Our Family Christmas gift this year is a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos where we’ll bookend our Galapagos trip staying around the historical center of Ecuador, Quito.
We arrived uber late into Quito yesterday and didn’t get quite enough sleep to start the day – but we did anyways.
We woke up and had breakfast at our hotel – we are staying at Patio Andaluz just a couple blocks from the main plaza in the old town.
Heading downstairs to breakfast
After breakfast, we walked around the Centro Historico town center – beautiful buildings, churches and squares — a lot to take in.
We walked to Mercado Central which is the main market for food and food stalls in Quito – the best option for traditional, local food. We tried a number of things including tortillas verde (made from green banana), corvina and ceviche mixed platter and fresh raspberry juice (all the fresh fruits and juices were available.
After walking around through late morning, we came back to the hotel briefly and decided we’d visit Mitad del Mundo which is a park dedicated to the 0 latitude location. The park involves a visit to traditional housing for groups of native people, a main square with shops and cafes surrounding a large monument to the center of the world city containing a musket and a beautiful lookout from the top. There were several groups of traditional dancers at the city square and we sat just off of this to have a late lunch and escape the only real rain of the day.
After visiting Mitad del Mundo, we came back to the center of the city to rest for a bit and then went out to dinner close by – to Vista Hermosa. Beautiful view and so so traditional food. Rawlings was very optimistic when his steak arrived but not quite as yummy as he’d hoped.
Sun Valley is the start of our summer 2021 trip — we’re traveling as a family of 4 initially and then for the last week of the trip, meeting with the extended Tunstill family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We really enjoyed our stay in Sun Valley — we stayed right in the town of Ketchum, Idaho in a great hotel for walking to any restaurant or bar option – The Limelight. The first evening we arrived fairly late after driving over from Boise and grabbed an easy dinner at Warfield Distillery & Brewery. We sat out on their roof deck and enjoyed grilled octopus, trout and burgers. After the travel day, we went to bed early to enjoy a full day!
After breakfast @ Limelight, we made our way to the chair lift on Baldy (Bald Mountain) — we were hoping to hike up to the Roundtable for lunch, but the access trail was closed for maintenance. Instead we ended up taking the lift to the very top of Baldy (>9k feet!), hiked down a good ways and then took a nicer switchback trail back up to the top.
At the end of the hike, we made our way to Roundhouse (halfway up Baldy) for lunch. The boys were pumped for massive pretzels and William and I both enjoyed our lunches. Very pretty village area and then back to chill at the hotel for a bit (and check out the pool!)
During the afternoon, we walked around the town of Ketchum – the boys spotted gourmet popsicles (Strawberry Lemonade for Rawls and chocolate marshmallow for Shepherd). We walked out to an arts festival that seemed to bring together many local artists and artisans. Shepherd and Rawlings are still talking about the chair hammock (Happy Place Hammocks – keeping a note here to remember). We walked through the Ketchum cemetery on the way back to Limelight and paid our respects to Ernest Hemingway at his grave site.
We ended the day with a perfect family meal at the Christy (Michel’s Christiana) — a classic French spot that has been a mainstay in Sun Valley for a very long while. The boys loved their Chicken and Beef Burgundy dinners and were slightly less thrilled with the escargot (not seasoned well – ha!). William and I enjoyed all the morels and a beautiful halibut entree.
It was a full day – we slept well!
The next morning, after another nice breakfast @ Limelight, we made our way to the Proctor trail – the site of the first chair lift in the world. The hike was beautiful, lots of wildflowers and beautiful landscape. Instead of beginning at the trailhead, we visited the Hemingway memorial and started the hike down from there. Slight addition to the hike, but much easier parking. We did run into a tricky situation at the very top of the hike where we were swarmed by bugs — we all moved as quickly as possible to start our descent and get away. Rawlings is still talking about all the bugs. A pretty creek at the bottom was a great spot to rest briefly on the way out.
We came back to town and had an easy lunch – KB’s Burrito – many places are closed on Sunday. We shopped around the downtown area, enjoyed a happy hour at Limelight and then made our way to our last destination restaurant, the Pioneer Saloon. It was hard to tell if this place was going to be more kitschy distraction vs. decent food, but it ended up being a perfect pick. The boys very much wanted to enjoy an Idaho potato, William was looking forward to their Prime Rib and I was hoping the seafood wasn’t an after thought (it wasn’t!). My shrimp were more like langoustines – massive and perfectly cooked. The menu was simple, but all very well done. The ambiance captures the history of the area including Hemingway’s personal gun mounted at the entryway. This was a perfect way to end our stay in Sun Valley!
