Day 1: Saturday 4/25/15
After crawling into bed (read...the most uncomfortable futon ever) around 9 (me) and much later (Nick), the 3:15am alarm came awfully early. We had organized things as best as we could, for a quick departure from Nick’s parents’ house. We were on our way to Manchester airport by 4 am, and had parked my car in the garage and were on our way into the terminal by 4:15. Mom would pick my car up later...you know...at a more human hour. As we entered the terminal, we couldn’t help but notice a GIANT pack of teenagers and parents gathered together. I know I was silently hoping they wouldn’t be on our plane. We decided to delay bathroom trips and go immediately to the check-in counter so as to avoid getting stuck behind that pack.
As always in Manchester, check in was a breeze. In less than 10 minutes our bags were checked, including the one Nick had been concerned that he’d overpacked. Turns out it only weighed 33 pounds. Plenty of room for souvenirs, or perhaps heavy wet clothes from tropical downpours?
We made our way upstairs to the security checkpoint, where I found the least busy security line I’ve ever seen on a school vacation week. We were flying REALLY early. We walked straight through the line, and made it through the checkpoint with only a brief pat of my shoulder. Guess the scanners didn’t like my shirt? I’ll call the ease of that checkpoint a win.
Shortly after we arrived at gate 11, we discovered that the giant herd of teenagers was, in fact, on our flight. From listening to the kids, we discovered that it was the first flight ever for roughly half of them. From listening to the chaperones, there were 100 of them, they were in the 8th grade, and they were flying to Baltimore to begin their traditional Washington, DC trip. We also discovered that, despite the early hour and the overwhelming task of herding 100 cats...err...8th graders, the chaperones had a great sense of humor, the respect of the students, and great command of the task at hand. As the eye rolls of all of us non 8th graders increased in the gate area, one of the chaperones gathered the mob together and informed them that “Flying on the same plane as 100 8th graders is the worst nightmare of many people, so you need to be quiet, and remember that this plane is a mode of transportation, and not a roller coaster.” The eye rolls changed to chuckles, and I think most of us decided we could indeed survive the hour and a half flight down to Baltimore.
Shortly after 5, boarding began. Because the majority of the people on our flight were part of a group, Nick and I had actually managed to get A boarding passes for the first time in far too many school vacation week flights. We scored seats in the 2nd row, and were able to watch the pack of 8th graders board the plane. Again, the chaperone was wonderful, directing as many as he could straight to the back of the plane and suggesting that they “treat the flight as math class and get some shut eye”. Yeah, we liked this group’s chaperone.
One of the 8th graders ended up sitting with us and we chatted quite a bit. Turned out they were a group from our capitol city. She had never been on a plane before and had many questions. She was excited about the trip, and it was fun to see her excitement. She, and her classmates, turned out to be very well behaved, and as best as we could tell, none of them treated the flight as a roller coaster. The flight was quick; we ended up landing in Baltimore half an hour early and had to sit on the tarmac for about 10 minutes while we waited for our gate to open up.
Deplaning was quick once we made it to the gate, and we were a bit disgusted by the cold air blasting through the cracks between the plane and the jet bridge even here. We had a fair amount of time to kill, so we wandered the airport a bit before eventually grabbing seats in the gate area for our next flight. Slowly the gate area started to fill and we discovered this would be a very different flight. The gate area was filled almost entirely with adults, a stark contrast from our gate area in Manchester.
Eventually boarding began, and we ended up around the middle of the plane and settled in for our flight to New Orleans. I spent the flight doing restaurant and bar research on Trip Advisor and tracking the flight. We touched down in New Orleans about 10:40 am, their time, about 10 minutes behind schedule. The pilot announced that it was already 75*. Hello weather whiplash. It was 33* when we left NH. We shed the sweatshirts and joined the herd stampeding off the plane. The heat and humidity slammed us in the face as we stepped off the plane. We were somewhat stunned by how humid it was INSIDE the airport. Don’t get me wrong; we knew it would be hot and humid, but we weren’t quite prepared for this.
After a trek through the airport and a round of musical baggage claim, we hauled our luggage outside to the taxi stand. This was a first for me. There was a line, but true to Trip Advisor claims, it was relatively organized and moved quickly. Within probably 10 minutes we were in a minivan taxi with a driver that unfortunately proved all of the Asian and female driver stereotypes. However, we were at our hotel, the Drury Inn & Suites in good time, and most importantly, we made it there.
