Last weekend was Easter, and I reminisced about past Easter vacations. We took many vacations when our children were in school and their spring break coincided with Easter. But as I reminisced, one adult Easter vacation came to mind—in 2009, my husband and I went to New Orleans to visit our daughter who was at Tulane Law School.
I had been to New Orleans with her to scope out the law school in April 2007, and again in June 2007 to help her find an apartment after she decided to matriculate. And both my husband and I had been there in September 2007 to help her move into her apartment.
April 2009 was our first trip to the city purely to be tourists (and to visit our daughter, of course). We flew from Kansas City, which required a transfer in Houston, a miserable experience. But we got there and checked into the Marriott in the French Quarter.
For the five days we were there, we did typical touristy things—two plantation tours, a swamp tour (complete with alligators), and a harbor tour. My husband is big on harbor tours, which he wants to take in any port city we encounter. I enjoyed the plantation tours, but the swamp tour was not my cup of tea. The boat captain had a particular bayou he went to where the alligators expectantly awaited his raw chicken. I wondered if they were capable of killing for themselves anymore, though I didn’t want to test it.
We also went to the National World War II Museum and the Cabildo museum on local history—both excellent, and I highly recommend them. And we ate Cajun food, including shrimp po’boys and catfish nuggets—also excellent.
I tried to go to Easter Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, but we couldn’t even get in the door. I felt guilty when we abandoned the effort, but I think I got heavenly credit for trying.
All in all, we fit a lot in in a long weekend. Enough that we didn’t return to New Orleans until our daughter’s graduation, when we had a NOLA road trip from hell.
This year, we went nowhere for Easter. But I ordered us a lovely take-out dinner for Saturday night. My rack of lamb and polenta from Piropos were even better than the catfish nuggets I had in New Orleans. Sometimes, there’s no place like home.
What spring vacations have you enjoyed?
