Good morning!

My eyes popped open at 5am. Either I was done sleeping or I woke up because Ishu decided to pivot his body into a horizontal position, kicking me to the complete edge of the bed. Either way, I woke up rested. We got a lot of sleep this weekend, which is surprising because we spent it in New Orleans!

Ankur’s case report got accepted to a physiatry conference there, so he did his poster presentation on Friday evening and then we got the rest of the weekend to explore.

It was also his birthday weekend (Friday was his actual birthday), so I’d say we celebrated it pretty well.

New Orleans is just a quick 2-hour flight from us. Since we’ve been going back and forth to CA a ton, it felt like a nice, relatively easy flight. And Ishu is such a little traveler now. I stopped keeping count of how many flights he’s been on at this point. But, grateful that this has become an easier thing for all of us.

Saturday

We had brunch at Ruby Slipper, which was just a couple blocks from our hotel.

Their name was inspired by a “powerful sense of homecoming” when they returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It was pretty crowded, but 1) we wake up really early and 2) we popped our name on the waitlist before walking over, so we didn’t have to wait for too long. But the crowds spilling out of the restaurant and the surrounding street corners waiting for their tables made us feel like we chose a good place. Ha.

After, we walked along the riverwalk a bit until we ended up at the aquarium. Going into the aquarium was a spontaneous decision, but a GREAT one. Ishu loved seeing all the sharks and fish and jellyfish and an albino alligator. GAH. Creepy for me, but this little guy ran around the entire place with nothing but excitement.

We have yet to visit the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago, but after seeing his enthusiasm at this place, I’m pretty sure that’s going to be something we do in the coming weeks.

After the aquarium, we walked back to the hotel so he could nap for a bit. I thought it’d be kind of difficult to plan our days with a toddler that still naps. But, if anything, it was really nice for both of us too. To do a big thing in the morning, come back and rest for 2 hours and then go out and do another thing in the evening.

When we woke up, we went on the hunt for some beignets. We went to Cafe Du Monde on the Riverwalk and it definitely lived up to the hype.

Ishu’s favorite part was, obviously, the powdered sugar. And they gave us enough of it to cover 32492834 beignets. So worked out perfectly.

The people in line in front of us at Cafe Du Monde were sipping out of Fat Tuesday cups. So, while Ankur and Ishu ran outside to burn off some of that sugar, I went on a hunt of my own.

I got the babiest of sizes of my beloved Hurricane Octane (with an extra shot) and, as I took a sip, I kept wondering how there was a time in my life that I could drink one of those thermal mugs of this stuff. And wake up like nothing ever happened. Oof.

Oh, to be young again. (Those were also the days that we could squeeze 15 to a hotel room and contort our bodies to fall asleep in a bathtub. Yup, def can’t do that anymore).

We went back to the hotel to get ready to make our 5:30 dinner reservations (<– does that scream ‘parents of a toddler’ or what?!).

We had dinner at Cochon and decided that we’d like to be vegetarians moving forward. Ha.

Ishu tried the alligator. Ankur ordered the rabbit and dumplings. And I ordered a side of mac & cheese because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stomach the meat stuff. (We’re happy we had the experience, but neither of us felt compelled to go back there. Between my inability to eat meats and seafood, I think New Orleans would be a difficult place for me to live. Ha).

Sunday

We had brunch at Streetcar Cafe and then walked over to the French Quarter. We ran circles around Jackson Square and walked around to see all the artwork people were displaying.

Someone was playing some jazz music outside Cafe du Monde. That line was LONG and we were happy we decided to go to the Riverwalk location which was a lot less crowded.

We eventually made our way back to the water and walked back to our hotel room for the daily rest.

And, when Ishu woke up, we drove over to City Park. We got tickets to walk through Storyland – a place with massive storybook sculptures. Ishu had fun seeing some of the familiar things (e.g. Three Pigs and Humpty Dumpty). And there was an amusement park right next door, which Ishu LOVED.

We went on a train ride that went all around the park, which was really nice. And then we went on a carousel ride (Ishu’s first!). Once we got off the carousel, he ran circles around it, pointing out all the other animals he noticed.

Then, he went on this Construction Zone ride. And it was his absolute favorite. We’re pretty sure he thinks he was actually driving the truck. He took his steering duties very seriously.

When the ride was over, he said “more truck,” and then went to go line up again. When it was over the second time, Ankur and I wanted us to move along and he was not-so-pleased with us.

There was one other ride he was able to go on and that was the “Slime” ride, which is like the teacups at Disney. Thankfully, he doesn’t have the arm strength to spin the cup around and around because just watching that stuff makes me sick.

We managed to pull him away from the rides. There were some tears. But we did it. And then we drove through the Garden District before heading back to the hotel.

We ordered dinner from a Mediterranean place and ate in bed while watching The Office.

This was also the day Ishu learned how to somersault. Ha. I didn’t capture any pictures (only one video), but he randomly decided to downward dog and then ended up in a somersault and then he continued to roll around our hotel room for the day when he discovered his new skill.

Monday

We had a late afternoon flight so we managed to squeeze some more stuff in on Monday as well. Starting with beignets at Cafe Beignet. We knew we needed to try them since there’s an ongoing debate about which one is better.

I also liked that they served Jambalaya that didn’t have seafood in it.

Ishu liked the self-playing piano the best.

I think we liked these beignets better than Cafe Du Monde. They were doughier. But I can see the appeal of wanting something less dough-y too. So, you really can’t go wrong either way.

After breakfast, we packed up our things and checked out of the hotel room and went on a swamp tour!

The swamp was full of alligators and they all lingered near the boat, likely because they’ve learned that this is how they get food. The guide also had a baby alligator on board and everyone got to hold him. He peed on the first person who held him. Which was, thankfully, not us. Ha.

And that’s it! I made a video of all our little clips from the weekend. (That took up way too much of my time and my eyeballs hurt, so I think I’ll stick to primarily blogging from here on out. Ha).

Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Happy Monday Tuesday!