Day 4 New Orleans to Austin

Remember the beignets we were planning for Sunday morning at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans? Couldn’t do it! Too much rich food.

We were up and out of our lovely hotel by 8 AM and then took a drive through the Warehouse District and into the beautiful Garden District of New Orleans. My experiences with the city prior to this visit had been a business trip centered at the Marriott by the French Quarter, and of course Mike’s work here after Katrina at Emergency Communities (during that time Ivan was born and moved into Mike’s tent shortly after). We’d not been to the other side of the city and the housing there is a fantastic mix of beautiful mansions built in the 1820s and 30s, surrounded by gardens and then smaller Victorian houses built around 1880 on the site of some of the larger homes which had been demolished.  Then we headed across St. Charles Ave to the college neighborhood of Tulane and Loyola Universities. Our niece Caitlin graduated from Tulane 2 years ago and we’d always wanted to see this lovely campus. After a couple of hours of touring we hit Starbucks and, yes a Patisserie and got onto Route 10, our path to LA.

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We are into the warm part of the trip as the temperature rose through the 80s and into the 90s as we drove west, skirting Lake Pontchartrain along the bayous and swamps of the Gulf Coast. For many miles on I-10 the roadway was elevated above waterways. The next few hours had us  passing through Baton Rouge and Lake Charles (shout out to Paul and Susan Miller).

As we crossed the LA/TX line the exit numbers began in the high 800’s, reminding us that we’ll spend almost 900 miles and 2 nights and 3 days driving across this one BIG state.

In Beaumont TX we passed a large facility called the “Butch Thomas Educational Support Center” which is really a large high school football stadium that seats over 10,400 people, reminding us that we are back in the land of Friday Night Lights!

On to Austin – it’s a bit like dropping in on an old friend. We checked out the new food carts and cafes in the East Austin neighborhood as well as the progress on dismantling the power station.  Then to the Driskill Hotel where we were upgraded to a lovely suite with large balcony overlooking the city. Glad to be out of the car for the night. We are now halfway to LA! Hooray!