Jackson Square in New Orleans.
We recently went on a summer road trip covering 3,000 miles in the south! The unanimous favorite place was Memphis!
We started in Florida, having our favorite Jamaican food for dinner (palm hearts curry-amazing!) at Reggae Shack in Gainesville. It was incredibly hot, 98 degrees everywhere for the first few days of the trip. Our first attraction was a dud, Haile House, which is not air-conditioned (yikes!) and not pretty either. To cool off, we went to Ginnie Springs, gorgeous nature but loaded with drunk people. The next day we had another miss- the Challenger Science Center in Tallahassee, which is no longer a science center but solely an Imax theater- what bad marketing! We were finding there’s not much to do in this kind of heat. We went to a mall- not much fun- but then had a good idea to go to the Florida Caverns which are always cool since underground! It was our second time there and we loved it. Next we visited Falling Waters State Park just nearby, and it was so interesting to look into the deep chasm where a waterfall usually falls (it was dry on the day we came but still so gorgeous). We walked the boardwalk peering down into sinkholes which was a little unsettling!
The next morning we hopped out of bed early and beat the traffic to Seaside! What a cute town! This is where The Truman Show was filmed. The town has tall architecture providing lots of shade, and the ocean breeze cools you as you walk around. Even more cooling is a dip in the ocean, which is paradise because of the white sand and cute views of the beach tower.
At night we ate dinner at 5 Sisters Blues Cafe in Pensacola.This was our best meal of the trip. Yum! Who knew that southern comfort food is SO good! The best part was the sweet potatoes, which had a taste like apple pie. The recorded Jazz music was great too!
We were ready the next morning to explore the military base at Pensacola! We walked around Fort Barrancas which was really fun. There are long tunnels, plenty of views from high up, and a drawbridge. The heat was pretty unbearable, but nothing compared to the heat when we watched the Blue Angels practice at 11am. Still, that was worth it! What an incredible sight! It’s amazing how close the planes fly to each other and at such speed!
Next we drove to Mobile AL for an icecream on their main street, Dauphin Street. What a cute place with a beautiful basilica and wonderful architecture. For sure check out the History Museum of Mobile if you ever go- a lovely museum with interesting exhibits, and free!
New Orleans was to be our base for the next three nights! We visited Jackson Square, which is just as pretty as you’ve seen it in all the photos, though even more tropical. The need for a clean restroom led us to have pecan pie at a restaurant in the middle of the morning- isn’t that just what traveling is all about? The voodoo museum was closed, even during its advertised open times so my daughter and husband headed to the Louisiana Children’s Museum while my son and I explored the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. This is one of the nicest art museums I’ve been to and highly recommended! Its building is inspirational and the art is colorful.
We had lunch at a favorite spot from our last trip to New Orleans, La Madeleine Cafe on St Charles Ave, and though it was more crowded and quite loud, we enjoyed it. The heat was unbearable but we bravely tried and tried to venture over the potholes to find The Fly in Audobon Park. There are so many potholes in New Orleans, it’s surprising! This spot was not worth the effort. I soon realized that we hit up the very best spots in New Orleans on our last trip without even realizing how lucky we were! So I decided to stick with some old favorites, and we had dinner at Little Gem Saloon, where we ate three times on our last trip! The interior is so pretty, the gumbo with a side of sweet potatoes was delicious, and there was live piano music.
The next day we tried to beat the heat early but we arrived an hour before opening time at Storyland so we walked around the Besthoff Sculpture Garden which is free to enter. It was a pleasant stroll. Next my daughter and I had a blast walking into all the fairytale sculptures in Storyland. For the afternoon, we escaped the heat at National World War II Museum, which my husband and son really liked, and my daughter was interested in too. The price was a bit steep, I thought. Escaping the heat can be really expensive!
We finished our time in New Orleans in the best possible way, with a stroll down Frenchmen Street listening to the sounds of Jazz wafting out the clubs and restaurants, and with a meal at Bamboula’s. Of course, a stroll always involves a lot of whining from the kids- just thought I’d throw in a little realism there! But overall we still enjoyed ourselves.
The last day of the first week involved a lot of driving, with a stop at Jackson, Mississippi for some time at the Mississippi Children’s Museum and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum then we headed to Memphis!
See the next post for Week 2 of our Grand Road Trip!