Discovering New Orleans with TripAdvisor Day Three and Four

Or first couple days in New Orleans was amazing. Day one, we got to learn about the cemetery and saw some awesome homes and ate too much food. Day two, we ate even more food, saw the Cathedral and the Hurricane Katrina Museum. Make sure you read about them, if you haven’t yet. Now it’s time to fill you in on Day three and four (we flew home so not much happened day four).

We had a big day planned so we decided on eating a bigger breakfast at the house (if that café had been open on Memorial Day, we would have eaten there). We got all ready and waited for the shuttle to pick us up as we were going to the Bayou on a swamp tour, from Cajun Encounters, which can be booked hassle free on TripAdvisor. They picked us up which is so much easier than trying to get Uber to take us almost an hour outside the city (and cheaper than Uber too). On the way to Slidell our bus driver gave us information on the area and what Hurricane Katrina damaged. Years after the fact you can see buildings that were damaged and never got rebuilt.

We got to Cajun Encounters and got all checked in and waited for our tour to start. They divide people up with color coded bracelets. From there we got into the boat and went on our way. Or tour guide Greg was awesome. The wildlife is amazing, and each part of the river is different from the last. Like, each area has its own ecosystem. We saw a few alligators at first but saw more as we got deeper into the river. At that point we stopped and actually fed a few some hotdogs. We were told that they know the tourist’s boats and know they have food. Which makes since as I’m sure the boats are there pretty much all day every day over and over.

We got to one part of the river where we had to turn around as we couldn’t go any farther and that’s where we saw Hamlet (that’s what we named him). A cute wild boar. There was a raccoon who we name George Cooney (bad puns I know), but we didn’t get a really good close look at him. Hamlet was awesome though. You could tell he was used to tourists as well as he came right up to the boat wanting food, which our tour guide gave. He would have come onto the boat had it been a little lower to the waterline.

We left Hamlet and George and headed to another part of the river where we stopped in an open area and got surrounded by small(ish) alligators, which we fed more hot dogs. Overall, we spent about 1.5 hours on the boat, but saw so much. Not only did we see the wildlife, but also people’s homes and shrimp boats.

I mentioned in day Two how we made appts for tattoos. Once we got dropped off from the tour we headed over to the shop and got them, quick and fun. Then back to the house to get ready for dinner.

Our driver had recommended a place called The Joint, and we are so glad he did. It’s a small BBQ place. We got there and got in line which I’m sure there is always one. They were out of burnt ends, which I really wanted but wasn’t surprised they were out since it was later in the evening. We ended up ordering the 3-meat platter of brisket, ribs and pulled pork. Man, I could eat that brisket all day. So, if you are in the area, go out of your way and go to The Joint if you like some BBQ.  After that we headed back to the house as we were exhausted from the entire day.

We got up on Tuesday (day four), packed and headed to Café du Monde for one last breakfast of beignets. This time they were busy, but no line at all. We had breakfast, and then ordered 5 orders of beignets to go so the kids and some friends could try. Honestly, I should have ordered even more, but I did get the box mix to try and make some on my own.

Sadly, after our breakfast our trip was over as we had to head out to the airport to go home. We had such a blast that I can’t wait to go back for more food and fun. Did I mention the food was amazing? If you go for just the food, I won’t judge as it really is that good.

I want to thank TripAdvisor again for such a fun trip. Make sure you check out the attractions we went to and even more on their site. Please let me know if you did any of the activities that we did or what you would do if you were to go.

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Disclosure: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. Top Notch Material blog will always provide honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products reviewed. We will only recommend products or services that we feel are of benefit to our readers. If you have any questions, please contact me at katrina dot gehman {at} gmail com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.