Category: Places

We spent 2 nights in St Pete’s. It was a bit of drive from Tallahassee and the Air BnB had a 5pm check in time. With time to kill we stopped at Crystal Rivers.

It’s a spring fed river with clear water and white sand. It’s famous for its manatees, or so we were told as we saw zero. When the gulf temperature drops the sea cows (nature’s speed bumps) swim up the river the bask in the warmth of the springs. Despite their rotund figure they don’t have much body fat. Despite the lack of manatees it really was a beautiful place. Unfortunately you can’t enter the water from the park to preserve the banks. We had to settle for watching others have fun.

Next stop was Walmart to get some costumes for the boys. Turns out if you leave buying a costume for 3pm the night of Halloween there’s not much left! Thank goodness we found a Buzz Lightyear suit for Moose, just ever so slightly too big with a Woodie treat basket. Ollie had to settle for a Batman onesie.

We’ve stayed in some ghetto places before and St Pete’s proved to be more of the same. We arrived just after 5 and couldn’t see ANY kids walking the streets. I put them in the car do some candy tourism. I figured there’s an elementary school near by therefore kids, therefore candy. Nope. As a last ditch effort I googled the nearest Trader Joe’s and hit up that neighbourhood. Jackpot! Seemed everyone had the same idea too. Vans were pulling over and letting kids and parents up. I felt much less guilty!

This street was amazing. Families, young couples, retirees all put in phenomenal efforts on their decorations.

We put a bucket of chocolates outside our place in case anyone came by. When we got home none of the treats were taken! I reckon I bought 300 chocolates. We dumped them in Miami. Our neighbours seemed to be partaking in the “Devil’s Lettuce” so we hooked a bag of candies to their door knob. It must have been good product because they were too paranoid to take it and it was still there the next morning!

The next day was an epic drive to Miami Beach.

Nashville is now my favourite city. We spent 4 nights directly opposite Vanderbilt University (where one or both of my children will study). It was a jam packed few days that I’ll summarise below. Keeping up with this blog is turning out to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated!

We couldn’t decided which museum to go to. I’m a bit of a country fan but no means a die hard. I know much more about classic rock so we decided that the Musicians Hall of Fame would be a good compromise. What actually sealed the deal was finding a good deal on Groupon! It was a great museum that transcended genres and eras. It also had a lot of material about producers and the production of famous albums. There exhibits dedicated to Cash and Hendrix complete with some amazing outfits. All in all, I rate it.

Next we walked up and down Broadway with all the Honky Tonks. Seems like every country artist owns one. There was Kid Rock’s, Alan Jackson’s and Florida Georgia Line’s to name a few. The street is filled with music pouring out of the bars, all live of course. Even at 11am it’s pumping. Not at all dirty or seedy though. Thankfully the kids had a bit of nap so we were able to enjoy a cheeky roof top beer. I’m looking forward to comparing Broadway to Vegas, I feel Nashville will win.

The next day we went to the Johnny Cash museum. Despite Hanika’s impression I am not the world’s biggest Cash fan. I am, however, a big fan. The museum was great and featured a walk through of his life from his upbringing on the farm to his last music video “Hurt” and everything in between. There was lots of memorabilia and quite a lot about his collaborations including as part of “The Highwaymen”. At the end of the museum there was a man who seemed to be in his late 60’s shaking hands with everyone. Turns out it was Johnny’s youngest brother. I made a quick exit without shaking hands.

That night we went to a show at The Grand Ole Opry and left the kids at home with a babysitter. The Opry is one of the most famous music venues in the world. It continues a live radio show, syndicated all over the world. The show had 4 music groups each playing 3-4 songs and a comedian called Henry Cho. Before I talk about the music you have to check out Henry. He was absolutely hilarious. I would have considered the night a success if he was the only act. The venue was packed and we secured last minute nose bleed seats. I didn’t know any of the groups except for Charlie Daniels, of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” fame. All the music was great including a bluegrass band and a newer pop/country group from Scotland. We finished the night by having a drink at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It’s absolutely massive! When you walk in there’s a tropical atrium complete with water features. We had an over priced beer and dessert and pretended like we belonged before heading back to the kids for a dose of reality.

