The Terrific3 travel blog

We started the day off early today awaiting a 730am pickup with Isabel’s tours, recommended to us by the concierge at our hotel.

Btw we LOVE our hotel—the Windsor court. I hardly ever stay in hotels so this was a treat and they have a great family suite with 2 queens beds and a sofa bed and lots of space, nice view, great customer service, and as we discovered today, a nice room service breakfast menu.

We were driven by our lovely guide John to the airboat/swamp area where we did a swamp tour. S begged me yesterday to not go as he was terrified of getting eaten by an alligator. However, all 3 of us enjoyed it. We saw probably around 20 gators, many up close.

After the swamp tour, we headed to the Destrehan plantation, one of the oldest plantations in Louisiana, also one of the places for the first slave rebellion in 1811. The tour and history telling were excellent, engaging me and the kids alike. The location was perfect too as many of the plantations are a full day commitment, being an hour drive from New Orleans, but this was just 20 minutes from the city

After the plantation, our tour guide offered to drop us off wherever we wanted in the city, so we quickly looked up some restaurant recommendations and ended up at 1000 Figs (thank you, Brittany and Blake) which was just what my plant based body craved. It was “vegan” for LA, which means they also served dairy and chicken, Lol, but I was nevertheless grateful for a flavorful meal.

Then pool time at the hotel…

In the evening, we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant that won awards for best vegan chef. The food was good, but not award level in my opinion having eaten good Thai in SF, PDX, and most importantly Thailand. And the kids were practically bouncing out of their chairs.

We followed that with really good ice cream at a local shop and now winding down for bed.

Other oddities/differences we noticed about NOLA. There is much more of a cash presence here, with some places only taking cash or charging more for credit. Also, you can definitely notice the southern hospitality—holding doors, etc. it’s nice, and noticeable.

Tomorrow is our last day and a late travel day and we don’t leave until the evening. The kids want to chill more so we’ll do some gym/pool and go to the observatory deck of the 4 seasons hotel. Gotta make sure I tire them out though!