Celebration in the Oaks at City Park

The roommate and I decided to check out this event after the Disney exhibit at NOMA Sunday evening. Not knowing what to expect and seeing a wide variety of ages attending the event, we figured it had to be great for the young to very old. However, we should have taken the fact that the museum curator that is our age had no idea that Celebration in the Oaks was even occurring in the museum's backyard as a red flag. However, the roommate and I have yet to learn this lesson.

Before leaving the museum, we found a security guard that was able to give us directions to the festival from the Museum that were WRONG and led us to the Christian Brothers School in City Park, instead of the festival. After some driving around the park in an incredibly thick and eery fog, we found the festival by the tennis courts on the complete opposite side of the park from where the security guard told us to go.

After finding the location of the festival, our next obstacle was finding the entrance to the holiday event. By now, we probably should have just given up and gone home, but we were determined. Eventually, we found the entrance between the tennis courts. Unlike what our NOMA security guard told us, there was a complete lack of signage as to where the event was and how to enter it.

The festival takes place in the Storyville section of City Park, which is a permanent amusement park for children and ironically named after the city's "experiment" with legalized prostitution - great name for a children's park! Not that we were planning to ride any of the rides because we were there for the light show, but they were all for children.

After moving through the childrens' park, the festival flowed into the botanic gardens. Seeing the botanic gardens was definitely worth the ticket price to get in because neither of us had previously been there. The two highlights of the light display were definitely the model train and Cajun Night Before Christmas displays.

The model train display was definitely a lot more impressive than the model train set that my brother and I played with in the basement as children and the model train shows that we went to. (Yes, this is what children that live in a city where it snows six months out of the year do!)

The Cajun Night Before Christmas display was a set of multiple light displays that were set to an audio recording of the story. So, to answer a previous blog of mine: Yes, the Cajun Night Before Christmas is an actual Louisianan Christmas classic!

Other than the two mentioned displays, the light show was not anything spectacular, just lights hung on bushes. However, we may have missed something at the laser light show. When we got to the designated area, there was a laser but no show. If you were there and saw something different, let me know!

The carolers were also festive and so were the trees that were decorated by school children. In fact, I think this event would have been magical if I had children with me. Then again, I am neither asking for my own nor to borrow anyone else's for an encore of this event any time soon. This is simply a suggestion that if you have children, then you should attend this event. Considering none of my friends have children, I can't recommend this to anyone that I'm friends with. JUST KIDDING, the red head has two little ones, but he's probably not allowed to come to New Orleans without supervision! HA!

http://celebrationintheoaks.com/

Excerpt of a Cajun Night Before Christmas:


Location of City Park:

The Princess and the Frog & Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio

Friday night, the roommate and I went with a friend to see Disney's newest princess movie that is set in New Orleans, called The Princess and the Frog. The movie was awesome and totally hit on several all too Louisianan quips and sayings that one can only truly appreciate after spending a significant amount of time in the boot state. For example: "we're from far, far away"...."oh, you're from Shreveport;" lightening bug named Boudreaux; a star/lightening bug named Evangeline; and so much more! I can't remember laughing so hard! The frog hunters were awesome and definitely reminiscent of someone I met somewhere... The Cajun lightening bug was by far my favorite. Although I am not an expert on accents, I thought it was great that the movie was somewhat true to life, attempting to mimic the regional accents. Loved this movie!

In order to make it a complete Disney weekend, the roommate and I went to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) on Sunday to see the special exhibit Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio. The exhibit was fantastic! Touring the entire exhibit takes about an hour and a half, beginning with a 15 minute video introduction to Walt Disney's goals and inspirations for feature length animated films. After the movie, guests of the museum are handed an audio set for the portions of the exhibit that correspond to an audio tour.

