the sunset over the city.  It was so beautiful.













After it was too dark to see much, we decided to grab some dinner in the dining room.  We all ate WAY too much.  I had the spring rolls and chicken fingers for apps and the sweet and sour chicken for the entree (that was meh) then chocolate melting cake and a cheese plate for dessert.














 After dinner we rolled our of the restaurant and took a tour of Deck 5.  We were going to go in a hot tub next fut we felt the water of all the tubs and it was barely warm!  Now Jon is entertaining the public in the hallway with his juggling balls while Damon, Andrea and I unpack and I write this.  Next we will plan our day out for tomorrow and either play games or go watch the welcome show.  Tomorrow we have our first "Fun Day at sea"  This has been a great day with our friends.

Cruise Vacation Day 1- travel and New Orleans

Today was a long but wonderful day.  We got up pretty early, around 6 with the intention of getting on the road by 7.  we ended up in the car at 7:25, so not too late.  Our Drive was pretty un-eventful.  we stopped just north of Birmingham to grab some snacks and a heating pad for my chest because I started having trouble breathing again.  Then we made just one more stop a few hours later for Gas and lunch.  we ate while we drove and we arrived in New Orleans just after 2pm.  We met our first traffic of the day in the city, but it was manageable.






We had no problem finding our hotel, it is in a very old building.  The inside is beautiful, all the rooms surround the layered balcony that is open from the ground floor to the roof.  There are no outside windows in our room but we have one open to the balcony so the room doesn't feel like a cave.  Damon and Andrea left at the perfect time- about an hour ahead of us so they arrived only 15 min after we did.  Once we were all checked in and parked we sat in their room and went over our itinerary.






  We had a few hours before our diner reservation at Tomas Bistro so we walked through downtown New Orleans to the river and took a nice walk along the water.









 We were all starving by 5, so we decided to walk to the restaurant and see if they would seat us early.  they were empty, so had no problem getting us in early.  The food was delicious!  We had purchased Groupons that included one appetizer, two entrees and one dessert per couple.  Damon and Andrea got the crawfish and goat cheese crepe app and Jon and I got the sea scallops.  both were amazing although i preferred the crepes.  We each chose a different entree and shared bites all around.  It was a fun way to try more yummy food.  I got Filet minion.  Jon the bullubase, Damon the viel and Andrea the duck.  Andrea and mine were the best in my opinion but all of them were fantastic.  We ended our meal with dessert.  Damon and Andrea had the bread pudding and Jon and I had the apple tart.  Once we finished all that amazing food, we were all stuffed and tried so we rolled ourselves out the door and decided to head back to the hotel.












 The streets were crowded and dirty, but we had a nice cool walk back.  I have had lung issues for months now that cause shortness of breath and coughing and i was worried that it would cause major problems but although I did cough a bit, and we had to walk slow, i don't think it impacted our evening too much.  Not such a bad thing to have to slow down occasionally.  When we got back to the hotel, we changed into jammies and called our kids to say goodnight then we all hung out in our room and played Sushi-go!  We enjoyed 3 games before we all decided to call it an early night.  In bed by 9! But we have a really full and fun day planned for tomorrow.