12/2/2023-12/4/2023
The Have-Beens: The Boys x 1000, Papa x 2, Grandma x 3, Me x 100, Husband x 1
The Newbies: Sis and Sis’s boyfriend
The Garmans are Detroit Lions Fans. The Boys are New Orlean Saints Fans. Why not travel the most haunted city in America to see them face off! We’re all in – Grandma, Papa, husband, boys, sister, sister’s boyfriend – let’s go!
This was a hectic, quick trip but we all had so much fun. The only real advanced planning was my self-led haunted tour, everyone wanted to do an after-dark cemetary tour, and obviously the game.
The boys’ father is from New Orleans so they are there all the time. In fact, they got back on Tuesday from a trip for Thanksgiving and we put them back on the plane on Saturday. They love it there but they never get to do much of the tourist stuff because the family is there. They do get all the good non-touristy food though which I am envious of.
We got in late Saturday night, rented a car and headed to the Quarter for a quick haunted tour planned by me from past experience and from Haunted History Tours Presents Journey Into Darkness: Ghosts & Vampires of New Orleans. We were getting in too late to take an actual tour so I just pulled out the four on Royal Street. We grabbed some Voodoo Daiquiris and headed out to explore at about 10:30PM. Bourbon was in full swing so it was a bit chaotic. The oldest wanted to show us a few of his favorites like Hotel Monteleone so he led us around. It was great since I haven’t been there with him since he was about 5 years old. I love seeing him approaching adulthood so we followed him around. We finally made it home around 2AM.
Sunday-Game Day – walking into the Superdome as Lions fans was amazing. Lions win so four of us are pumped, two of us don’t care, and two of us are heartbroken. This definitely took the majority of the day.
For dinner, my sis is allergic to bivalves and basically anything from the ocean which definitely made it a little tough but on her list from her “traveling with allergies group”, we were able to grab a reservation at Meril’s. They were able to tell her what doesn’t come in contact with any “sea juices” and what could be edited so she was able to eat without issue and we all absolutely loved everything we ordered – except the corn. That was weird. Don’t get the corn.
After the preplanning around the Cemetery Tour after dark (we booked the 9:30PM tour), we found New Orleans Cemetery Bus Tour After Dark* led by Geoff. This. Was. AMAZING! I really cannot say enough about this great tour but I’ll try to limit it. Half of our group are believers in the paranormal and belief we have or are experiencing it, three are probably believers but can’t point to anything, one is a definite skeptic. Regardless of where everyone stood, the tour spoke to everyone and was informative, fun and funny thanks to Geoff, and spooky as hell. My sister and I had several photos that definitely make us think we caught something while we were in the mass graves of the yellow fever and Hurricane Katrina Memorial. This tour takes you to places A.) you wouldn’t think to go otherwise, B.) you can’t go in without this specific tour like the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Thanks to Geoff, who is an Odd Fellow, we were able to get in! Great little stop in the middle for beignets, bathroom break, and beverage refills which was nice. Seriously, if you are going to New Orleans, I would take this tour. (Photo below – red is my sis’s shadow; white – you decide, we were all back at the bus…)
On Monday, we took in the National WWII Museum which is immense and probably needed more time than we had to give. There was so much to see, wonderful interactive experiences including your dog tag so you could follow along with the story of a WWII soldier. This is probably not a great stop if you have limited time in New Orleans because it really will take a full day. They close at 5:00PM so you could still do something at night (like the tour above!). We finished off the rest of our time just driving around, seeing the garden district, grabbed some Creole Creamery on Prytania, dropped my sister and her boyfriend off at their hotel since they were spending a few more nights and headed to the airport.
Exhausted and happy, we landed back in Denver at Midnight.
Helpful Product Tip:
I had seen this bag floating around in my ads and thought it would be a great bag for a quick weekend flying on Frontier which is very strict about your “personal item” and thought this looked a lot better than trying to stuff everything in a backpack where everything falls to the bottom and you can never find what you need while en route. Not even questioned by the Frontier agents when walking on when everyone else was having to get their’s measured.
coowoz Large Travel Backpack* – https://amzn.to/4aiBD9d
I liked that it opens like luggage for easy packing, there are three front pockets for easy access items. I will say that the “shoe pocket” basically takes up the entire interior so I use it more for things like my meds and liquids that may have to be pulled out if anything is going on with TSA Precheck.
*I do get a small commission if you book or buy. I will never recommend something I haven’t personally used and enjoyed. I was not paid or given these items ahead of time. I want to give you honest help, not bank on a bad product or service.
Focus on the Garman Family Travel 