Work and Play in the Big Easy

Ashley and I went to New Orleans last week to give a little two day workshop for the State Museum - they're doing a move project. Ashley and I showed slides one day and did some hands-on the next day. We feel it went very well. We had to travel separately so I could leave Theron at Grandma's house. My red eye flight out of Bakersfield was cancelled at the last minute (!!!) so instead of getting in the next day at 7 am I got in at 10:30. I ended up having to take a van back to Los Angeles to begin my trip. All in all it took 17 hours - it wasn't so much a red eye as a black eye. I had to sleep in the airport in Charlotte. I will say the best planning I did was to roll up my down pillow in my carry on bag. It fluffs right back up and boy was I happy for that one little luxury. When I got there I took a quick nap, a shower and headed over to the museum where Ash was already about done with his portion of the presentation. So I just hooked up my computer and jumped into mine. I was sleepy but it was good to get it over with.

The second day was at their warehouse in Baton Rouge - a good 90 minute drive away. The weather was rainy but warm. We stopped at a mini mart and threw a bunch of treats in the bag like Crawtator flavored potato chips and vanilla Moonpies.

Here's a blurry picture inside our hotel room, right in the French Quarter just steps away from Jackson Square. I meant to take a picture of the unicorns on the bedspread.

Here's the beautiful courtyard of the hotel.

Here we are on Decatur Street after beignets and coffee with my Aunt Susie and her Louis.

French Quarter at night. People still have Christmas lights up until Epiphany and then there were already decorations already up for Mardi Gras. Oh, and for the LSU/Ohio game that was a couple of days before we arrived. Ohio lost but people said they hardly looked sad, it was a big party.

I haven't been to New Orleans in 15 years but I fell in love again. Aunt Susie says people are slowly getting on their feet and that Mardi Gras should be of pre-Katrina quality. Jim and P.C. pointed out one of the two bars that stayed open during the storm and Ash and I had a little drink there. There weren't many people out Wednesday and Thursday night but it was still very lively. Everything bad looked so good. I had to keep telling myself, No, You do not want a cigar. Or a take-out daquiri that comes in a rainbow of colors, swirling around in big wall-mounted mixers looking like Slush Puppies.

Ashley on Canal Street.

My first oysters ever, at the Bourbon House, where we were the guests of Ashley's old friend, Jim, and his wife P.C. They were divine. The oysters were good, too. I was sad we didn't have the opportunity to get more before we left.

Anyway, as we are reminded, again and again, it's a small world. We ran into some people we knew from New York who were there taking down an exhibit. If we'd all tried to organize a get together from scratch I'm not sure we could have managed it, but there everyone was.

We really want to go back soon for an actual vacation when we can take Theron. He would love a swamp tour and he would probably get a kick out of all the pirate knick-knacks around. He did fine with Grandma. Every day she would gel his hair to get his cowlick to lay down. Friday she asked if she could spike it. He said no. She said why not, don't you want to look cool? And he said, "I don't want to look cool! I just want to look appealing."

So, back to real life again.