We spent the full week in Portland and more of the week involved work, with adventures as able during the week. This is our collection of fun Portland spots and food exploration.
Monday – We headed to the Japanese Gardens – arriving a bit early relative to our ticket time (required!), we walked around the Rose garden
Rawls made a wish here
And we wandered the Japanese gardens for a long while. There are 5 different garden areas, all impeccably maintained. Claiming to be “the most beautiful and authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan” – we couldn’t disagree.
Entering
Koi!
Incredibly beautiful
And everyone’s favorite, bonsai
Dinner was takeout from an interesting Chinese spot, Master Kong. Rawls was really happy with this choice (we got him some eggs and avocado toast after 😉
Tuesday
William and the boys after work/school went to Mt. Tabor to see the park and the dormant volcano. Pictures are in their heads. I hear it was beautiful.
After work (EST) wrapped, we visit the “city of books” – Powell’s which is the largest new and used bookstore in the world with over 1mm books offered. It’s a pretty amazing space and William and I could have spent hours here – the boys were happy with about 30 minutes so we settled somewhere in between.
Then we met Cari Sanchez-Potter and her husband Phil Potter (Jax transplants to Portland who are so wonderful), at one of their favorite Portland spots, Nostrano. Amazing catch-up and the boys enjoyed their new Powell’s books purchases
Wednesday
William decided to push the limits with the boys again today (in a great way) and took them on a 8mi hike to Ramona Falls, outside of the city. Got some gorgeous pics out of the trip this time
Apparently remote enough that you had to leave all your info as you started on the hike
Got icy higher up!
Awesome view at top!
And some interesting crossings
Boys came back to rescue me 😉 and we met William’s music friend, Tommy at an awesome spot – Canard. The boys really enjoyed dinner BUT especially the “funfetti “ dessert pancakes. Exhausted but happy boys here.
Thursday Recharge day for all of us in different ways but a bunch of food highlights:
William went out and picked up Blue Star donuts for breakfast – Blueberry Bourbon, Raspberry Rosemary — interesting stuff and felt like we had to try while out here.
And then picked up the most incredible Banh Mi for lunch – Cuon PDX. Seriously baguette perfection.
And ended the day with takeout from Langbaan – apparently near impossible to go pre-pandemic and they converted to really well done takeout “Thai snacks”. Loved the scallop bites, shrimp and betel leaves and the octopus salad was just beautiful!
Friday We drove out towards the coast – first went to Nehalem Bay to a place called Kelly’s Brighton – colorful crabbing operation and the biggest Dungeness crabs. Each was about 2 lbs! We hung out on the docks and then picked apart the Dungeness crabs. The shell is filled with what they call “crab butter” – crab and seawater and amazingly does taste like salted butter.
Afterwards, we headed on a tour of the Tillamook creamery. Really cool facility and the active work in the factory was fun to see. Boys enjoyed this!
And some sampling of their product afterward: ice cream and cheese curds
William won the takeout ordering choice with Hat Yai – restaurant is actually related to Langbaan but a Malaysian focus with the best fried chicken (Shepherd especially agreed but only the dark meat!), and really delicious pickled things.
This morning we woke up with plans to visit a few places – first the Portland farmer’s market at Portland State University. Wow amazing access to all the local vegetable, seafood, dairy, meat vendors. Also many hot food vendors and tons of bakeries. Fully wished we could have picked up food to cook a few meals but instead we had a late breakfast and grabbed a few things for the flight tomorrow.
After the farmer’s market we went to Hoyt’s arboretum — 18 miles of trails divided into sections devoted to various tree families. We walked the firs, spruces, oak, magnolia and birch areas. Fully an area that would have been fun to visit multiple times. Last photo here you can see the boys were really at each other
Packed up and had a chill afternoon – and last meal was a Mother’s Day treat and Quaintrelle and personally best meal by a stretch of the trip.
And the description works 😉
So our waiter asked William to have his drink with his finger up.
Today was one of those days where it felt like maybe we were in verge of pulling out one too many Jenga blocks (re: attempting to do too many “things”), BUT we are at the house in Portland to wind down the day and the tower didn’t topple – we all had a great day!