The exhibit is divided into several rooms, one per princess movie: Snow White; Cinderella; Sleeping Beauty; The Little Mermaid; Beauty and the Beast; and The Princess and the Frog. Each room features cell and drawings (that have not previously been displayed) with accompanying information on the animation process and how it has evolved with each film. The exhibit also features soundtracks and video clips from each of the featured movies. Highly recommendable and totally different from the Disney Animators' behind the scenes tour that I remember at Disney's MGM!



http://www.noma.org/exhibitions.html

Location of City Park:

Aaron Neville and His Qunitet's Christmas Concert at the House of Blues

Sunday night, the roommate and I attended the Aaron Neville Christmas Concert at the House of Blues. We got there early to stake out a spot on the second floor balcony, stage left that allowed us to essentially look down on the stage and guitarist below us. (The photo above is taken from a different angle than where we watched the show because I didn't think it was a good idea to take out my camera standing next to a security guard.) The two of us were definitely the youngest members of the audience.

Definitely on the list of top five concerts that I have ever been to! I think the roommate may even agree on this, even though she had no idea who she was going to see when she told me that she wanted to go! Haha... two songs into the concert, the roommate turns to tell me that she doesn't care when the show is over because we are staying until the end! Love it!

The two of us got our tickets via the House of Blues' Two for Tuesday member e-mails. Despite that fact that you get three e-mails a week from them, the Two for Tuesday ones are great because we bought our Aaron Neville tickets via the two for one e-mail: basically paid half price for tickets. Woohoo!

http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/neworleans/

Location of the House of Blues:

Christmas Tea at the Windsor Court

After watching Sunday's Saints game and before going to the Aaron Neville Christmas Concert, we sipped tea at Windsor Court. They were brewing their Holiday Tea and it tasted like Christmas! :)

The scones and finger sandwiches were delicious, too!

Very elegant and a great recommendation for our Sunday afternoon!

Location of Windsor Court:

Abita Christmas Ale Party at the Rock'n'Bowl and Ye Olde College Inn

Saturday night, the roommate and I decided to take a break from the usual night out on Bourbon and check out the Abita Christmas Ale Party at the Rock'n'Bowl (Abita.com). For those of you that don't know, Abita Beer is a Louisiana Brewing company that makes some great seasonal brews using local flavors like satsumas and pecans. Periodically, Abita hosts Bar Crawl events in South Louisiana that are free to register for and attend. Registration entitles you and your pub crawl wrist band to $1.00 beers at the venue.

The event Saturday night at the Rock'n'Bowl was to unveil the Christmas Ale and included in the one dollar special. Unfortunately, neither of us were fond of the Christmas Ale that tasted like Andygator with mulled spice: YUCK! However, several other Abita brews the two of us enjoy were included in the $1.00 special. So after suffering through the Christmas Ale, we swapped it out for one of our usual favorites. :)

After two $1.00 Abita's we still had some time before the band, Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys, started their set. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to go next door to Ye Olde College Inn and taste their Bread Pudding Po-Boy that sold out before we could try it at the Po-Boy Preservation Festival.

When we walked into the Inn, our only concern was whether the Bread Pudding Po-Boy was on that night's menu because we were on a mission. This then caused some what of a panic and taught us a valuable lesson: never ask the hostess if an item is on the menu that night because she will immediately panic and think rumors are abound NOLA that they are our of an item or no longer serving it. After clearing up the confusion we were seated and immediately got to business, ordering a the Bread Pudding Po-Boy and the Creole Bread Pudding. (Don't worry, we got one of each to split because the portions are MASSIVE and super rich!)

Amateur Food Critic's Bread Pudding Review:

- Bread Pudding Po-Boy was phenomenal! It was like brown sugar encrusted french toast! Tasting this explained why it won at the Po-Boy festival the other year.

- The Creole Bread Pudding, however, was a different story and not to my taste: too wet, rich, and buttery. (Keep in mind that this amateur food critic is from Southern California, eats organically as much as possible, and cooks in the Mediterranean style.)

*Even though we did not dine at the Inn, the food looked delicious and we definitely plan to go back for more than just dessert in the future!

After enjoying dessert, we went back to the Rock'n'Bowl to listen to the band before heading to The Roosevelt to meet up with friends, enjoy the Winter Wonderland display, and try a holiday drink at Sazurac.

Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys


I almost forgot to mention that although we did not bowl at the Christmas Ale party, the venue was really neat and we plan to go back and bowl another night!

Location:

The National World War II Museum

I initially visited the World War II Museum in January of this year on the recommendation of a college friend that is in the air force. My first visit left my impressed by how much there was to learn at the museum and that after a four hour afternoon of touring the exhibits, I had not come close to seeing everything!

In high school, I took A.P. U.S. History and felt pretty confident about my WWII knowledge going into the museum, but I was constantly discovering new facts about the war with each exhibit. For some reason my high school history books failed to mention the role that Hollywood played in winning the war with regards to building sets and inflatable trucks to make it look like the allies were gearing up for an a D-Day invasion in France on a different coast than Normandy based on "false artillery and troop build up." Other details that were absent from my AP classes were that dolls were dropped with the paratroopers with audio recordings of gun fire attached to them to make the number of paratroopers look larger than there actually were! Additionally, I had no idea that there were so many D-Days on the Pacific front.

This museum is phenomenal - rarely use that word, if ever!

As I mentioned, I was unable to see everything at the museum on my first visit in January and knew that I would need to go back. I decided to make my second trip to the museum after the opening of their new Victory Complex in October. Saturday afternoon, my friends and I went back to the WWII Museum to check out the new complex and see the rest of the museum that we missed on our initial visits.

Saturday afternoon, we began our trip to the museum at the new Victory complex by purchasing the combo museum entry and 4-D Beyond All Boundaries in the Victory Theater (http://nationalww2museum.org/victory-theater/). The three of us had some time to kill before the movie started, so we decided to get a drink at the John Besh Restaurant at the museum, The American Sector (http://nationalww2museum.org/american-sector/. None of us were hungry, but we were thirsty and ordered sodas! The bartender served them in a giant vat whose nozzle had to be suppressed to infuse the soda with CO2. It was totally worth the visit! We weren't hungry and did not try the food, but it looked delicious!

The 4-D Beyond All Boundaries in the Victory Theater was spectacular! Tom Hanks narrated the movie, that resembled a ride at Disney World, with the seats vibrating when the audience was place in the seat of an airplane cockpit and inside a tank. Definitely sit in row five or higher to avoid being snowed on! (Our bartender at the John Besh restaurant recommended rows five through eight as the best ones to site and he was right.)

After the movie we began our tour of the museum. If you go to the museum, definitely start your visit with the 4-D movie!

http://nationalww2museum.org/

Location:

New Orleans Christmas Parade and Decorations

Saturday, the roommate and I had some time to kill while we waited for our friend to meet us at the World War II Museum after lunch. So, the two of us found a sunny spot on Canal Street and took in the parade! When the parade ended, we walked up Canal to the end of the parade route at Elks and were entertained by dueling high school marching bands. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it and have to add it to my "only in Louisiana" list: one band played a tune with corresponding auxiliary and flag team choreography, they then challenged the other band to top their performance. After the Christmas Parade, the roommate and I continued to stall before the WWII Museum by checking out the Christmas decorations on and around Canal Street.

Our first stop was to The Shops at Canal Mall had a large tree with carolers wandering the mall in period attire and generally frightening shoppers - always entertaining to observe!

Our next stop was to the lobby at the Sheraton on Canal, whose window display depicts a Cajun Night Before Christmas. I have not Wikapdeia-ed this story, yet, to prove that such a Christmas Classic does exist, so I am taking the word of two of my favorite Louisianans that it does. According to their telling of the story, Santa had a skiff instead of a sleigh, alligators in place of reindeer, and a white alligator (yes, Virginia, they do exist) instead of Rudolf. As I said: only in Louisiana!

Upon leaving the WWII Museum, we continued our holiday lights and decoration viewings by going to the Hilton on Bourbon and enjoying their teddy bear trees!

The Roosevelt was next on our list of free holiday light displays to see and it was fantastic! Their main lobby was lined on both sides with flocked evergreens and bare perennial trees decked in lights in keeping with the Winter Wonderland theme.

