Louisiana

NOLA Area

By Jennie Simpson | December 18, 2021

Hey Guys!! We survived our fun in Florida and we basically started making our way back to Tennessee for the winter. We took the long way back and headed to Louisiana for the week of Jerl’s bday…to eat…

Since we were in the NOLA area, I thought we should really try to squeeze in at least one National Park Unit in the area. Thanks to hurricane Ida that went through the area early that year, all of the NP Visitor Centers in the area were closed. We could still go walk around the Chalmette Battlefield and learn about the Battle of New Orleans though. So, we spent a couple of hours on a beautiful October day and did one of our favorite things…learned some history.

The Battle of New Orleans was the final military engagement between the United States and United Kingdom during the War of 1812 and is considered by many to be one of the greatest American land victories of the war. The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 between the US led by future President, Andrew Jackson, and the UK led by Edward Pakenham on what was at that time plantation lands. The US put together an army made of many different peoples that included frontiersmen, Louisiana militia, Free Men of Color, businessmen, warriors form local Native Tribes, smuggler Jean Lafitte and his privateers, sailors as well as US troops. The Americans were extremely outnumbered, but at the end of what was a long bloody day, the Americans stopped the UK from gaining control over a vital coastlines and ports.

The Battle of New Orleans destroyed a good chunk of Chalmette Plantation leaving the Chalmette family in financial ruins. To help with that, the family decided to break up the plantation into smaller tracts of land and sell it off. In 1817, the St. Amand brothers, who already owned several other plantations in the area bought the property you see in the photos above. The St. Amand brothers who were Free Men of Color that owned several other plantations and slaves repaired the damage caused by the war, built a house, and returned the land to sugar production.

Let’s talk about the real reason we spent a week in the NOLA area…foodies. And Guys, we found so many amazing foodies that weren’t even in NOLA. We mainly stayed in the Slidell and I have to admit, it was much more relaxing and less crowded which made it more enjoyable for us. The food in Slidell is stellar! We found all of our faves and even discovered a few new faves. If you ever have the chance, go to LeBlanc’s Creole Kitchen, Jazzy Pete’s Poboys, and Beignet Au Lait!! We also stopped by Peto’s I-10 for some of the best stuffed boudin balls you’ll ever have…anywhere.

We stocked up on some of our favorite snacks before we headed down the road…gotta have road trip snacks, right?!

And…even though it was late October and heading into the Fall season…I managed to find some pretties.

The week flew by as we stuffed ourselves with the foodies and our minds with some more American history…both are important things.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour

Stop Off In Louisiana

By Jennie Simpson | April 6, 2019

Hey Guys! We spent a week in Louisiana…eating. I’m not even kidding. When I scheduled us to stop in Louisiana for an entire week it was purely to chow down on some Cajun food. We’re foodies…it’s part of the journey for us.

Lets start with the one thing we did that wasn’t food related. We took a field trip to LIGO in Livingston, LA. What the heck is LIGO? LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Man, that’s a mouth full! Try saying that five times real fast! ;-P So, what the heck do they do at LIGO? To put it in simple terms…they detect gravitational waves…with lasers. The facility works in conjunction with the facility in Hanford, WA to measure and detect gravitational waves. I’ll be honest…most of it was way over my head. We absolutely loved the hands on science exhibits!! Our little nomadic nerd hearts were in heaven!

We were lucky to even get into LIGO for a tour. They only do schools through the week and then they’re open the third Saturday of the month to the public. And, if we’d been a week later, we’d have been out of luck because they were all booked. It’s a great tour and an awesome field trip…if any of you are ever in Louisiana, it’s worth it to stick around the Livingston area so you can do a tour at LIGO.

Now to the foodies. I’m not going to break down every place we ate…but every single place we tried was amazing. Guys, that doesn’t happen often You know…you go try a place and it’s just meh and turn around and try a place right down the street and it’s ah-maze-ing. There are some states that we struggle just to find a decent burger and then there are states (like Louisiana) where we struggle not to eat out every single day because it’s all just so dang good!

One of our top picks for this visit is a place called Cate Street Seafood Station. We ate there twice…in a week. Cate Street has it all…seafood, boudin balls, pasta, po’boys, and sushi! All with a Cajun flare to it. And Guys…the desserts…I have three words for you… Fried. Bread. Pudding. It’s a good thing we don’t spend more time in Louisiana. I’d weigh two-hundred pounds easily.

See y’all down the road!

NOLA

By Jennie Simpson | April 20, 2017

Hey Guys!! We spent one day exploring New Orleans.

We stayed about an hour north of NOLA so we got to drive across Lake Pontchartrain on the longest (continuous) bridge over water in the world to get to New Orleans. This bridge is about 23 miles long with several crossovers on it. Can you imagine getting on it by mistake and having to go the full length of the bridge before being able to turn around? Yikes!

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We went on a Sunday morning hoping to avoid some of the crowds. Too bad we didn’t know about the 5k run that was taking place. There were cars everywhere, no parking spots, and streets blocked off! We made it to a parking garage where we choked on the cost of parking. We learned later that traffic is always bad and parking is always pricey in NOLA. We’d been told that NOLA isn’t really family friendly. We were hoping by going on a Sunday morning there would be more families out and there were! We had a good time strolling around looking at all of the street performers. You can see how many kids were around in the pic above.

