24 Hours in New Orleans

My wife, Melissa, and I are graduate students in a small town in Southern Illinois. We don’t get a lot of time off during the school year, but when we do, we love to venture out of our rural area. Of course, we could drive or fly to new, fun destinations, but we’re lucky to live smack dab in the middle of a major Amtrak line. When our fourth wedding anniversary was approaching, we decided to celebrate with a romantic trip to New Orleans. New Orleans is about 600 miles from our home, and the perfect opportunity to take the famous City of New Orleans train. It has hosted Amtrak passengers since the early 1970s, covering over 900 miles of urban and rural rails from Chicago to New Orleans.