Luck of the Irish?

Last Sunday I headed to New Orleans for a conference. I booked the early flight out of Phoenix so I could arrive by 2:30, have a chance to unpack, and then catch the conference's bus to LIGO for a tour. However, after circling Houston for hours, making a detour to Hobby Airport to refuel, and then sitting on the runway forever, I didn't arrive in New Orleans until 8:00 PM. It was cold, raining, and I was tired!

It rained all day on Monday, but it didn't really matter because I was busy all day and evening with the conference. On Tuesday it finally stopped raining. By the time the conference ended for the day, it was warm and sunny outside. I decided to go to the Audubon Insectarium, which was a block from my hotel.
Even though it had a big sign in front and a butterfly mosaic on the sidewalk, I walked right past it.

A few blocks later, I knew I had gone too far and stopped at an information booth for directions. They told me to go back the way I came and that I couldn't miss it. Uh, yeah, I could. And did! Good thing I'm not on the Amazing Race. I would be on the team that stares right at the cluebox and runs in circles missing it. I eventually found it, but couldn't go in because it was closed.

The group I was with was going to see Hurricane on the Bayou at the IMAX theater that evening, so I decided to head to the Aquarium of the Americas to kill time before the movie started. I arrived just after the last ticket could be sold, so wasn't allowed in there either.

I killed time checking out the metal sculptures surrounding the aquarium,

watching people's reactions to the automated dinosaur that was being promoted for the zoo,
watching the ferry come and go on the river,
listening to the dixieland tunes coming from the tourist paddle boats,

and just hanging out and watching the river.
Later that night, a St. Patrick's Day parade went right past my hotel.
In addition to the bagpipes,

there were a few floats, and they were throwing beads! BEADS!!!!!!
Hey Mister! Throw me some St. Patty's Day beads!

Immediately after the conference ended on Wednesday, I hurried to the airport only to find that my flight was delayed. And delayed again in Houston. It was after midnight when I finally arrived back home.

New Orleans

A business trip sent me to New Orleans last week. I was stuck in the hotel's conference rooms during most of the day, but I did have the chance to get out during the evenings. On Wednesday and Thursday night, I went back to the hotel after dinner to catch up on some work. Friday night, I went to listen to some music after dinner. At first we went to a club on Frenchman street called d.b.a. to hear Hot Club of New Orleans. They played a mix of traditional, fusion, and gypsy jazz. When their set ended, we didn't want to hang around for another hour for the next band to set up, so headed across the street. Hint about d.b.a. - the cheap wine is really really cheap. One taste and I knew it was a hangover in a glass. I couldn't even finish it because it was so bad.

The bar across the street (The Spotted Cat) had a great blues band with lots of sax. It was a tiny little dive bar, but the music was fun and the crowd was just chillin to the tunes. We stuck around for an hour until the band's set ended. My smoke allergies kicked in, and it was back to the hotel for me. (I also had to work all day Saturday.)



On Saturday night we wanted to see the Mardi Gras parade by the Krewe du Vieux. It was going to head along Royal and then turn up Bienville through the French Quarter.

We decided to eat at Arnaud's since the parade would go right past the restaurant. We reserved a table in the section of the restaurant with live jazz; it was quite nice. We had a table next to the Bourbon Street window, so we got to watch all the crazies, drunks, and bums walk past. It made for very interesting people watching.

After dinner, we waited at the corner of Bienville and Burbon for about an hour, but the parade still hadn't arrived. We decided to head down to Royal, and got there just as the parade was passing by.
This was a smaller parade than those that will come next weekend, but it was fun and laid back. After depriving some children of beads, we headed further down the road so we could snatch up beads guilt free. It was a lot of fun!

New Orleans still isn't fully up and running, but everyone there was extremely friendly. The staff at restaurants, shops, and the hotel repeatedly thanked everyone for coming back to New Orleans and supporting their economy. If you are thinking about heading down that way, please go. They can use the tourism!