Woke up in Hood River to pack for our last transition to Portland. We had breakfast at Freshies (bagels and smoothies – boys requested something other than Broder Ost, but William and I would have fully gone back). We got on the road a bit after 10am with a plan to hit a couple of must do spots on the way into Portland.
First up – Multnomah falls – an impressive falls with a short hike off of the Columbia River highway. Essentially you pull off at the exit to walk under the highway and you can walk to the base, the bridge or the very top of the falls, depending on your energy level. We knew we wanted to do a different hike, so we walked up to the bridge vantage point. Really beautiful spot:
We drove from here to the trailhead for Latourell Falls – bit of a deviation (trust alltrails for trailhead starts, never trust Google Maps 😉
While we’d heard Multnomah is the most impressive falls, the lower Latourell falls are (personal opinion) the most beautiful! Went on the roughly 3mi loop here and it was fully worth it.
After this stop, we went by Vista house – the museum isn’t currently open, but the view isn’t closed.
From here we went to Sugar Pine drive in. Will say the previous stops were fully as gorgeous as the pictures. Sugar Pine is clearly a local and visitor fave with a retro drive in feel but really inventive food offerings. The thing missed in the pics below is that it was utterly insane crowded from a parking perspective. If you can go in the middle of the week (mom and dad!), wld absolutely recommend. But seriously do you expect smoked trout and salmon rillette toast with all the fresh things from a drive-in?
From here, we made our way into Portland, heading to Cari’s favorite local market, New Seasons. Brief grocery run, checked into our home for the week and quick turn around for dinner. We went to OK Omens, one of the Portland restaurants that has converted its entire operations to outdoor cabanas. S loved the Dungeness crab, Rawls the cheddar beignets and burgers and the roasted carrots/maiitake mushrooms won me and William over!
Day 1 Our first full day in Mt Hood was a great one. Started our day with first few hours of work – amazing how much can get done before the day “begins” here. We went to brunch at the Scandinavian spot attached to our hotel – Broder Ost- and it was perfection. Baked eggs, apple fritters, and pancake balls for the boys with perfectly done smoked fish and all the pickled things for me and William. Usually I do a better job of capturing these things, but this is where we ended up.
We packed up after brunch and headed toward Parkdale and Mt. Hood National forest where there are many beautiful hikes. We opted for the Tamanawas falls hike today ~5 miles and totally palatable for all the family hikers.
Gorgeous start to the hike:
And then as we started up the mountain, I said to Rawls “hey bud, watch the edge there” — he seemed ok at the moment and then became mr. grump for the next couple miles. I kept trying to talk to him abt what was going on and finally he shares “when you said that, it made me feel like I was going to fall”. Asked if we could move beyond and if he could forgive the comment to which he responded “yes, I will, but today is not going to be that day” and then he fully recovered and was a bright spot the rest of the hike 🤷♀️
Rawls said this would be his home if we left him on the hike:
And some other pretty snaps along the way:
And then we found Tamanawas falls:
We headed back with a nice stop in Parkdale and the brewery with the best backyard, Solera!
Back to the town – we rested a bit and had an early dinner across the street at Celilo – very season spot with great asparagus and local shiitakes / morels all over the menu.
Day 2 And last full day in Hood River before our final stop, Portland and first day we were able to sleep in. Started our Saturday again at Broder Ost (and definitely makes me want to visit Scandinavia!). William tried the Swedish meatballs which he said reminded him of Grandmama’s country fried steak. Still loving all the smoked and pickled things.
We decided to head up into the mountains to try out a hike and get a better vantage point of Mt. Hood. When we got up to checkout the trail (with forewarning that there’s a lot of snow but easily passable without snow boats) we let the boys walk down a bit in the snow, but felt a little much for our water resistant hiking shoes.
We wanted to take a peek at the Timberline lodge – it’s an all-year round ski destination and where the Shining was filmed. Unfortunately no outside visitors inside at the moment, but we saw a great view of Mt. Hood and the exterior.
On the way down, we headed back through Mt. Hood National forest. The boys were protesting another hike today, so William made a deal that if they started one, they could “call it” along the way. Made it about a mile into Dog Creek trail before they did, but was still a pretty stretch.
