The Big Easy ⇒
Long time no action, eh? Well, life actually has been moving along quite quickly, I just haven't been telling anyone about it!
This past week, Christine and I were in New Orleans. I was there for business, and Christine came along for a little vacation. This trip had the worst airport experiences we have ever had!! To save some money (over $300!!) we flew out of Seattle. Our flight left at 2:30pm, so we were at the airport just after noon. Good thing we were too, as our 2:30 flight was delayed until 4, which would mean we miss our connection in Dallas. We got put on a flight leaving at 1:15, so we had to get through security. Unfortunately, it was a cruise season and the first day after school is out, so the security line up was 1 1/2 hours long! Yikes. Fortunately, our flight was delayed until 2:30, so we actually left on our original schedule! When we got to Dallas, our connection flight was delayed for 2 hours (don't ever, ever, EVER connect through Dallas!!) so we didn't get into our New Orleans hotel until about 1:30am. Yaaaaawwwwwnnnn.
New Orleans is hot. Damn hot. Temperatures reached in the 100s each day (except the last). And muggy. Really muggy. Good thing everyone and everything has air conditioning.
On Sunday the Epic team set the booth up and then manned it while no one came by (slow day). Christine on the other hand, went on a great city tour. In the evening we all went out for dinner at Alex Patout's. Man, the food here is just amazing!
Monday was a full trade show day for me and a full tour day for Christine. While I was on the trade show flow, she went on a plantation tour. These were old sugar cane and cotton plantations. I neglected to mention that Alex, Jim and I were in the middle of a huuuuuge proposal that was due on Friday, so at every break, I would go do some work. In the evening, we all had so much work do to (except Christine of course) that everyone just ordered room service! Way to take advantage of the atmosphere, eh?
Tuesday was a short trade show day, so Christine went on a short Creole cooking tour. I am looking forward to the gumbo and jambalaya she says she will make! We tore down the booth, and I went back to work in the hotel room. We did manage to get out for dinner that night, to the Red Fish Grill with Jeremy. Alex and Jim had both gone home by then.
As Jim had already left, he stuck me with an 8am meeting with a potential customer! Sheesh. After the meeting I was able to hook up with Christine for her final tour, a graveyard tour. Since the water tables in New Orleans are so high, the cemetaries are above ground. We went to St. Louis #1; the graves are very interesting. Some of them are very well cared for and others have fallen into disrepair. Then it was back to the hotel for more work for me! In the evening we went to the IPI final dinner party at the Hyatt. Great food and phenomenal entertainment. It sounded like the band was a two-time Grammy winner...but I didn't catch their name. They played this kickin' Zydeco music and the lead singer was an amazing entertainer. The evening ended when a marching band played their way into the banquet room for one final (and very, very long) song. Nice way to send the evening.
Thursday I had one final 2 hour conference call to work out the details of this massive proposal. After that Christine and I did a self-guided walking tour of the French Quarter. The Quarter has some amazing architecture. Every building looks like it is ready to fall down and nothing is flat or straight. It is a strange mix of French and Spanish colonial buildings and names. Some buildings and streets have French names and some Spanish. Evan would say this crooked, smelly, dirty environment was "character"! Neat place though! While we were here, we simply had to go to a jazz dinner. We chose Snug Harbor, which is just outside the Quarter. The house pianist (at on Friday's) is Ellis Marsalis!!!!!! He is the famous father of Branford (sax player on Leno show and amazing jazz musician and Wynton Marsalis, once ranked as the world's top classical & jazz trumpeter at the same time! This is the house musician! Gotta love Nawlins. However, he was not playing the night we were there and the guy that was playing we didn't like very much. So he had another great dinner and went in for the evenin.
Friday was my first real free day. Finally. We went to a great jazz brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Over 80 items in their buffet!! Mmmmmm, mmmmmmm, goood. Then it was of for a swamp tour. We had the option of a regular covered boat or an Air Boat. Boy are we glad we took the regular boat. There was an awesome storm while we were out on the water and all of the air boat people came in early and where sent back to town. We, however, just continued our tour. We saw many, many alligators and one huuuuge one! One Eyed Jack is about 14 feet long and is blind in one eye (as you may have guessed). He is quite tame though as the tour guide actually petted him. I think I got some good shots of it, but we will have to wait to see how they turned out. In the evening we went to one of the top Cajun restaurants in the city, Michauds. The Jambalaya Zydeco is absolutely phenomenal!! So much flavour I couldn't finish it all. Turns out that Christine & I don't like Cajun music that much though, so we didn't stick around. We walked back into town and hit Bourbon Street. Wow. Wow. Amazing. So many people. So many bars. So much good music. Booze is cheap and everywhere, and you can walk around with it. Our two favourite bars were the Funky Pirate and The Blues Club. Absolutely amazing blues music! There was also a great karaoke bar called the Cat's Meow that had a fantastic DJ. Really entertaining. We weren't in the total party mood, so we got off the street at about 11pm, just when things are really starting to kick it up a notch. Wouldn't mind coming back with a bunch of guys and tearing it up!!
Not much talk about Saturday except that our 11am flight left New Orleans at 3pm, so we didn't get home until about 11:30pm last night. Over-all we had a great time. I would recommend New Orleans.