New Orleans, Louisiana

Once we arrived in New Orleans Jason and I immediately drove to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. 

Since Bourbon St. wasn’t to impressive we just drove down it to say we’ve seen it and found a parking spot in the French Quarter.

The French Quarter has a ton of shops and restaurants and since the main strip is located right off the water, it was very beautiful. Jason and I spent a few hours walking around and taking photos of people and buildings. 

New Orleans has a large amount of buildings registered in the National Registry of Historical Places. The buildings in and surrounding the French Quarter are so beautiful. 

Driving around the city and surrounding areas, I was happy to see most of the buildings had already been repaired since Hurricane Katrina. We only saw a few commercial buildings that have been permanently closed due to damage. Because of this, my experience in New Orleans was different than pictured. Instead of taking photos of the hurricane damage, the majority of my photos are of the French Quarter and Mardi Gras World.

Galveston, Texas

About a hour South of Houston Texas, right between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, lies Galveston Island.

Lined with small shops, restaurants, cruise ships, and beaches we had to stop at Galveston Island on our way to Louisiana.

After saying our goodbyes, we left Houston to spend the day in Galveston.

After having a superb meal right on the waterfront at the Greek restaurant Olympia, we checked out the shops on The Strand. The Strand is a street filled with shops and restaurants that runs parallel to the Gulf.

The main attraction that had brought Jason and I to Galveston is the Downtown district. The gorgeous buildings, that survived  the 1900 storm and Hurricane Ike of 2008, date back to the 1800’s. A few of this stunning Victorian mansions offer tours. (which we did not do) 

After passing by the beach and seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in over two months, we decided to take the free ferry that took us East towards Louisiana.

Unlike the ferries that I’m used to on the East Coast, once out of our cars, we were able to watch Dolphins jumping as they followed the boat, and close to 50 pelicans as they dove for fish. It was a fun ferry ride over!

Once we were back on the road we decided to just drive until we were tired. We ended up staying in a Wal-mart parking lot about two hours West of New Orleans.