Back in town we visited Stave and Stone tasting room for a flight — some of the wines (rose and Pinot noir) has a slight smoky taste from the terrible fire out here.
Walked back down to the Columbia River Gorge and spent some time on the beach waiting for out Solstice pizza table. So windy and fun to watch the kite surfers.
Dinner was at the wood fire pizza spot – Solstice. They’ve creatively built all these wooden pods outside the restaurant to keep their capacity over the past year. Perfect crust – creative ingredients (William tried the cherry, goat cheese, sausage! Cremini and caramelized onions for me)
Welllllll- today was a bit of a day. We packed up at the cabin, excited to move on to Hood River, ideas of being there for lunch after a pleasant, scenic drive. Logistics spirits have been with us and today felt like it would be an easy transition.
So we leave cute Packwood, and start towards Hood River on the route Maps directs us to – Forest Road 23. Starts quite beauteous, waterfalls and beautiful forest, roads start to get a bit worse, then a lot worse (terrible, giant pot holes) then a dirt road, then a hint or snow.. and then we realize the snow is about to get very real and dangerous. We’d been on the road for ~25 miles with no service the entire stretch and started envisioning what getting stranded might look like. Fortunately made the decision to turn around and when we got back to service, saw on the state website that the road is considered closed/impassable. No warnings when entering and Apple and Google Maps continue to show this route optionally with no warnings BUT Waze doesn’t even present it as an option. New Waze fan for life.
I’m sure all can imagine that S’s stomach didn’t like the route at all but when we got out to try to prevent nausea, he asked me to snap one “good memory” from the attempt. Here you go
So course corrected and back on the route to Hood River through Portland. The stretch of road along the Columbia River towards Mt. Hood is absolutely gorgeous. We dropped some laundry off and checked into the Hood River Hotel – a refurbished historic hotel, right in the downtown area.
After settling in, we walked around the downtown area – it’s a beautiful, historic spot – reminded us a bit of Brevard. Great local restaurants, breweries. Hometown of Tofurkey, Full Sail and pFriem breweries, quite a few wine tasting rooms and all the Subarus.
We walked down to the Columbia River Gorge where there’s a waterfront park and beach area. Much kite and windsurfing happening bc of the great breeze.
We had a late afternoon stop at pFriem – great brewery and food spot right off the park.
And the boys wanted a dessert stop – so scouted the cutest ice cream spot in town – Mike’s
Good recovery at the end of the day, but phew- glad to be here!
Our next visit was around Mt. Ranier National Park. We stayed in a very small town called Packwood – in a restored cabin that at one point had been a structure within the Ohana Springs Resort, located inside of Mt. Ranier National Park. The boys thought this cabin was the best spot we’ve ever picked to stay.
We are back to some hiking adventures and felt so good. William scouted a great one today and it was beautiful. ~8 miles and 5K in altitude change ^ so we’re all going to sleep well. I think Rawlings has reached the point of having more stamina and zero grumbles on the hike, maybe until the last half mile stretch when we were already to sit down.
Couple firsts! – First time breaking into a National Park 😉 – First time hiking in a National Park and seeing zero other ppl on the trail – First time the boys really wanted to keep going on the hike and we said, eh we need to turn around (shouting “but our legs don’t hurt!” – you’ll see why we turned around below)
Boys breaking into the gate 😉 don’t worry – you’re allowed to – just means you have to walk the extra miles to/from trails
Getting started
Pretty lookout spot for lunch
And then we kept hiking from the Silver Falls loop up the Patriarch Graves offshoot and found… snow (started to fully cover trail and get deeper so.. we turned around. No one was wearing boots)
Walked back to down to finish the loop and found a beautiful lookout
And home stretch.
We all rested here at the end of the day after some tacos at White Pass taqueria!
The next day, was about finding a good vantage point to see Mt. Ranier. Instead of going into the park, William found a trail in Pinchot National forest that has a great observation point – Dry Creek trail. The trail itself was subject to more downed trees than in the park and when we got started, one of those had been setup as a bridge.
