The Gulf Coast + New Orleans, LA

After Savannah, Scott and I drove to Florida with the intent to stay at this lovely campground located at the tip of a small peninsula near Port St. Joe. Driving through Florida took a while, but wasn't terribly painful. It mostly just looked like this...

... until we suddenly burst out of the woods and the rest of our drive looked like this...

Now, I started this post by saying that we "intended" to stay at the lovely campsite on the Gulf because that is not  what happened. After driving around eight hours from Savannah to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, we were greeted by a glaring "No Campsites Available" sign. What were we left to do? We had no other lodging options on this peninsula that I assume couldn't be home to more than 136 people... which is probably an overestimate. So we pragmatically decided to keep driving and just make do with any other campsite that came along. TOO BAD EVERY CAMPSITE IN ALL OF FLORIDA SEEMS TO COMPLETELY BOOKED FOR ALL OF ETERNITY! After approximately 12 hours on the road and our seventh rejection from various state parks and privately owned campgrounds, we decided to bite the bullet and just got a hotel in Pensacola.

After driving straight through Florida and having our dreams of beachfront camping completely crushed, we had a much more productive day on Tuesday. We got up early to start heading towards New Orleans, which has always been a dream destination for me. On the way we stopped in Biloxi, MS to take a short stroll on the beach and then hopped back in our new home, the car.

Biloxi, MS

When we got to New Orleans our first task was to get the dogs some exercise, as they were starting to go a little stir crazy. After one failed attempt at a dog park that turned out to be private and open only to those dogs privileged enough to have owners who bought them an annual pass, we decided on City Park, a great open space at the northern side of the city. Although we're still not entirely sure whether or not we were allowed to walk the dogs there (the signs were very ambiguous), it was a great place for it! Tons of open lawn space and huge shady live oaks... the dogs had a great time!

After we checked in to our hotel and deposited the dogs in their much desired air-conditioned nap space, Scott and I went out into New Orleans proper to see what it's all about. Our hotel was conveniently located only two blocks from the French Quarter, which made for a really easy walk to the heart of it all. I could have walked around snapping pictures of buildings for days... and I think Scott liked it too :)

We went down to Bourbon Street for dinner and made a great discovery... they block off Bourbon Street at night so that people can abandon the sidewalk and walk (or more likely stumble) through the street, it's great! We ate at a restaurant that opened up to the sidewalk, I had Creole Jambalaya and Scott ate some spicy Shrimp Alfredo... both dishes did not disappoint!

Although there were some minor setbacks, we survived (and greatly enjoyed!) the Gulf Coast. After New Orleans it was on to Austin, TX! More on Texas to come later...