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!

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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!

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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/

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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


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