New Orleans, Louisiana (Jan. 2-5, 2022)

Scenes from the Drive- Jan. 2, 2022

It was flipping cold when we were packing up and loading up.  It was 19 degrees.  There were flurries.  Texas weather is exceptionally fickle…or at least it was while we were here.

Shortly after we started driving, Evie puked. Womp womp womp.

We pulled over and cleaned her up the best we could. Unfortunately, her clothes were rather buried, and it would have been a lot of work to haul them out. So, we put her in one of Jonathan’s shirts. Perfect.

For lunch, we stopped at Cracker Barrel.  It is a southern institution after all. It just felt right. And it seriously hit some spots.

Also, Louisiana is quite beautiful. Lots of forests.

Our Airbnb was right in the business district, so there was very little parking, lots of one way streets etc. So, it was a little crazy getting our luggage unloaded. (Fortunately we had packed so that we would only have to bring a few things in)  And the Airbnb is awesome. The decor is awesome, and the use of the space is really impressive.

JAN. 3, 2022

The French Quarter

We were staying really close to the French Quarter, and so checking that out was the first order of business. And serendipitously, Jonathan had a break in meetings for a couple of hours. So he could come with us!

So we headed off toward the French quarter, Jackson Square, and Cafe Du Monde for beignets.

It was all so beautiful. I loved all of the architecture. We very slowly made our way to Cafe Du Monde and just enjoyed the sights all along the way.

Cafe Du Monde: Beignets and Hot Chocolate

Eventually we got there. As we got to the front of the line, Jonathan took the boys and Evie over to Jackson park to get a bench or something to sit on while we enjoyed our beignets and hot chocolate.

As we got to the very front, I saw a sign that said “cash only” in the window. It would have been nice to know that before. I had no cash. Let alone cash enough to but 7 hot cocoas and orders of beignets.  So I had Clara stay in line, and I went and asked an employee in a panic if there was an atm around.  Fortunately, there was one just across the street.  So I got cash, and ran back to the line, and we were able to order and get our food with no problem. Phew.

Then we made our way over to where the rest of the fam was hanging. And we all tucked in.

Jonas burned his tongue.

Isaac burned his whole mouth.

Evie spilled 80% of her hot chocolate.

Clara managed to spill some of her hot chocolate onto herself.  

I heard circus music playing in my head.

The beignets were a hit (naturally!)

And once it cooled somewhat, the hot chocolate was too.

Mom and Daughter Wanderings

By this point, Jonathan was getting close to some meetings.  So he went back to the apartment with the 4 youngest children. (Best husband ever)

And Clara and I continued on.

We mostly wandered around, enjoying the sites, and browsing in shops. And we got matching shirts. Natch.

Eventually, we headed back to the apartment too for some downtime.

Creole House for Din Din

We had a bit of downtime. For dinner, Jonathan made spaghetti for the kids, we got them settled, and we headed out for a bit of adult chow.

We went to a place called Creole House, which was located right on Canal Street, which is a pretty major (and beautiful) thoroughfare and it happens to be very close to our Airbnb.

I got the Tour of New Orleans which had small bowls of gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and crawfish ettoufee.  I honestly didn’t love the ettoufee, it was too fishy.  But everything else was good. 

Jonathan got the right thing.  He got the blackened redfish. Now, I’m not really a fish person.  But this fish was freaking amazing. Not fishy at all. And the vegetables that it came with were AMAZING.

Funnily, the table across from us came ordered the EXACT same thing we did, so our food went to them even though we were there first. But we got a free dessert out of the deal. So that was nice.

We got strawberry shortcake and bread pudding.  Both were delicious, but the strawberry shortcake was the decided winner, for us.  It was amazing.

While we were out, Clara texted us to let her know that her ear was really bothering her. She’d been complaining for a day or two that it felt like it needed to pop. But now it was starting to hurt. So we dropped by a pharmacy on the way back.

We were hopeful that it would feel better in the morning.

