Day 17: New Orleans to Austin – Well, Actually Houston

It’s day 17 of our trip across the US and we’re in New Orleans, heading to Houston. We woke up to a spectacular sunrise through our window. Unfortunately, we were so tired from the night before we barely got to enjoy it.

Breakfast

Once we got our bags packed, we went out for a morning walk to find something to eat. We had heard that Cafe du Monde on Decatur Street was a must. Unfortunately when we got there, the line was too long for us to wait around.

We went for a quick walk through Jackson Square, and then made our way back towards the hotel. Not too far from the hotel we found Cafe Fleur-de-lis.

It was a fairly low-key place. I got the baked breakfast sandwich with hash. It was delicious.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stick around for too long as we had to get on the road to Austin Texas which was going to be a long drive.

In the lobby of our hotel they were making beignets to go, so we grabbed a couple, got our car and got on the road.

Crazy Thanksgiving Traffic

It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so the roads were crazy. We were using Google maps and so it was redirecting us every few minutes. We would take a detour and then that detour would get blocked by traffic. It took us about five hours to travel what would normally take two hours. At least we got to see a gorgeous sunset on the road.

By the evening it became obvious that it was unlikely that we would make it to Austin that night. Danielle found a good deal for and Omni hotel near Houston Texas. We made arrangements to change our travel plans.

We picked up some pizza from Domino’s on our way to the hotel. Domino’s wasn’t great but we were so tired that it didn’t matter.  The Omni was a beautiful hotel with a massive lobby filled with ponds and water falls. The swimming pool was pretty basic, but it was so cold I didn’t have a desire to go swimming. Omni’s are typically hotels for business people so you can often get a good deal over Thanksgiving and especially on Sunday nights.

The major learning from the day was always to avoid traveling on the Sunday after Thanksgiving!