The trail the previous day may have technically been longer and had more elevation change involved, but today’s trail was legit up up up – very little flat and it was a harder hike for all. Rawls summed it up well here:
But making it to the observation point was entirely worth it! There aren’t many spots to see Mt. Ranier really well and the highlight of the hike was staring out at this for a good long while:
And then to make the trek down which was quite pleasant
We came back to the cabin, enjoyed the hot tub and rested for a bit. Our plan was to go to what we’d heard was the best burger spot in all of Washington (per Yelp and USA Today and everyone you ask around here) – but Cliff Droppers was closed upon arrival. Amazingly in this year of unpredictable times, this is the first time we’ve shown up somewhere to find it closed. So we taught the boys the word “pivot” – visited the grocery for steaks/Bellas/mashed potatoes and William is currently cooking things out here:
Chiller day than the last two. Weather wasn’t quite as beautiful as the last two days in Seattle, however we felt like this was the weather we were meant to expect in the area.
We got on the road from Seattle around 6:30 (still very easy with the time change) and drove to the ferry at Anacortes – very pretty drive along the way. The ferry took us through several islands, stopping at Orcas and dropping us at Friday Harbor.
When we arrived in Friday Harbor, we thought we’d go to the farmers market and get things for lunch and dinner, but we realized very quickly that the market was in “Low season” with very few vendors. We walked two blocks to the San Juan Island Brewery to a surprisingly great lunch. Burgers for the boys, Salmon sandwich with pickled peppers and French dip for William.
We drove across the island to Snug Harbor (all of 15 minutes) and it was nice to be out of the Friday Harbor cluster. Snug Harbor is a quiet marina and resort with individual cabins scattered across the side of the island. We checked in quickly and made our way to the dock to attempt to find a whale with Maya’s whale watching – which maybe cld be called, it’s possibly you’ll see a whale but don’t get your hopes up – better to have gone in that way! Anyways we saw all the non-whale wildlife – 3 types of porpoise (dalls, halls and harbor), 3 types of seal (harbor, stellar and black oyster catcher), a quick penguin dive, miniature puffin, sea lions and many bald eagles and other birds. We enjoyed and also Rawls took a nap.
Cozied up and cooked dinner together at the cabin / salmon (steelhead and amaze!), salad and potatoes. Something simple after last few days was perfect.
Day 2
Woke up today to similar but slightly better weather – on and off teensy drizzle and some fog but enough clarity to see the landscape clearly.
After breakfast in our cabin, we drove towards the southwest of the island, stopping first at San Juan park. We thought how nice it would be to have this within weekend camping distance of home – beautiful setting and boys enjoyed playing by the water.
From here, we headed to Lime Kiln State Park which is the most likely spot from the island to spot Orcas – there are two groups of Orcas to potentially see (of which we saw neither) – pods that stay within the area and feed off of Chinook salmon: these are endangered as Chinook salmon populations have declined or migratory pods that pass through these channels and have an expanded diet: these populations are thriving. We hiked along the coast to “dead mans bay” and on the way back, I asked Rawls if he was keeping a close eye out for Orcas – “no, mom. I’m trying to find gems on the ground”. Priorities.
From the Southwest tip of the island, we drove up to the Northwest corner towards Roche Harbor. We made a brief stop along the way at the “English camp” where British troops camped out for some time. Apparently in 1859, the US and British troops nearly went to war over the slaughter of a pig // which was really an argument over unclear borders. Apparently US territory was to the east of a channel, but it was unclear which of two channels was the outer border. Through peaceful negotiations, San Juan island was determined to be part of the US. This picture includes and English garden which apparently was setup to provide cheer to the wife of a British officer (while also replacing the vegetable garden of enlisted troops – they weren’t so cheerful)
After visiting here and driving through the arts and crafts Roche Harbor village, we went to lunch at a commercial shellfish farm – Westcott Bay Shellfish – for a “tide to table” lunch. We tried all the oysters and clams!
After some downtime siesta, we went back to explore the Friday Harbor downtown – walking around the docks, shops and this beautiful structure honoring the Salish people.
Our day ended at a gorgeous restaurant, near San Juan Vineyards and otherwise in the middle of nowhere – Duck Soup. The setting was warm, welcoming and our server had children around the boys age and was so wonderful chatting with them.
We had such a wonderful day in Seattle and to think it was a half day (after the easiest possible trip out here!). We arrived to our hotel around 12:45PM and admittedly were all famished having had only a handful of plane snacks. We’re staying at the Thompson hotel which is two blocks from Pike’s place market. We ended up in a room with the most beautiful view of Puget Sound.
