1 April 2019
I woke up bright and early, and went exploring. The streets are pretty empty at 6am:
It’s actually quite peaceful without all the people around!
I walked down to Café du Monde for coffee and beignets (and stopped to watch the sunrise):
Trolley:
Cool boat…
…with a paddle!
I brought back some beignets for Matt to try. Somewhere in all that powdered sugar is a tasty treat!
Yum!
The son of one of my mom’s classmates owns a donut shop down here, and apparently they’re really good, so I talked Matt into walking 2 miles to find some them…
Found some cool street art along the way:
Long-distance donuts!
Lots of fun flavors, but we were still full from beignets, and had lunch plans, so we got our donuts to go:
They had some interesting decor (this is the guts of a piano):
I liked the signs on this church:
Square roots:
Hey look! A New Orleans sign!
an outtake (I missed the sign), but still a cute pic of us!
Beads in trees:
Lunch at Johnny’s:
I got a catfish po’boy (AMAZING!!! I’m not really a fan of fried stuff, but this wasn’t super heavy, and there was only enough mayo to hold the toppings in place- I could eat this everyday!)
Using the fancy key drop to check out of our hotel:
Our car, riding down the elevator:
Welcome to Mississippi!
Turns out a lot of stuff down here is closed on Monday, so we had to come up with new plans…
…like visiting this lighthouse in the middle of the road:
And walking along the pier:
Welcome to Alabama!
I talked Matt into driving to Dauphin Island, even though we kept seeing all these toll signs (we don’t do tolls):
Turns out the tolls were for the ferry, not my Estuarium!
THEY HAD A TOUCH POND!!!!
I TOUCHED A RAY!!!
Pretty much the highlight of my day!
Algae was growing on the side of the pond, so the rays would rub their bellies on it
BELLY RUBS!!!
Rays have such fun under-sides!
And fun faces!
Isn’t he cute!?
Cownose ray:
Skate:
Nurse shark:
I like when turtles balance on their bellies:
Somehow, that long neck turtle burrowed under the gravel:
Just his head was sticking out and that other long neck turtle was picking at him
Jumbo shrimp:
Snapper:
Grouper:
Big eye squirrelfish:
Lionfish:
Batfish are so strange-looking!
I mean, seriously- look at him!
Hello there octopus!
Another touch pool!?
Hi little horseshoe crab!
Just down the road from the Estuarium was Fort Gaines- they had the best slogan!
but it was getting late in the day so we didn’t stay and explore.
Driving through Mobile:
Tunnel:
The water is so close to the road!
DONUT TIME!!!
Top: Chocolate (Matt’s), Bottom (L-R): Cinnamon Roll, Lemon Blueberry
They were delicious!