We asked our Uber driver where we HAD to each and she suggested Hatty B’s. It’s a famous (apparently) fried chicken joint, and the original location was just down the road! We walked down and it was PACKED. We arrived with two prams and two hungry children. We finally found a place to sit but by then the order line was out the door and down the street. We settled for getting Uber Eats and eating a home. I’m not a fried chicken connoisseur but it was ok. Perhaps it would have been better without the 20 minutes sitting in someone’s car? It certainly wouldn’t have been worth putting the kids through waiting in the tiny restaurant.

Overall a very busy few days in a great city. I’m hoping that one of brothers/friends will consider having their bucks party here. If not, I’ll just wait till I send the boys here for university!

Our next main stop is NOLA with small break in Jackson and Birmingham.

We’d been looking forward to visiting New Orleans for a while – we’d both heard about the culture, the food, the music and we were excited! We arrived around lunch time and had time to kill before checking into our next Airbnb, so we decided to go to Storyland in City Park. City Park in New Orleans is enormous – bigger than Central Park in NYC. It has a couple of golf courses, two stadiums, lakes, a forest, a community produce garden, an amusement park and Storyland. Unfortunately the amusement park was closed, but Storyland was great. It’s an outdoor area with giant sculptures of characters and scenes from children’s book that you can walk around, climb on and interact with – there was Alice in Wonderland, the Three Little Pigs, Snow White and lots more.

When it was time to check in we hopped back in the car and made our way to the Airbnb, only to arrive to find the front door open….Hmmm….Turns out the owner was inside with a plumber doing some repairs so we had no running water. Not a great start… So we dropped off our bags and went to a playground across the road. Still no running water when we got back to the house so we decided to have dinner out. We got back an hour or so later and thankfully had running water. Unfortunately we also had a leaking toilet….Fortunately it wasn’t a major leak and was still usable, but the plumber was due to come back the following day to fix said leak.

The next morning we went to Audobon Zoo. It was the first zoo of our trip since crossing the border into America and it did not disappoint. As we were there fairly early in the morning a lot of the animals were active and we could see them moving around their generally spacious enclosures. We got good views of the lions, giraffes, rhino, zebras and gorillas. My favourite were the flamingos who actually make a sound like a goose!

That afternoon we went on a swamp tour. I have to admit I was not initially keen on this as when I think of a swamp I think of dirty, stagnant, smelly water. But I was proven completely wrong and it was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of the Yellow River Cruise in Kakadu, NT that we did a couple of years ago. We cruised through the bayou in Jean Lafitte National Park and saw alligators, egrets, deer, a racoon and little river shacks. The tour guide was very entertaining and had a wealth of knowledge about the local area, information about the wildlife, and even had a 3 year old alligator stashed away that he brought out at the end of the tour for us to hold. Moose was very excited! It was a wonderful tour that I would highly recommend. After the swamp tour we headed down town to have a look around and had a great time wandering through the narrow streets, seeing street performers in Jackson Square and hearing jazz music from every pub and bar that we passed. It had a very European feel (not surprising given its French and Spanish past) and was also quite touristy. I had been advised to try a beignet, which is a fried dough/pastry treat that is doused in powdered sugar and is a New Orleans specialty – it exceeded all expectations and was totally delicious! I vowed to have one every day until we left. We wandered around some more and then had dinner at Gumbo Shoppe – gumbo is another New Orleans specialty and is a type of stew, also delicious! After that we headed home….. to a still leaking toilet…

Day three and we decided that cruises were our thing so we went on the Creole Queen Paddleboat cruise along the Mississippi River. But not before scoring another beignet. This was a historical cruise with another very entertaining local providing commentary and an account of NOLA’s French, then Spanish, then French, then American history. The cruise took us to the Chalmette Battlefield where we disembarked and learnt about the Battle of New Orleans, before hopping back on the boat to head back downtown. The return journey was quite incredible as we heard a detailed account of Hurricane Katrina, its devastation upon the city and its people, the strategic and bureaucratic difficulties in securing aid and then the recovery and revitalisation of the city.

We had lunch at a restaurant with a live jazz band which the kids thought was great and had some catfish (you guessed it – a New Orleans specialty), then did some more wandering down town through the French Market, Frenchmen Street (which has some funky bars and jazz clubs) and Bourbon Street (which is more debaucherous and touristy). We headed back home for dinner and were greatly relieved to have a properly functioning toilet.

