There's been a lot of yelling and gnashing of teeth over political stuff this past week (i.e. all the Rhambo diaries). I thought a nice diversion on a Sunday afternoon would be to find out where people either a) went on their honeymoon or b) had a memorable trip on a vacation. I certainly don't want to exclude people who aren't married or who didn't have a great honeymoon from sharing their trip experiences.
As our 14th wedding anniversary is this week (Wednesday, the 30th), I was thinking about the honeymoon that my wife and I took back in 1995. We had a great time for the most part. We spent 4 days/3 nights in New Orleans and then a whole week on S. Padre Island off the Texas coast. We had always wanted to go to NO as we were big Anne Rice fans and had come to be very interested in the city after reading her descriptions of it in her many books. We thought NO would be a little different for a honeymoon destination, and yet we also wanted to go somewhere with a beach. So we decided to also spend some time down on Padre Island (not the usual destination that comes to mind for honeymoons as far as we knew).
The hotel that we stayed in while in NO was the The Hotel St. Pierre located at the corner of Dumaine and Burgundy streets on the northwestern edge of the French Quarter. It's an historic hotel and consists of a series of converted slave quarters:
The Hotel St. Pierre, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a collection of 18th century Creole Cottages, many dating from the 1780’s. The hotel includes the Gabriel Peyroux House which was erected in 1780 for Gabriel Peyroux de la Roche, a native of France. The house originally stood on the family plantation on nearby Bayou Road but was moved to the Hotel site by the family. Gabriel lived here with his wife, Maria Susana Caue. Maria’s father once owned the entire empty square that is now the Hotel. The house and much of the square remained in the Peyroux family until 1850.
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The Hotel St. Pierre main entrance
I guess they no longer want to refer to them as slave quarters (note the "Creole Cottages" in the description. But I remember in the description that we read 14 years ago it distinctly said "slave quarters). We never saw any references to it being haunted, but we had some creepy experiences there during our stay (strange noises and the like).
We thoroughly enjoyed the food there (I LOVE Cajun and Creole food) and we also enjoyed the hole in the wall places where we could get Hurricanes and strawberry Daiquiris and then walk around the quarter with them. We took a Greyline tour of the city. Spent a fair amount of time in The Garden District. We found Anne Rice's house and we were surprised to find a pair of large dogs in the front yard. One was a big German Shepherd which we assumed was the inspiration for Mojo (the Vampire Lestat's dog in the books).
Anne Rice's House in the Garden District
We stopped at a place to have our fortune told via a Tarot Card reading, and while we were there, they announced the OJ Simpson verdict. We remember one of the readers there claiming that she had "predicted" that he'd be found not guilty. Yea right- sure you did lady.
Leaving NO was an experience we will never forget. The reason it was so memorable was because as we flew out of NO, Hurricane Opal came ashore as a weak category 3 storm, but it had peaked as a strong category 4 storm prior to landfall. It actually came ashore near Pensacola FL, but we still had A LOT of bad weather affecting the NO area. Lots of storms and wind and our takeoff was absolutely horrible. The turbulence was the worst we've ever experienced. We can laugh about it now, but as we took off, we were clutching each other thinking to ourselves "WE JUST GOT MARRIED AND WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!!
Needless to say, we didn't die and the rest of our flight from NO to Harlingen TX was uneventful. S. Padre Island was great! Our honeymoon was during the first 10 days of October and this coincides with the beginning of the slow season on Padre. Because of this we were able to get a beach-front condo (the Tiki Condominiums on the Beach) for 7 days for only $500.00. Such a deal!!! The island was largely deserted except for the locals so we had no problem getting into restaurants or bars. Padre is noted for it's spectacular sunsets, and they definitely were. The weather was fantastic that whole week.
Sunset over S. Padre Island
We took a day to head down to Brownsville TX and see the fantastic zoo that they have there. We walked around the city for quite a bit. It really was a nice city. We also ventured across the border to get to Matamoros Mexico and did some shopping. We got some great deals on blankets and jewelry. We were a little leery of the cab ride back to the border, but our concerns were groundless.
As we did in NO, we ate A LOT of great food. I had sea food every night. I recall I really pigged out an an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I ate so much that I really thought I was going to puke. It was stupid I know, but I figured "what the hell- I'm on my honeymoon!"
Another memorable thing we did while on Padre Island was to visit the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge which is directly across the lagoon from Padre on the Texas mainland. Took lots of pics of lots of Texas wildlife.
Some wildlife visited our car while we were hiking through the wildlife refuge
Sadly, our week on Padre came to an end after that. We occasionally talk about going back to Padre again. Maybe some day. I don't know if it's still a big Spring break destination, but I would recommend it during the month of October. As I said, it's their slow season and it's largely deserted. Weather-wise, it's usually in the 80's during that month (although with climate change it may be hotter now). And there was a fair amount of fun things to do.
So that's my story. Obviously people won't likely go into as much detail in their comments, but I thought it would be nice for people to share some of their experiences while traveling on their honeymoons or other memorable travel destinations.