To begin 2020, we were climbing the Great Wall of China. To begin 2021, we were throwing beads at people off a rooftop deck in New Orleans. Not quite the same, but this does exemplify the attitude Grant and I have shared throughout 2020– live life and have fun no matter what. With 2021 being rung in and the world still a mess— we couldn’t be more sure we made the right choice to continue living our best lives in 2020 and enjoy each day to the fullest.
Somehow Grant convinced me that a Gulf Coast crawl from New Orleans to Pensacola would be a fun way of ringing in the new year. Surprisingly— it was a blast. We took a horrible flight from San Diego to Chicago to New Orleans, but we made it to NOLA at 10:30 pm. We dashed from the terminal to the car rental where they gave us a random Ford EcoSport Titanium. In theory, this was an upgrade, but the car was a bit clunky and we had to Google how to open the trunk because the handle was actually in the right tail light.
Grant floored it and we made it to the hotel at 11:30 pm. We found parking and then sprinted to Jackson Square with 5 minutes to spare. Finding a good spot to see anything was a challenge that late, but we did get to see some of the fireworks when it hit midnight. The square was not as full as usual, but there were still more people congregating than we have seen in a long time. Everyone was in such a festive mood and it was clear that COVID was not something people cared about.
Our next challenge was to find food, which was challenging. We ended up on Bourbon Street in front of a place called Le Bayou. The attendant was telling everyone that there was a 20-30 minute wait. A man and his full-bladder wife came up right before us and he handed the attendant a $50 bill and they were let right in. After escorting them in, she came back and brought us up to a table on the rooftop overlooking the hordes of people celebrating. The food was absolutely disgusting, but the view and ensuing insanity below was fantastic. By the time the check came it was 2 am and so we turned in.
The next morning, I was up when the sun came up and walked throughout the French Quarter. My main objective was to find a decent muffuletta (sandwich), which was cumbersome since Central Grocery, the potential birthplace of the sandwich was closed. I found one in a small 24-hour cash-only market and devoured it. By this time, Grant was waking up and ready to meet up.
We met at Cafe Du Monde where we inhaled their beignets (powdered sugar fried donuts) and somehow wasted no time returning to the dinner table for lunch at Tableau. A quick snack of gumbo, gnocchi, and salad satiated our lingering hunger.
We wandered around a bit and tried to immerse ourselves in the culture. We attempted and failed to ride the trolley, but ended up overhearing some locals greet each other. This is where we heard our favorite quote of the trip: “First of all, Happy New Year. Second of all, Yo Titties are out.” I think we found this funny because the pleasantry of celebrating the new year by criticizing the women’s attire was such a strange juxtaposition.
To get the trolley failure out of Grant’s system, we ended up getting in the car and following the path that the trolley would take; a beautiful drive down St. Charles Ave with old restored homes everywhere you could look. This then put us on the road to our next stop Biloxi, Mississippi. En route, we realized that we were going to pass Matt and Trisha’s house in Slidell. Grant wanted to surprise them and show up announced at their door. His idea—100%. I tried to convince him to text them to get their address, but he wanted to challenge himself to remember how to get to their house. Grant has a freakishly good memory and was able to find their house even though he had only been there once and it was several years ago. Thankfully, Matt and Tricia were good sports about this and took our uninvited visit with humor. It was great seeing them, seeing how big their kids have gotten, and catching up a bit. We are looking forward to them returning the favor with their uninvited knock on our door. :)
Biloxi was about an hour away so we said our goodbyes and took to the road. In doing some quick research there didn’t appear to be much there. The two places we wanted to stop were the lighthouse and the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino. The lighthouse was a bit rough as there was a lot of deferred maintenance, but the views of the sunset were spectacular. It didn’t take us long to wind up at the casino, which was is an off-shoot of MGM. Within 5 minutes of entering the casino, we lost $30 and decided to high tail it out of there before we went more into the red. As we left, we stumbled upon a fun Biloxi sign and took some silly photos of ourselves with my baton (aka selfie stick).
In going from the coast of New Orleans to the gulf coast of Florida, you pass through both Mississippi and Alabama. Which meant our next road trip stop was Mobile, Alabama. Honestly, we knew nothing about Alabama.
Embarrassing, we had to look up what the state capital of Alabama was...(Answer: Montgomery —to save you a Google search). The city itself was a bit dead when we got there. We weren’t sure if it was because of the time of day or with it being New Years Day. Or it could have been because while Mobile is the 4th largest city in all of Alabama it only has 190k people. For perspective, the city of San Diego has 1.4 million people.
Mobile did have our favorite mode of transportation — scooters —so we hoped on those and zipped around their charming downtown. When getting into the city, we passed by a fun funky little restaurant called Squid Ink that served paella fritters, French Burgers, and chicken thigh pasta. We scooted over to that establishment and chowed down. Not knowing where we were going to end up, we discussed getting a hotel in Mobile or Florida. Since it was still fairly early and Grant got a full night's sleep in NOLA, he volunteered to drive to Pensacola for the night.
Driving next to the water at night is a bit freaky as it is pitch black, but we made good time. Grant booked a resort called “The Island” that was technically a bit further in a place called Fort Walton Beach (past Pensacola and almost to Destin). The hotel concierge gave us an upgraded room with an ocean view so we were thrilled. After walking the beach, we turned in for the night.
The next morning, Grant was up before I was and headed to the hot tub. It’s clear that when either of us is excited about something that sleep takes a backseat. I eventually met him there and we discussed the plans for the day. With the weather not cooperating a day at the beach in 60-degree weather while raining didn’t seem appealing. So we packed it up and decided to just do some sightseeing.
Grant mentioned that he wanted to see the Floribama Shore house in Panama City Beach for some reason so that was the ultimate goal. From Pensacola to Panama City Beach, we passed through Destin. A fun beach city, which seemed like it would be a place that locals would flock to when the weather was more cooperative.
On our drive, we ended up seeing a sign that said: “Grimaldi’s Voted Best Pizza by Food Network.” We agreed that if a TV station thought something was good that we had to try it. Even though afterward we found out it was a chain— that pizza was damn good. We ordered a Quattro Formagi pizza with pepperoni and a lemon arugula salad that filled us both up. After boxing up our leftovers to snack on in the car— we continued our allusive journey to the Floribama house.
Along the route, we saw a sign for the Eden Garden State Park which housed the Wesley estate home (aka Plantation home). Grant had been saying he wanted to see a plantation home and so we u-turned the car to check it out. While it’s not my cup of tea, Grant and I enjoyed the foliage and sweeping oak trees covered in moss that towered over most of the grounds. I am hoping this got it out of his system to do a more organized tour in the future.
Time was running short as we still had to reverse course to catch our plane out of Pensacola, but we persisted and eventually made it to the house. We quickly got out of the car and snapped a few photos to complete our trip. No sighting of any of the cast members, but Grant did say that he saw one on Bourbon Street the night before, and her titties were out, so there is that. We made it to the airport and grabbed our flight back to home base in San Diego.
While this may not have been the trip we envisioned we would take at the beginning of 2020 it was more fun than staying at home. With 2021 a big question mark, I just want to continue exploring all that we can and continue to live each day with no regrets. You only live once!!