Travel Log - NOLA 2026

January 12, 2026 - Once again find ourselves in New Orleans, not at all surprising. This is our city - many memories of wandering the French Quarter, catching some music, or trying a new restaurant. It's different being outside the main city at an RV park, you can feel a little removed, but once you see how fast you can make it to the city center, you realize how small a town this really is. We are here to celebrate Carnival from start to finish. We barely made it (got hit with the flu really bad) for the kickoff - celebrated with the Krewe de Jeanne d'Arc, where we toasted Joan and had the first legal bite of King Cake for the season. Rediscovering a love for King Cake, been largely unimpressed with them and struggled to see the fervor over them and then we tried, of all places, Rouses Supermarkets' cake, and we may be becoming believers. Hubigs did not impress, but we are on the hunt for the seemingly unanimous best cake in the land - the coveted Duong Phuong. We'll see if we get there. Meanwhile, week one had some seafood, a visit to a couple of breweries we love - Abita and Urban South, and reconstructing our little home after Alabama did a number on it. So much more to come, let's see what week 2 holds.

January 20, 2026 - Another week down, and some great fun had. Started the weekend off with a misguided trip to Houma, LA, for a farmers' market that was missing the farmers. No produce, lots of baked goods. Still a nice outing where we found a cajun meat market (snagged some boudin and tasso, more on that later), some cool drives along the bayou, and the Cajun Country welcome center with some great info and the nicest man - one of many nice folks we'd meet this day. We headed back to spend some time with the pets, then off for the Krewe Mosaique parade - rain came in, but did not dampen spirits. Drinks at the Pirates Alley Cafe and on to Chartres to grab a spot. Shared the space with a nice family whom Sabrina befriended and defended from bead snatchers. Fun small parade made up of about 10 marching krewes, lots of variety and enthusiasm despite the rain. We followed to the end and enjoyed an impromptu drum line with neon skeleton accompaniment, then decided to reminisce at the old W hotel where we got married. Sabrina had food poisoning the day before our nuptuals so she missed the rehearsal dinner - so this was a redo of sorts. Decent food, and Sabrina made another friend of a solo diner who narrowly escaped the swingers at the end of the bar. On the way out, in a way that seems to happen in NOLA, we accidentally but seemlessly joined some Brits on the way back to the car for some lively conversation then on home to bed. Sunday was a chore day interspersed with some errands, where we got to explore some neighborhoods we never get to, which was fun in its own way. On Monday, we were able to run down to Bayou Sauvage and take the first real hike of the year amongst the cypress and reeds, plus a stop by Gambino's Bakery and Puccino's coffee.