JAN 4, 2022- Our First (and hopefully only) Medical Exploit

The ear was not feeling better in the morning. We decided that it would be a good idea to get it checked out. So, I had Clara get her kindle (assuming that this would take a while)

We walked down to where the car was parked and drove to the urgent care.

And it was kind of a comedy of errors from there. For the rest of the day.

When we arrived, there was a line of people standing outside.  Someone said that we had all been told to just wait outside and that they would bring us clipboards, So, we just stood in line.  And stood in line.  And stood in line.

At one point, the receptionist brought clipboards outside for everyone, so at least I was able to get that all filled out. After about an hour and a half of waiting outside (I sent Clara to sit in the car thank goodness she had her kindle), I realized that the majority of the people who were waiting outside were there for Covid tests. 

And so, I finally just went in and talked to the receptionist and let her know that we were not there for a covid test. So, she allowed us to check in and and sit inside.  And we waited. And waited.  And Clara started feeling really gross.  Poor little lamb.  Eventually she told me that she thought she had to puke.  And so I sent her running to the bathroom.  And she did puke.  Fortunately she made it to the bathroom in time.

Apparently throwing up is a fairly common symptom of ear infections.  It makes sense, but I guess I had never considered that before.

About 20 minutes after she threw up, we were finally taken back to be seen.  And as soon as the NP looked in her ear, she was like “Oh yeah, this is infected.  This is way infected” Then she checked the other ear.  It apparently has a lot of fluid but it isn’t infected.  So that’s good.  Hooray!!! This is something we can treat very easily! We were quite relieved.

We got everything figured out for her to get a prescription and we were off.  

Home by Way of the Garden District

We drove back to our Airbnb by way of the Garden district. And it was as beautiful as it’s name implies. I snapped a couple of quick pictures. 

I dropped Clara off, took the car to the parking lot, and then I walked to Walgreen’s to pick up the prescription.

I got there, and the pharmacist told me that they didn’t have that particular drug in stock. (Clara is allergic to Penicillin. And so she has to take less common antibiotics.) My only option was to go to another Walgreens. Fortunately, there was another pharmacy a couple of miles away that had it in stock.

Both pharmacies were on Canal street. So it was a straight line. So, I figured that it would be faster to just ride the Canal street trolley than to walk all the way back to the car and then drive on to the Walgreens. Fortunately, I had downloaded the app. So, I walked to the stop and bought myself an all day pass.  The trolley was due any second.

But it didn’t come.  And it didn’t come. And it didn’t come.  I waited for quite a while.  And finally, there was still no sign of the trolley, and so I decided to cut my losses and walked and picked up the car and drove to the new Walgreens.

I got there, and had them pull up all the information for Clara’s presciption (and mine too actually, my Levothyroxine was also needing to be picked up.)  But they were about to go on their lunch break.  And so they wouldn’t be able to actually fill the prescription until after lunch (30 minutes). This was crazy. My poor Clara.

At this point, I was starving, so I pulled up tripAdvisor to see if there was anything decent nearby.  And I noticed a place that had come up a few times in my searches: Juan’s flying Burrito.  And best of all, it was just across the street.  So I hightailed it over there, and ordered myself a tasty burrito.  It didn’t fly.  But it was really good.

After eating, I went back over to Walgreens.  Got in line.  The prescriptions weren’t ready yet.

I sat down and waited about 15 minutes. And then got back in line. (Btw, this was a very busy location, I’ve never seen such a busy pharmacy.)

I was, once again told that the prescriptions were not ready yet.  Boo.

So, I sat down to wait once again. But this time, they called me up.  And I was able to check out, and off I went. 

I went back to the CBD (central business district) and I parked.  And then I went back to our Airbnb. 

We left our place at about 9 am.  And it was 3:15 when I finally returned home. What a day.

Poor Clara puked two more times while I was trying to track down the prescription. I felt so bad for her. I got back, and gave her the first dose of her antibiotic. Fortunately she didn’t puke it up. But she was just miserable the rest of the day.

Olde Nola Cookery

We fed the kids, and once they were all settled in bed, Jonathan went and picked up some Po’ boys for us. Num. We inhaled them. They were SO GOOD.