Touring the lighted tree display at The Roosevelt gave us the opportunity to check out John Besh's restaurant and bar in the hotel, Sazurac. The four of us only sampled the bar offerings in the lounge Saturday evening and will have to go back for dinner on another trip. With the prime goal of the restaurant trip largely to confirm that the food served at his restaurant is better than the Specialty Holiday Cocktails listed on the drink menu. The bartenders made a mean Gin and Tonic (G & T), but steer clear of the Holiday Specials (Mrs. Claus, Jingle Bells, and Mistletoe) unless you like the taste of rubbing alcohol! Had the roommate and I not split a Jingle Bell (ordered on Jingle Bell and an empty glass), then I might have felt bad about NOT finishing the coffee beverage. Not only did the two of us dislike this drink, but our two friends with us tried them and agreed they were terrible. A member of our party ordered the Mistletoe, which tasted like sweaty socks dipped in Yeager with a twist of lemon.

Unfortunately, I think this is how these cocktails are supposed to taste and we were not being overly critical that night because we saw others in the lounge order the same drinks and leave without finishing them. (Obviously this could mean anything, but I feel better assuming that it was because they also thought the cocktails were terrible. Plus, we overheard a man tell his wife that her Mrs. Clause was awful after he teased her for not drinking it and then proceeded to taste it.)

3-11 with State Radio at UNO Lakefront Arena

Friday afternoon, I drove down to New Orleans with a friend for the 3-11 concert at UNO's Lakefront Arena! We braved the 38 degree F wind and rain that night to drive across town to UNO. On the way, I realized I had no idea who the opener was, so I looked them up on Pandora for an in-vehicle preview of State Radio. The preview was definitely favorable, reminding me of a Pepper-Rebellution combo.

This was my first concert at the Lakefront Arena and I was definitely impressed with the acoustics! Unlike other indoor venues I have been to, there wasn't a weird echo reverberating the music and making it sound like loud noise.

Overall assessment: clean venue with good acoustics; 3-11 was awesome as usual; and I found a new band (the opener) for my iPOD! Although the weather was frigid and wet, it did not snow in New Orleans, like it did on the north side of the Lake. In fact, I would have preferred and was even hoping for snow over cold, slushy rain! Honestly, I was so pumped after 3-11 that the wind an rain wasn't even an issue (not that I wasn't dressed in anticipation of snow)! :)

[I was definitely disappointed to wake up the next morning and not find snow. :( ]

311 - "Hey You"


311 - Percussion Set


Location:

Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island

Today I went on an awesome 46.8 mile round trip bike ride to Jefferson Island with two of my cycling buddies. (Our goal was to bike off the previous day's Thanksgiving turkey!) We took a number of back roads that wound us through Cajun Country on some abnormally smooth surfaces for Southwest Louisiana- the city road crews must have known we were planning a ride because some of the roads were freshly paved!

Upon reaching Jefferson Island, the three of us had lunch at the cafe, wandered through the gardens, toured the Rip Van Winkle Home, and viewed the lake. The lake was of particular interest to me with how it expanded in size due to a salt mine being punctured in the 80s, thus creating a vacuum effect for sucking in neighboring water bodies and creating the present lake.

http://www.ripvanwinklegardens.com

Location:

Po-Boy Preservation Festival

Last night, my roommate and I made a list of our "must taste" po-boys at today's festival. The two of us and a friend arrived armed with a knife, prepared to maximize our tastings by cutting multiple po-boys into thirds so that we could try that many more sandwiches! To our surprise, many of the vendors were on the same page as us with $2.00 sampler sized po-boys! By day's end, we had eaten six different po-boy samplers (all but one featured in slide show) and listened to some great music!

