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!

Washington DC

I was supposed to be in Washington DC this weekend for business, but the "stomach flu" grounded me at home. Since it was a business trip, I probably wouldn't have had much of a chance for sight-seeing anyway, so here are a few pictures of some of the memorials from a previous trip to DC.






Lincoln Memorial













Washington Memorial









World War II Memorial













Korean Memorial









Vietnam Memorial

Flagstaff

I had to make a quick trip to Flagstaff on Friday for work. It was raining pretty hard when I left Phoenix, so I anticipated getting caught in the snow on the way up. The weather was actually pretty nice. There were some light flurries near Camp Verde, but otherwise it was clear. It was actually bright and sunny in Flagstaff when I got there.

I have to say - I'm not a fan of snow or cold. Just the little bit that I slipped walked around the NAU campus was enough to remind me why I live in Phoenix. I was quite happy to get back in a heated car to leave.

On the way back home to Phoenix, I took a couple of pictures of the snow. I have to admit the snow and the pines were very pretty together. I took a few whiffs of the cold mountain air, then got back in the warm car to go home.


It was just starting to snow again as I left town, and the weather got much worse as I got closer to Phoenix. The snow flurries quickly turned to fog and sleet/icy rain. Once again, near Camp Verde, it was snowing, but pretty hard this time. I thought about pulling over at "sunset point" rest area to take a few pictures, but I could barely see the exit, much less any scenery.

It was still raining by the time I got back to Phoenix, but at least it wasn't snow.

Picacho Peak

A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to Tucson for work. On the way back to Phoenix, the sun was setting as I approached Picacho Peak. I decided to stop to see if I could get some good pictures. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the exit, the sun was a little too low in the sky to get a good shot from Picacho Peak.




I had hoped to get a few shots of the mountain with pink and red sky behind it, but instead, the sky turned gray and then it got dark. Below are a couple of the pictures I took.

This is the summit, taken during a hike about 2 years ago.

Another view of Picacho Peak, from a distance.

PandaMania

When I visited Washington DC a couple years ago, there was a city wide art display called PandaMania with decorated panda bears. Below are a couple of the pictures I took of them.

I hadn't realized that it was a temporary display at the time, and that the bears would be auctioned off. I thought it was a permanent display - like the New Glarus Painted Cows.

The panda to the right was hanging around at the National Zoo.


This was my favorite panda, because of all the jewels on it. It was in front of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, which is pretty upscale. Its official name is "Ling Ling in the Sky with Diamonds"











Perennial Panda was found sitting in a flower bed near the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, near the Adams Morgan/Zoo metro station.








Yin-Yang was found standing outside the entrance to the National Zoo.


And of course, you can't forget about the real pandas!