We dragged our luggage inside the beautiful lobby. Like the other 3 Drury Inns I’ve stayed at in the last year, we were greeted by very friendly staff members, who were happy to store our luggage for us until check-in time. Yet another reason we are really coming to love this hotel chain. You know...the free 5:30 kickback (food and 3 free drinks per person per night) wasn’t enough;) Seriously though, great perks, great service, great value. We rearranged a few items in our luggage and I changed into shorts, handed over the luggage, and then we headed out to be tourists.
Our first stop was lunch. We were starving! We were about 4 blocks from the Canal Street edge of the French Quarter (and right on the street that turns into Bourbon Street), so it made sense to just walk to the French Quarter. With the assistance of the Google Maps app on the phone, we made the trek to Johnny’s Po-boys. We found a long but moving line, and eventually we had our Po-boys. I had catfish and Nick had some sort of sausage. Both were very good, and we knew what Po-boys were ahead of time, but neither one of us could (still) figure out why they are such a big deal. They’re just subs! I have to say though, I’m no catfish expert, having just tried it less than 2 years ago, but I’ve had a decent amount since I learned I like it, and this was by far the best catfish I’ve had.
Once lunch was done, we knew we had to find cover quickly, because the weather alerts on the phone were getting ugly. After a few wrong turns because, you know, Google maps doesn’t always orient correctly to follow (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)...we made it into the Presbytere just as the rain really started to fall. The Presbytere is part of the Louisiana State Museum collection, and is located right in Jackson Square. The bottom floor covers Hurricane Katrina and the second floor covers Mardi Gras. We found this museum to be an incredible value. The Katrina exhibit was incredibly powerful and well done. The Mardi Gras exhibit was fun, and well done. And the views from the building let us see just how beautiful Jackson Square is, even in the rain.
When we were done at the Presbytere, we headed for the Cabildo, which is two doors down, and also part of the Louisiana State Museum collection, taking a few pictures along the way.
We had decided to buy tickets for both, since you get a discount buying tickets to 2 or more museums and the radar was UGLY. The Cabildo was also a great value, focusing on Andrew Jackson, the Battle of New Orleans, and the cultures that settled in New Orleans. We found it very interesting. We also found it interesting that the Louisiana State Museum collection has its own police...and not rent-a-cops either. The lady supervising the Andrew Jackson uniform glass case was armed. Welcome to New Orleans?
By the time we were done touring the Cabildo, the rain was mostly over. We decided to go back to the hotel to officially check in and relax for a bit, taking a couple more pictures as we walked.
Once there we started debating where to go to dinner. Once 5:30 rolled around, we went downstairs for a free drink or two (tequila sunrise and margaritas anyone?), and then headed back to the Quarter for dinner at the Gumbo Shop, which boasted of the city’s best gumbo. We had also found a coupon in the lobby for a free grown-up beverage with the purchase of an entree. Hey, we’re not driving!
We got into the Gumbo Shop easily. Apparently everyone in NOLA eats late. I ordered the chicken and andouille gumbo. Nick had a Creole combo platter that had jambalaya, shrimp creole, and crawfish etouffee. He took advantage of the free drink and ordered the sazerac, which is some drink that originated in New Orleans. He didn’t seem to mind it. I’m good with not encountering one of those again. We both really enjoyed our meals, and then had a dessert of whiskey bread pudding (Nick) and a praline sundae (me). Again, excellent, and the service for the whole meal was very good. Both of us agreed that we might have to eat at least one more meal here before the end of the trip.
Once we had paid, we wandered around the area a bit to see what was around, and then walked over to Pat O’Brien’s. It was time to try the hurricane. We walked straight through to the courtyard bar and got two hurricanes to go. PS, NOLA’s lack of an open container law is kinda convenient. We walked back to the hotel sipping our hurricanes along the way, stopping to buy Jazzy passes for the public transit system, and the largest festival legal bottles of water for Sunday’s day at the Jazz and Heritage Festival. The hurricanes were polished off about the same time we made it back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we crashed hard. After all, it was almost 10pm to our bodies, those hurricanes pack a punch, we’d been up since 3 am, and we’d walked nearly 7 miles according to my Fitbit. Yes, I was winning the challenges against my friends that day!
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