Po-Boy Tasting Ranking (There were 40 different vendors on Oak Street.):
1) Grand Isle - Shrimp Caminada Po-boy
2) Emeril's - Bacon, Lettuce, and Fried Green Tomato Shrimp Remoulade Po-boy
3) Carnival Brands of N.O. - Creole Crawfish Cake
4) Bozo's Restaurant and Oyster Bar - Stuffed Louisiana Crab with Tomato Dressing
5) Parkway Bakery and Tavern - Roast Beef Sampler (would have been ranked higher, except I discovered large, thick globs of mayo under the cheese...ew...)
6) Bourbon House Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse - Bourbon Shrimp

Items on our list that we were too full to get to or were sold out:
- Di Martino's - Muffuletta on French
- The Palace - Extra Special Peacemaker (ESP)
- Ye Olde College Inn - Fried Bread Pudding Po-boy

Stuff we skipped because we already knew they were delicious from having tried them at the New Orleans Seafood Festival, earlier this year:
- Drago's Charbroiled Oysters
- Acme Oyster House's Fried Shrimp and Fried Oyster Po-Boys

Sunpie Barnes and The Louisiana Sunspots


Ultimate French Bread Fighting - Definitely the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen! (Watch out for the flying french bread at the end of the video!)


MyNameIsJohnMichael - We saw them at VooDoo Fest and were stoked to see them again at the Po-Boy fest!


http://www.poboyfest.com/

Location:

Tour de Jefferson Bike Ride

http://www.jeffersonchamber.org/chamber/TourDeJefferson_000.htm

I did this ride two weeks ago with some friends. Traffic control on this ride was awesome: police at every intersection stopping traffic with police escorts between intersections! Unlike other organized rides that I have done in Louisiana, this one had each of the five rest stops at a location with permanent bathroom facilities,instead of port-o-lets. This is especially nice when you consider that you are on your bike for 46 miles!

Aside from the great rest stops, the scenery was awesome! The ride started and ended at Bayou Segnette State Park; wound through Jean Lafite National Park; crossed the Intercoastal Canal (IC) via swamp tour boat (see photo) - passing a Houma Native American burial ground that is now a cemetery featured in several movies; return crossing of the IC via the bridge; and ended the ride in time to make it to the Saints vs. Panthers game to watch them go 8-0-0, averaging 17.2 mph for the ride!

The post ride meal was the best post ride meal I have had at an organized ride in Louisiana with crawfish pasta and jambalaya from Mr. Mudbugs! It was delicious!!!

Location:

French Quarter Bars

VooDoo 2009

My second year of worshipping the music:

Friday night - braved the wind and rain in our rain boots and jackets

Saturday - it was Halloween so we went in costume: four as KISS, one nurse, and a geisha

Sunday - relaxed, taking in the sites and sounds without face paint or rain

WideSpread Panic


http://thevoodooexperience.com

Location of City Park:

Haunted History New Orleans Garden District Ghost Tour

A definite must do! My roommate and I took this tour the weekend before Halloween, keeping in theme with the holiday. Going into the tour, I was unsure what to expect because the one and only ghost tour that I have ever previously taken was in Colonial Williamsburg (2007), which was by far the lamest thing that I have ever done! This tour, however, was AWESOME! Our tour guide used to be (or maybe still is) a landscape architect and had worked at many of the homes, learning their ghost stories while on the job. The best part of the tour was definitely her enthusiasm for the subject matter and apparent belief in the super natural!

The week prior to taking this tour, my roommate and I took the Fodor's Garden District walking tour on pages 66-74 of their 2009 New Orleans Travel Guide. While many of the homes listed in Fodor's were also covered during the Haunted History Ghost tour, the material contrasted greatly, with Fodor's descriptions neglecting any information related to the super natural.

http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/GDghost.htm

Haunted History Cemetary and VooDoo Tour

My roommate and I also took this tour the weekend before Halloween, in theme with the holiday! As with the Garden District Ghost Tour, the cemetary tour is a must do!

This tour started in front of Pat O'Briens and Rev. Zombie's VooDoo Shop in the French Quarter; wandered over to the two previous sites of the St. Louis Cemetary; toured the present day location of St. Louis Cemetary; and then ended in front of Marie Laveau's VooDoo Shop. As with the other Haunted History tour, our cemetary tour guide was incredible, especially since I was skeptical about how cool a tour of tombs would or could be!

http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/Voodoo.htm

Fishing Trip in the Gulf of Mexico: Grand Isle and Fouchant

Although the bounty of our catch is not featured in the slide show, I came home from this fishing trip with a freezer filled with fish. In all the times that I have gone fishing I have never caught so many fish, nor any of the size that were caught during this fishing trip!

