Hilton New Orleans Airport Kenner

So my amazing host Frank was kind enough to drive me back to the airport, after such a nice day yesterday. I arrived around 9:15am, said goodbye, and then left to New Orleans (with a one hour layover in the middle at Charlotte).

I picked up my backpack from the bag carousel, and then got some info about New Orleans. There's a shuttle that would have dropped me off a couple of blocks away from my host Daniel's house in the French Quarter ...

... old French, Spanish and Creole architecture and a great atmosphere. In the middle there is a great town square (Jackson) facing a beautiful cathedral (St Louis). Dinner was oysters, seafood jambalaya and chicken salad followed by choc-pecan pie and key lime tart all at the Crescent City Brewhouse. Thanks Mum and Dad for funding the night out, we loved it!

New Orleans has lots of different areas and the Garden District is another that is full of ...

... advertising says "Take it anywhere, on vacation, on your boat, ...Get all your local channels" (now insanely frustrated and ******). I'm sure I'll forget about the ****** part in about an hour when the games we can see (OK, there are 13 of them today so I guess I should quit whining). Lessons learned: 1. If you love football, don't say you'll never buy a TV for camping. 2. Check the finer details of a too good to be true offer. The ...

... some urgency to get on the road before peak hour traffic arrives, I’m soon booked into the mini-van shuttle with another seven passengers all onwards to various hotels. It’s only a few minutes into the trip when we’re stuck, in multiple lanes of traffic, and not moving! This is going to be a long ride indeed!

Fast forward an hour and something minutes later, the mini-van pulls into the driveway of my hotel for the next few nights, the W Chicago Lakeshore.

... delicious!! Local favourites is Acme Oyster House which was a beaut of a spot though the popularity meant it took a forever to get a table!



Barbeque Shrimp ...

... crowded. More people on the balconies. Police presence is visible. Groups of people stand beneath certain balconies trying to get beads, hats, or whatever else is getting thrown down. Those on the balconies try and get those on the ground to do wilder and wilder things. The most popular request is to get the women to flash their breasts. Some women do. A few bars advertise that they do body painting. Occasionally you see someone who is topless and has their ...

... get as close as they could to soak up the ambience and excitement which by this time was palpable as the news rumbled through the crowd that Ohio State had already scored a touchdown. That development revived my lagging spirits so I urged Bev to backtrack to the street where a thriving market was forming among the last of the holdouts. Several of the scalpers we'd already refused were still there, insisting on their price even though the game had begun. Then we ...

... but this was actively unfriendly, as if they didn't want us there (whyever not, when we were providing their income)? A waitress told me that most people come to NOLA 'just to get drunk and fall over'. It has too many tacky (and some are really tacky) tourist gift shops. The 'Big Easy' was uneasy, unnerving and unfriendly and I was sad at how my anticipated 'mystic' place actually was in reality. I really hope that things do improve but that is all in the hands of New Orleans itself.

... grenade - that was more than enough to keep us merry for the rest of the night! so today weve been taking it easy, just exploring the city by day, its very quaint - full of street performers. so what else have we been up to on trek - we began our trip in new york and headed on down to washington dc - a 5 hour drive and set up camp in a beautiful campsite - im in a tent with a girl called pam - weve only known ...

... at another hotel so I headed off to that. Sadly that went on for so long I ended up missing the dinner with my colleagues, so I had a little wander before heading back to my hotel. I borrowed the fitness kit and decided to do half an hour of stretching, which was a good idea in theory. Perhaps tomorrow I might try and to something with the weird yoga brick.... As I have an early start tomorrow I caught an early night (well, 10pm is early for me!)