I look at hotel/motel stays as a place to get some shut eye while traveling. Obviously, I want a nice clean place but I'm not looking for a 5 star complex. This motel had some cool character with it's lobby, balcony and courtyard. It's never a guarantee of the quality of accomodations when you book online and when you are on a tight budget. Even so, you make the wisest choice possible and hope for the best. We weren't dissapointed in any of our choices. We were, however, pleasantly surprised in a couple of places. I'll share those locations as we get there.
The childrens first taxi experience took place the previous night from the the New Orleans Union Passenger terminal going to the motel. It was in a Suburban, yet the following morning, all 5 of us and our luggage returned to the train station in an old Lincoln Town Car. As I said before the kids were exposed to a lot of interesting scenarios in a short period of time.
All Aboard!!!! The Sunset Limited
We are excited to see that this train is larger than the Crescent. It is a double decker. Most of the seating is located on the upper deck along with the Observation Room and Dining Area. There are sleeper cars as well. On the lower level are the lounge/cafe area and restrooms. I was impressed with the open feel of the seating area and observation car.
The Mercedes Benz Superdome is located right behind the train station and is a pretty cool structure to see while waiting to depart. The boys were excited to hear about the significance it holds with the sporting world. You also get a nice view of the Big Easy skyline.
Since we homeschool, travel by train works out wonderfully. The kids can have one awesome field trip while continuing their studies! I wish that my classroom desk and window view could have rivaled this one!
or that my breakroom could have been this cool
or my cafeteria this exciting!
All in all I think this was a "home run." And apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks so. Oh yeah, by the way, the principal and the teacher got to hang out together as well.
Views along the way were obviously very rural and sparsly populated with towns of New Iberia and Lafayette and others along the line. We had a little rain here and there with sunshine for most of the day as we rocked back and forth through forgotten towns, passing by patches of above ground graveyards and rolling through fog laden bayous.
As we roll on down the tracks, through swamps and gator country, we are heading towards Lake Charles, LA. This was a great time to just sit back and relax. This was much needed for myself, to just sit and have no obligations or worries of the normal daily life. I'd traveled through the gulf states before, however the children had not. I knew this wouldn't be the scenic highlight of the trip, however, one of the missions of this adventure was to expose them to many different states, landscapes, landmarks, architecture and cultures. I believe that they were able to enjoy the not so exciting parts of this trip as well. While not watching the world go by, they were either playing games at the tables in the observation car or lost deep in the adventures written in the several books that they brought with them.
I chose to stay awake while the others were sleeping. Being in a new environment, as safe as I felt, I felt a little vulnerable if we were all sleeping at the same time. I sat there watching Hillary and the kids enjoying the peaceful, rocking motion that the train provides. We would rotate our seating order through the trip. Caleb happened to be with me between Lake Charles, LA and Houston. He surprisingly stayed awake as well. I was able to just sit there in a dimly lit train car watching the lights off in the distance and chat with my little buddy. I enjoyed the one on one time spent with the children along the way. Caleb was up with me as we passed by oil refineries which were lit up like New York City. We could see the fires burning as well. He was up as we pulled into Houston, TX. He was in awe of the big city lights of the Houston skyline. We would arrive at our first main destination, San Antonio, TX, around around 3 am on Tuesday morning.
San Antonio, TX
This is where the main part of our vacation begins.
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