Location:

Nottoway Plantation

Incredibly educational!

Second best Plantation tour that I have done in Louisiana, after Laura Plantation!

http://www.nottoway.com/

Location:

Bike Ride Along Gulf Coast (Mississippi)

I made the road trip to Mississippi with two ladies that I normally cycle with in Louisiana. The three of us parked at a beach front parking lot between Pass Christian and Long Beach; rode along along Highway 90 to Biloxi; waded out the thunderstorm at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino over lunch, where they valet parked our bikes; and then rode back to the car.

Delcambre Boat Ride

The boat ride was scenic, but do NOT believe anyone that tells you this body of water is without alligators! I saw them. The picture in the slide show that I took from safely aboard a friend's boat proves they live there! Wake board at your own risk. I prefer to surf with sharks than wake board with gators. :)

White Linen Night

Phenomenal: hot August night spent drinking wine and viewing art!

Two of my favorite things rolled into one event!

http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/festivals/artfestivals/whitelinen.html

Satchmo Summer Fest

More great music in New Orleans! This event is a tribute to Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong and held at the Old U.S. Mint. I was really excited about the venue because the Mint was open for touring and I have otherwise noticed that it has irregular hours that are usually inconvenient for my schedule.

Fritzel's House Band - one of my favorite New Orleans bar bands - played this event! Despite the thunder, lightening, and rain that interrupted the event, my fellow seconded SoCal co-worker and I had a blast!

http://www.fqfi.org/satchmosummerfest/

House of Blues - Dredge and Rx Bandits

Great venue! HOWEVER, I did not realize that the concert was all ages until I went to the bar for a beer and discovered I had skittles and pop to choose from, as opposed to an assortment of beer. Definitely cool to see a band (Dredge) that I saw on campus in college at the H.O.B. - New Orleans!

Too bad I was unable to go attend the Thriving Ivory show at the HOB earlier in my secondment because that would have been super cool: from standing on the street as a college student watching them play weekly in my neighbors' yard to seeing them at the HOB in N.O. Next time...

http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/neworleans/

Audubon Zoo

I went to the zoo after a MS Bike ride training event on the levee with the cycling club I ride with in Louisiana. Since the ride started and ended at the batture, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit the zoo because of their proximity to one another. Plus, I figured that zoos are usually stinky, so no one would notice that I smelled like I had just finished a 40 mile bike ride.

Aside from sending MMSes to my co-worker and former roommate seconded in Saudi that I had run into his camel vacationing in New Orleans, the highlight was definitely the Louisiana swamp exhibit! Usually I run in the other direction when I see an alligator, but there's something about a thick sheet of glass between me and a twelve foot long swamp beast that adds some security. That and the fact that white alligator skin is definitely a show stopper! Touring this exhibit also gave me the opportunity to take some cool photos of a moss covered gator and floating swamp shack in the gator exhibit. I later sent these photos to a co-worker that was being sent out here from SoCal, too, as examples of the corporate housing accommodations and questionable neighbors (the gator) that awaited him upon arrival.

I really enjoyed my day at the zoo, minus the rain! (Arrggg...still not used to being somewhere that it rains more than five days a year and in non-winter months. Lately, I find myself not only making sure that my shoes, belt, and purse match, but that my purse can fit an umbrella and rain boots in it. Yes, I have a purse that my rain boots fit in: being short with a small shoe size is finally paying off so I don't have to wear rain boots for the parts of the day it isn't raining - compact convenience!)

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/zoo

Rosedown Plantation

I have been interested in touring this plantation since last fall, but after reading the description of the plantation gardens, decided to wait until summer to view the grounds when all of the foiliage is in full bloom. As evidenced in the photos, the wait was definitely worth it! Rosedown definitely had the prettiest grounds/gardens of all the plantations that I have seen in Louisiana!