Our final full day in New Orleans was wet and stormy so we went to the Butterfly Garden and Insectarium. Although I’m not a huge fan of creepy crawly things it was actually very interesting to see and learn about a lot of different bugs and Moose really got into it. My favourite part was the butterfly garden where there are beautiful butterflies of all different colours and sizes flying around you as you walk through. One landed on Moose which he didn’t really like. One landed on Ollie and was lucky to escape with its life! At the end we went to the museum cafe and could try some edible insects – Moose didn’t bat an eyelid as he downed a deep fried cricket and then a choc chip cricket cookie. All he could say was “I’m still hungry!”

My fantastic idea for the afternoon was to go to a particular bar called Pat O’Brien’s that I had heard was famous for its dueling pianos. I had imagined it being really entertaining and thought we would all have a blast. Turns out dragging the entire family through the rain to the courtyard of a bar that is almost washed out and that doesn’t allow anyone under the age of 21 anyway just results in tired, wet children and no-one has fun. So as we sat undercover on the patio of the bar instead, and Ollie slept in his pram and Moose slept on my lap, Seb and I tried to salvage the afternoon by having a cocktail and sharing a huge piece of chocolate cake. It kind of worked until we then had to walk through the rain again to get back to the car to get home. All in all the afternoon was a write-off but I think they’ve all forgiven me now!

The following morning was still a bit wet and dreary, but luckily, we were off to Florida and its white sandy beaches – but not before stopping for a final beignet on the way out of New Orleans!

We arrived in Jackson, Mississippi before check-in time for our Airbnb, so we took advantage of the sunny (and humid) weather and spent some time at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. The kids had a run around on the playground and Seb got some great pictures of the wildlife, in particular some beautiful bird life. We also convinced ourselves we saw an alligator or two pop its head up above the water but of course didn’t manage to get photographic evidence. Our Airbnb was a lovely house very close to LeFleur’s, some cafes and, more importantly, a bbq restaurant right across the road called “Pig and Pint”.

The following day was mostly raining so we had a slow morning then went to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science – Moose loved looking at the dinosaur skeletons and fossils and then got to meet and touch a tortoise and an alligator. That evening we took advantage of the Pig and Pint for dinner.

The next morning we packed up and left for New Orleans.

We spent 2 nights in Birmingham as a stop between Nashville and NOLA. We chose Birmingham for its rich history. We arrived very early after making good time getting out of Nashville.

Our first stop was the Southern Museum of Flight. It was reasonably sized with some fantastic aircraft including the A-12, the precursor to the S-71. It had a whole section dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African American squadron in WW2. They also had lots of low fidelity simulators which kept me and Moose busy.

After we checked into our hotel. It was an “Extended Stay” chain. Situated on the main highway, sandwiched between better looking hotels but next to a Walmart. The check in was smooth and it was at the front desk that you “ordered” your ammenities. I booked the hotel because it had a kitchen. Upon reading the reviews it was clear that it was empty! At the front I got plates, bowls and cutlery… for 2! Even though we were clearly 4! Alas, it was a decent size room, didn’t smell like smoke and was dirty cheap. Plus it had free breakfast. And by breakfast they mean a pot of coffee, some Nature Ways bars and some dirty packaged muffins. Still, really cheap!

The next day we hit up the farmer’s market, finally one worth going to! Also the first one we went on a weekend. It had tons of local fresh produce, meat and treats. We bought dinner including fresh pasta, Shiitake mushrooms, smoked pork sausages and multicoloured peppers. The Shiitake mushroom stall also had logs for sale that you could just harvest the mushrooms off. The multicoloured peppers were a bit of a dud. Turns out small purple and yellow peppers are more bitter than green ones! Moose was unimpressed.

After the market we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This was a free entry because Hanika scored us memberships to the Winnipeg Art Gallery which offered reciprocal entry. The museum was fantastic. It was an honest and confronting testament to the brutality of racism that existed/exists in the US and especially the South. It’s easy to forget that MLK, sit ins and the Freedom Riders happened only 50 years ago. Of course there we parts dedicated to MLK, Rosa Parks and prominent Black businessman AG Gaston. The museum in Montgomery AL came highly recommended but we didn’t make it there.

It was a short stay in Alabama but we saw a lot. We packed up and headed for Jackson MS.