We left South Texas at around 4am and made the 11 hour drive to New Orleans. It’s always hard for me to leave, but I was really excited about what the road had in store for us. We made one pit stop on the way to eat lunch with one of my best old friends, Kristin. We caught up over fried gator and other cajun dishes at Mike Anderson’s in Baton Rouge. It was delicious. It was a short visit, but we still had another hour to NOLA and daylight was burning.

When we arrived at New Orleans we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to the French Quarter. I had only been once before, but it was about 10 years ago and I didn’t really remember it. There’s definitely something about that place that is just so… magical.