Unlike the Myrtles, this plantation was clearly signed and I did not get lost on my way, thanks to the HUGE sign on the highway pointing the way to Rosedown!

http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/louisiana/ros.htm

http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/irosedown.aspx

Myrtels Plantation

First of all, I got lost on my way to this plantation because I decided to follow the directions posted on this attractions website versus using Google Maps on my gps activated blackberry because I was too impatient to wait for the gps to find my location. Bad idea, because I totally got lost following the directions from the website stating to take Hwy 61 to the plantation and ended up in downtown St. Francisville (instead of the plantation), thanks to incorrect signage put up by road construction crews. Keep in mind that this was on Sunday, when nothing is open to ask someone how to get to Myrtles. About then would have been an awesome time to pull out my gps enabled blackberry to help find the way to my destination, except google maps was unavailable there. Annoyed from being lost on a 100+ degree day, I was about to scratch my Sunday excuration to Myrtles and near by Rosedown when I happened upon my destination. Lesson learned: never again follow website directions and ALWAYS use my GPS enabled BB.

About the tour: Super short and they should charge half the price they do for a tour, especially since the tour only takes you through the downstairs rooms and lasts 15 min. In comparison, Rosedown (went to immediately after Myrtles) costs the same price to tour about five times as many rooms and the tour lasted almost an hour. Had I known better, I would have driven to Myrtles; walked the grounds; read the description in Fodor's (the tour added no new information); and then moved on to Rosedown.

I chalk Myrtles up to a lesson learned.

http://www.myrtlesplantation.com/

West Bank Levee Bike Ride

There are definitely some cool views of New Orleans from the West Bank, however the levee on this side is neither maintained, nor as continuous as the bike path on the East Bank stretching from Audubon Park to Destrehan. However, riding the Canal Street Ferry is super cool and provides more great vistas of the river, city, and bridge. Have I mentioned that I like boat rides? Riding the Canal Street Ferry with my bike from the Aquarium to the Algiers Ferry Station was definitely the main draw for checking out the bike path on the other side of the river. If I had not enjoy the ferry ride so much, then I would say crossing the river was not worth it, but like I said, I do like boat rides so a subpar bike path was worth the ferry ride.

Abita Springs Bike Festival

Definitely the second lamest festival I have attended since arriving in Louisiana, after the Natchiotches Festival of Lights. Ugh...Let's just say that I knew I was in trouble when I go to the location of the festival and did not see any indication of a festival going on. There were MAYBE fifteen tents with random people who brought their tricked out bikes to show off at the festival tent. The website for this festival was deceiving (at best) as to the magnitude of the event. I really need to stop attending events outside of California with any sort of expectation of them being as cool as a similar event I attended at home.

The trip was salvaged, though, when I discovered a tent selling ice cream with creole tomato chocolate sauce. DELISH!

Definitely won't be going to this event a second time.

http://www.labicyclefestival.com/

Red Dress Run

Definitely on the list of top ten things that I have done in Louisiana! I did this "run" the second weekend in August with two co-workers (one for La and one from Ca that is also seconded to La, like me), Ca co-worker's girlfriend, and another friend from La. For those of you that aren't aware, Red Dress is a four to five mile beer run/walk that loops around downtown New Orleans. ALL participants, even men, are required to wear a red dress.

Several days after the event, I sent a few photos(with his blessing) of the run containing my fellow Ca co-worker and I in our red dresses back to our home office in SoCal for the company newsletter. In October, I visited my home office in SoCal where my former boss reminded me that upon my return from Virginia the other year he told me how disappointed he was to hear that I had gotten my three male co-workers that I lived with while on the East Coast to bake X-mas cookies with me, drink cosmos, and argue over whether to watch Ugly Betty or Desperate Housewives. He mentioned that at the time he did not think it necessary to tell me not to put them in red dresses. (The male co-worker that did this event with me was one of my roommates in Virginia.) :)


http://nolareddress.tumblr.com/