I am coming to NOLA in January!

[Bushfire]

Mrs Bushfire and myself are flying in this Saturday, and would love to have some adult beverages with some local DUers. We are staying at a locally owned hotel around the FR QTR, as they spend all their money locally. I plan to get a tattoo done at Eye Candy. We also plan to hit Tipitina's twice, and Snug Harbor at least once. We'll also look for recommendations on an architectural tour, and a swamp tour. I'm looking forward to getting my fill of Abita Beer, music, and leaving the snow behind for a week. I'd love to find an off Bourbon St watering hole frequented by locals that has a great jukebox, much like I remember from my first trip some 10 years ago.

[MountainLaurel]

1. I just PM'd you. n/t

[Bushfire]

2. Obama inauguration on Tuesday at Tipitina's

3 local brass bands to celebrate some Change We Can Believe In. sounds like MoutainLaurel wants to go. Anybody else up for a DU meetup?

[Bushfire]

3. Trip report

First night was spent getting familiar with the quarter a bit after dinner. I have to say the city is like no other city in the US as far as history is involved. It's literally more like old Europe, than any city I've been to in the US. We hooked up with a coworker for a Sunday all you can eat jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sisters. A bit pricey, but a delicious variety of food. We then talked her into driving us around town, and over to the lower 9th. To say it was an eye opener would be an understatement. Maybe one out of every twelve houses that were there once has been rebuilt, MAYBE. We talked to the owner of the first Make It Right Foundation home, and she graciously let us into her home for a mini tour. She's a grandma with 8 to 9 grandkids, and I believe lost a daughter to Katrina. We learned that even how they have solar panels, and being super insulated doesn't stop kids from leaving the doors open in the summer or the lights on in their rooms when they aren't there. They can go to the foundation for help with energy bills when needed. Ironically a resident of the Gentilly neighborhood talked to us, and mentioned how their neighborhood had plenty of damage but doesn't get any of the publicity of the 9th ward. I wonder if they had entire blocks of houses destroyed, and found off their foundations two blocks away. We hiked up a levee in the Holy Cross neighborhood, and saw the Global Green project home.

Our friend showed us her home after all that, and gave us some history of her experience with Katrina. She left for Santa Fe New Mexico just before it hit, and didn't return for close to 9 months when the power was restored. Her home had basement flooding of course, and a decent size hole in the roof that has yet to be repaired after paying a couple shady roofing contractors to fix it. Luckily she was able to return home with the assistance of the Road Home program that has helped those qualified and willing to come back.

Last Tuesday we made a couple friends including Mountain Laurel, and Keith who was in town from Canada visiting at the Obama party at Tipitina's where 3 super fun local brass/funk bands played. Keith said he would ck out DU, and hopefully he'll become a member. It would be cool if he stayed in touch. He mentioned how most of Canada was rooting for Obama to win. I was hoping more from DU could have been there that night, but I imagine most have moved out of the city or had other plans by now.

I could go on, and on about the trip if there is any interest.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

4. There is indeed

And thankyou !

[Bushfire]

5. Glad to here that then

NOLA is one of the few cities with a working trolley system, and you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't take a ride at some point in your trip. We took a ride down St Charles to the Garden District. We shopped a bit in the independent Garden District Bookshop where I picked up Russ Baker's excellent "Family Of Secrets" where he spills the Bu$h family secrets. Borders bought an abandoned funeral parlor on St Charles, apparently in the backyard of their CEO where from a business standpoint it would have better served the tourists if it was down by the river on Canal St in the big mall. The locals know better than to support Borders though.

We walked into a cemetary to take some pictures where some of the above ground plots were around 200 yrs old. We ran into a tour guide, and his group in there as well. After that was lunch at Cafe Rana on Magazine St, but the food didn't quite live up to their Zagat rating.

One place that did live up to their reputation for great food for the price was Thirteen on Frenchman St in the Faubourg Marigny district. If you need vegetarian food any time of the day this is where to go. It's just on the edge of the Quarter, but you should always keep an eye out for pickpockets and thieves. As we were walking, someone we passed started to follow us after eyeing up a nice Nikon camera my wife was carrying. I stepped in between them, and asked if I could help him while they ducked into an antique store.

Another day we stopped at the Aquarium of The Americas which is a good all ages activity. Next door we took in the Imax movie Hurricane On The Bayou. It featured the singer Tab Benoit, and a young fiddle prodigy named Alison. I highly recommend seeing it if you have an Imax theater in your area. You will learn how important the bayou is to slow down these storms before they hit heavily populated areas, and why we are losing them.

There is a free ferry that is just a few steps outside of the Imax that will take you across the Mississippi to Algiers point, and the Algiers district which is where you can find Mardi Gras World. That is where they make the floats in a series of large warehouses, and take a tour if you choose. Lots of history in the Algiers including former mayors homes, a voodoo house, and a former home of William S. Burroughs. You could take a stroll on top of a levee where they have a jazz walk of fame.

We skipped Snug Harbor in favor of Preservation Jazz Hall where we took in a local jazz band that excellent old standards that would take you back in time some 50 years. They were called The Tornado Blues Band, and the cover any day of the week is only $10 per person. The building is at least 100 years old.

The swamp tour we took picked us up in the Quarter, and by a shuttle bus drove us east towards Slidell across Lake Pontchartrain to the Pearl River Honey Island Nature Preserve. The bus driver did an excellent job giving us his history post Katrina where he had to relocate to Atlanta for about a year before he could move his family back. He pointed out places like where the levee broke in the 9th ward, bridges wiped out and/or new bridges being built on Lake Pontchartrain, and where he fished when a child sometimes next to an alligator.

Tourism is back, but there is so much left to rebuild in this uniquely great American city.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

6. Thank you !

And your logo, I like that, Although I do not ride so much anymore ,I am still a cross country rider. My bicycle is over twenty years old now, it has been converted a number of times. And it has very many cross country miles attached to it's history. I rode across California,Oregon and Washington state in route to the worlds fair in Vancouver Canada. Just after having experienced the Olympics in L.A. 84.

Thank you for the briefing, I hope to tour the area on my bicycle one day ,although I don't know that the woman will allow it when we visit. If there is a way to sneak my bike on the plane, I will do it!

I shall ride again!

Thanks !

And your written discription is no less than excellent by any measure.
And do proceed.