Brian & Patty's Awesome Adventure!: New Orleans, La

We arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday March 30th. Neither Patty or I have ever been to New Orleans, but our daughter Crystal has with her Aunt Cynthia. We have been looking forward to the "Big Easy"!

All the campgrounds in N.O. were VERY pricey, but we were fortunate to have a Passport America one available to us called Pontchartrain Landing RV Park. We booked it months ahead which was a good thing because the weekend after we left was the French Quarter Festival so they were not supposed to honor the 50% discount that P.A. offers us. Because we booked it so early and in fact paid for it we were good to go with no arguments. This was actually probably the best one in N.O. We backed up to Lake Pontratrain. During Hurricane Katrina, Lake Pontchartrain levies breached causing 80% of N.O. to flood. The RV Park was built after Katrina, but where we are sitting would have been under 10-12 feet of water!

Pontchartrain Landing RV

After arriving and setting up we decided we needed to find some real cajun food. I found a neighborhood restaurant nearby called Gentilly Cafe. It was supposed to be open until 7:00 PM and have great Po-Boy sandwiches, We get there at about 6:30 and they were closed up tight! We were ready to leave but I noticed there was a restaurant next door called The Original Fiorellas' Cafe. The Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews were AWESOME. Somehow I missed this!

The Original Fiorellas' Cafe

The Original Fiorellas opened in the French Quarter in 1984 and are famous for Po-Boys and for their fried chicken. The restaurant has sold several times and the Fiorella family no longer owns it. About a month ago they decided to open a little family run walk in in the Gentilly area of N.O. We just luckily happened upon it!

The first night I got a roast beef w/gravy (au juice) Po-Boy. Patty got Home made Italian Sausage on Pasta! Both were ridiculously good!

The Original Fiorellas' diner

While we were waiting for our food there was a couple eating the fried chicken. I have to admit it looked pretty good. We asked the people eating it and they said it is by FAR the best in New Orleans! That's all it took. The next night we came back to get the fried chicken. For $10.95 you got 4 pieces, 2 white and 2 dark. You also got 2 sides and bread. We got potatoes and Okra. The Okra was actually really good! The chicken was so big it fed both of us full! It was for sure the best chicken ever! Kind of like Popeye's with some spice, but just 100x better! Moist as all get out, but crispy.

Sorry we didn't get pictures but we didn't think about it until we were done eating! LOL!

The next morning Patty wanted to go to Café Du Monde in the French Quarter and get some beignets. We drove to the Quarter and realized my BEAST of a truck did not belong there! Yes I could drive it through it. But good luck parking! If I could find a parking spot in the street, the streets are so narrow I wouldn't trust that it wouldn't have a dent when I got back!

Good Luck Parking!

There were some parking lots, but they had narrow spots that didn't fit my dually very well and they wanted $25.00 for three hours of parking! The RV Park had a shuttle the to the Quarter for $6.00 a person round trip. That sounded better and no worry about my truck!

Instead we headed to the City Park.

City Park

The Morning Call Cafe in the park had good reviews for their beignets. They were pretty good here.

Morning Call

You order them in three's for $2.25. Pretty good deal. They were yummy!!!

Beignets

There is a Free Sculpture Garden at the park. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is home to over 60 sculptures by renowned artists from around the world. Patty is overcoming her fear of large spiders!

Sculpture Garden

Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest continuous bridge over water according to the Guinness World Records. It is 23,83 miles long at it's longest point. It crosses Lake Pontchartrain.

Pontchartrain Causeway

When you are in the middle of the bridge you can not see land on either side. There is a toll of $3.00 to come back to N.O., but not to exit.

23.8 Marker

The next day we got serious thunderstorms with between 8-10 inches of rain. Many roads flooded until the pumps cleared it up. We stayed home and stayed dry!