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/

LSU vs. Vanderbilt Football Game

Definitely the BEST tailgating shin-diggity that I have ever been to! This was my first LSU game. I went with my friend from Ca that is also seconded in La to my cycling buddy's tailgate tent. We were really impressed with my cycling buddy's tailgating set up, as neither of us had ever seen anything close to the phenomenon that is LSU tailgating at a UCLA or Cal game!

The tent we tailgated at had 2 Tvs, a satelite dish, large propane grill, 2 tents, and more food than my family makes for the holidays! Anyways, we had a BLAST braving the rain in our purple and gold LSU ponchos and watch LSU beat Vanderbilt!

Cajun Zydeco Music, Creole Tomato, and Louisiana Seafood Festival

http://www.neworleansonline.com/news/2008/May/tomatofest.html

NOMA Sculpture Garden at City Park

http://www.noma.org/sgarden/index.html

Jazz Fest 2009

Stephanie Jordan Performing in Jazz Tent



http://www.nojazzfest.com/

French Quarter Festival

http://www.fqfi.org/frenchquarterfest/

Oak Alley

The day that I visited this plantation, the Annual Spring Arts and Crafts Fair was going on. As I later found out, my tour was quite different from the normal tour, as a result of the arts and crafts fair being held on the ground. While the normal tour (per my roommate's experience), has one tour guide taking visitor through the house, the tour that I went on had a differnt guide in period dress introduce visitors to each room in the house. It would seem that I got a better tour than my roommate did! :)

While Oak Alley is supposed to be known for their mint juleps, I did not care for the one I ordered. :/

Coincidentally, the weekend that I toured Oak Alley coincided with the Lifetime Channel's premiere weekend of Nora Robert's Midnight Bayou, which was filmed at Oak Alley. I was totally unaware of this when planning my trip, however, it was really cool to tour the planatation by day and then go home to watch a movie filmed there that night!

http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/

Laura Plantation

Definitely the BEST plantation tour that I have taken in Louisiana! I chose to tour Laura first of all the plantations in Louisiana that I was interested in viewing because it was listed as LonelyPlanet.com's top living history tour. This was an unfortunate decision, since all other plantation tours that I have done since have paled in comparison! In fact, I went to Oak Alley immediately after Laura and was disappointed in how little I learned and how much shorter the tour was at Oak Alley than Laura. However, I might have thought differently had I done these tours in reverse order. Essentially, if I only had the opportunity to choose and tour one plantation, hands down, I would choose Laura - if Laura was closed, then I would choose Nottoway or Rosedown.

http://www.lauraplantation.com/