We walked down through the streets by the markets, passed the first ever Starbucks and several very popular bakeries. We grabbed lunch at a seafood place – Seatown market. Rawls and William shared a seafood basket and Rawls tried his first “squid” – a fan of the rings but not the leggies. S and I opted for Salmon burgers — really a Salmon filet. Very good!
After cleaning up and chilling for… a moment, we walked back down to Pike’s place market – beautiful flowers and fun stalls.
We walked father to Miner’s landing where Rawls picked two activities – a virtual reality ride “Wings over Washington” which took us on a “tour” of several places we’ll be visiting. It was actually really well done and all had fun. Afterwards we went on the Ferris wheel and while we were waiting, we saw one of the pods setup with formal settings / raw dishes / salads / bottles of white and red – and then the pod just kept going with out anyone going into it. We’re still confused. But we had fun seeing the city from the many vantage points of our Ferris Wheel pod!
We ended the day in an industrial / fishing area of Seattle where a fun strip of restaurants has opened (and adapted to the times with very creative outdoor seating everywhere). We had dinner with the boys at the Walrus and the Carpenter – amazing oysters (Rawls loved, Shepherd tried.. twice but not so much), grilled sardines, broccoli rabe, steak tartar.. ending with the most amazing dessert per Rawls (maple bread pudding). I left to visit the ladies room and upon returning, it was MIA 😉 Both boys were super adventurous and we had a great time.
Ending the day ogling at the amazing view from our room!
Puget Sound from the room
Day 2
Another full and fun day in Seattle hitting up the obvious spots to visit and some others.
I woke up on ET and killed time until the (original) Starbucks opened and headed to grab coffee for me and William. It does feel like they’ve kept the original setting largely in tact but the coffee options are v similar.
After the boys woke up, we walked back to this strip by Pikes Place market to bring some breakfast options back to the hotel. We went to Piroschky Piroschky first which has a line down the block when we’d walked by in the afternoon the previous day. Salmon Pate Piroschky, poppy seed cinnamon bun and white chocolate cherry tarts were delish! Because vaca we also visited the “very French patisserie” next door, Le Panier, where the boys picked out macarons “for later” and a couple almond croissants bc “dad’s favorite”.
When we were all fueled up for the day, we got out to explore all the things, staring with spending some more time in the markets around Pike’s place. Shepherd was gung Ho to visit the “gum alley” – so we did and it was as gross as you’d imagine.
But we loved seeing the many seafood, vegetable, bread and even cheese making spots.
After Pike’s we walked to the Olympic statue park along the Puget Sound (public art everywhere here)
After lunch at “boys choice” Zeeks pizza, it was time to visit the Space needle and Chihuly glass and gardens. The history of the Space needle was presented as you walked to the elevators. At the top, Shepherd discovered he was not loving the heights and especially the glass, rotating floor.
Great views though and we headed from here to the Chihuly galleries. Just utterly beautiful // especially loved the garden area and the boys enjoyed the glass making demonstration after the tour.
Short break at the hotel and we ended the day visiting the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The gatekeeper of the neighborhood- the troll – was a quick visit on our way to the Fremont brewery (great spot across from the water with the most beautiful planters and – I suppose – good beer ;).
Dinner was at whale wins – and such a memorable family dinner. All enjoyed the spicy salmon starter, butter poached shrimp and the roasted chicken dish — especially loved shepherd proclaiming that clams are his new favorite food (green curry clams with pickled fiddlehead ferns)
William and I had a couple great New Orleans trips before the boys arrived and we’ve been wanting to go back but didn’t make it happen until this trip — March 2021.
We arrived in New Orleans to stay with Aunt Mimi and Uncle Dave and pretty much just let ourselves enjoy the amazing NOLA experience they shared as hosts. All of the great home cooked favorites – crawfish etoufee (Shepherd ate so much of this instead of the Mac n Cheese offered – yay!), jumbalaya, crab pasta, and so much other yumminess. We walked and drove around much of the city, visited the Zoo, the aquarium, cafe du monde and came up with a very long list of things we are going to do on the next trip! The best hosts possible — we can’t wait for the next time!
Zoo and time with the cousins at Mimi + Daves
Aquarium, Cafe du Monde and amazing crawfish, Shrimp + Oyster poboys (3 feet long!) from a nearby grocery (amaze), crab pasta salad
and then our now favorite family roadtrip stop on the way back to Jax
Colledge Adventures 