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We headed right to Cafe du Monde! The line was long, but moved fast. Make sure you take cash if you go to Cafe du Monde. Things run a little differently there. You order with the waiter and then they go stand in the line you see in the photo above to get your order. The waiter pays with their money before they bring you your order so you then owe your waiter for your order. We’d never seen a process quite like that before. I wonder what happens if the costumer didn’t bring enough cash? Our fluffy pillows of fried dough (otherwise known as beignets) and chickory coffee came in record time. They’re pretty good, but I think it’s mainly the novelty of eating at Cafe du Monde that brings people in masses to this cafe.

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We took some time to look through The Cabildo where we learned about life in Louisiana starting in the colonial times. Check out this blunderbuss! It’s so ornate! We also got to stroll through the room where the Louisiana Purchase transfer happened in 1803.

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This is called an Immortelle. An immortelle is a wreath made of durable material (the one above is made from wire and beads) to be placed on crypts and tombs.

Throughout the late 18th century, most of south Louisiana suffered from epidemics of yellow fever, malaria, cholera, and smallpox. We stopped by St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to see what the famed “cities of the dead” look like. We made it to the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 for a quick walk through. I wanted to go to the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, but you now have to have a guided tour just to get in the gates. Pretty much all of the graves are above ground in crypts.

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We went the week before Mardi Gras and everything was decorated for the party. We took a quick peek at Bourbon Street, but didn’t actually walk down it. We’d been warned it wasn’t really family friendly.

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Since pralines (pronounced Praw-leens) is the Louisiana state candy…we had to grab some. Plus, we wanted to compare them to the ones we got in Charleston. You might be surprised by how different they were. The ones from Charleston used heavy cream in theirs and there wasn’t any milk in the ones from NOLA. The ones from Charleston only came in two flavors (original and chocolate) while the ones in NOLA came in five flavors (original, peanut butter, coconut, rum, and chocolate). We all enjoyed the ones from NOLA more.

We couldn’t leave NOLA without sampling some of the dishes they’re known for. We found a place called Mother’s. We found it on one of those tv food apps. Mother’s has been on quite a few shows. I wanted to make sure and get a little of everything so I ended up with a sampler plate. I got to try the crawfish etouffee, the jambalaya, the red beans & rice, and the turnip greens. It was all really good! The thing Mother’s is really known for though are the Poboys. Jerl got the Famous Ferdi Special which has ham, roast beef, debris, and gravy on it. Debris? What the heck is debris? It’s magic. Mother’s cooks their roast for hours and all of the juice and shavings that fall off the roast is then ladled onto the top of a poboy. It’s basically a NOLA version of a french dip. Like I said…magic.

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So! We survived NOLA! We got to see most of what we wanted to see and got out of their before it got dark.

See y’all down the road!!

By Jennie Simpson | April 12, 2017

Hey Guys!

We spent one week in Louisiana!

Maybe I should say…we spent one week in Louisiana…eating. ;-P I knew it was bad when we found this place called Ronnie’s only five minutes away from where we stayed. We went there for dinner our very first day in LA and it did not disappoint!

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I know, I know…it doesn’t look like much, but let me tell you….woo-WEE…it is amazing! What you’re looking at are boudin balls. They’re made of rice and smoked pork then deep fried. The ones we got were stuffed with pepper jack cheese. If you’re ever in Louisiana make sure to get yourself some and make sure you pronounce it like a local… boodan. Ours was served with a spicy remoulade sauce that just really pushed it all over the top! We went back to Ronnie’s just for these. Y’all, I think we gained twenty pounds here, but you know what…I’d totally do it again!

We did actually get out and see some of the state. We didn’t just eat. I promise. We made it to the SCB in Baton Rouge. Check out that front door! We were completely surprised by the Louisiana State Capitol Building.

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This is the front hall of the SCB. We haven’t seen too many great halls like this. Out of 35 states…maybe three (including LA). I mean…look at the ceiling. Look at our ornate and detailed it is! We spent several minutes with our heads craned back trying to take it all in.

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One of the things I always look for at a SCB is the State Seal. In LA they’ve got a huge one right in the middle of the great hall! This is the Senate Chamber. Check out those columns. We really walked around totally stunned at the opulence of the LA SCB.

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Now, there’s not a dome at the SCB, but there’s a fantastic view on the 27th floor! And…you can actually go outside on the walk! That was a first for us. Usually, if there’s some kind of walk up that high it’s locked. It’s usually off limits. You can look out the windows, but you can’t get outside. It was so nice being able to go outside and checkout that view!

We also stopped by the old SCB. It looks like a castle! It was very cool!

When you walk into the old SCB you immediately see this amazing staircase! And Guys…look at the dome!!! I took sooo many pictures of this dome! But, look at it! Gorgeous!! The old SCB has been turned into a small museum. We didn’t really look through it all due to time.

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The stained glass wasn’t just on the dome. There were several of these wonderful windows too! Check out this mirror! I had the boys stand next to it so you could really see how huge it is!

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Here’s another view of that ah-mazing dome…and one more shot of the outside. Because, castles are cool.

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Zapps chips are offered in tons of states, but they’re a huge thing in LA so we grabbed a couple of bags. We weren’t too impressed with the VooDoo flavor. It was both very sweet and very sour all at the same time. I’ve struggled this entire EasternLoop2016 to find decent root beer. Y’all…it’s been so hard! And then we get to LA and there’s four different Barq’s!!! What?!?! I had to get some of each.