new orleans to mobile

2.24.08-2.25.08 What a beautiful city! From double porches to old brick sidewalks to the faint traces of history, everything about it is unique and beautiful! Most of the day was spent leisurely strolling around the city. There is something about the slow pace of the south that I could get use to, ok maybe I shouldn’t if I am moving to the big apple 80) my one tip for the day is that if you ever get to new Orleans, make sure you check out Preservation Hall. It doesn’t look like much, but it has been the best jazz venue for years. Make sure to get there early as a line begins to form at the door more than a half and hour prior to show time. Mostly it is standing room only, but it is worth the charm!
Today being my last day in New Orleans was very interesting! Started out by checking out the old cemeteries then moving on to the 9th ward and other areas to view the destruction from Katrina, then to the garden district which is an upper-class neighborhood and on to a great bar for lunch that a local directed me to. Talk about getting a taste of everything! The 9th ward is still devastated, but not as bad as I was expecting, granted it is a fairly large area so I only saw a small section of it, but some houses still have the markings on them and some houses are need to be torn down because they are so damages, but all in all life is going on. I saw this flag at a house in the garden district and thought it was a great way to end my New Orleans trip.
I’m in Alabama tonight having passed through Biloxi on my way here to Mobile. Biloxi is still showing the signs of the wear from the storms and much has not been rebuilt yet. I passed through at night and it was probably a good thing because it probably wouldn’t be a pretty sight during the day.
I’m getting excited as I’m getting closer to Georgia and meeting my second cousin for the first time 80) the joys of life! Hope you are all still enjoying the blog, I know I am!

new orleans

2.23.08 this is the best time to visit New Orleans! The humidity isn’t 100% and as long as it is sunny you don’t even need a long sleeve shirt. We wandered around the city for most the day sight seeing and shopping. We had breakfast/lunch at Café DuMond the original French donut café. Yummy, yummy! The city was just as I remember during the day, the French quarter was saved from most of the damage from Katrina, but the artists in Jackson Square documented the damage for all to see. I bought a great subtle print that says, “know what it means to miss New Orleans” and has a picture of the famous gas streetlights under water. It is a very subtle reminder of what happened.
As evening set in we had dinner at Pat O’Brien’s and I got my gumbo, catfish and jambalaya 80) we also decided to go on a haunting tour. The guide was great and we got a lot of history about the city and of course heard about some of the more gruesome times the city has gone through. There was a young couple on the tour that we befriended so we hung out after the tour and they took us to a bar that serves Absinthe. Ok I really don’t like black licorice and probably won’t drink it again, but I can now say that I have tried it.
We are going to go exploring more of the city today…until then.

new orleans the home of jazz

Ok, I really didn’t know what a lot of driving was until I got in the jeep at 9am yesterday morning and didn’t get out until 8pm after driving over 530 miles and being stuck in traffic for hours. But the thing is, I loved the drive into Louisiana. The trees lining the road, green grass everywhere, the long bridges that went barley above the swamp, I absolutely loved it! Sorry Croney/Sandruck family, but I couldn’t wait to finally get out of the long boring drives in Texas! Oh yeah and if I see anymore cows I’ll scream…of course I saw them here in LA too, but I turned the other way 80) speaking of the Croney/Sandruck family…thank you for showing me what is meant by southern hospitality! It was really sad to leave, it had been so long since I had seen you’ll (like that?) and I really enjoyed spending time with all of you!
More sadness…after getting harassed by a guy in a pick-up truck…while I was sitting in traffic I saw the Superdome and realized that thousands of people were stranded at the same spot where I was stopped after Katrina hit. I haven’t seen much of my favorite city yet, but what I have seen there is a lot of lifting of buildings going on, meaning putting them on stilts. Bourbon Street, where the hotel is, is as crazy as ever, but I hope to venture out to the worst hit areas and see the devastation that still exists 3 years after the tragedy.
Sorry no pictures today, but the windshield was covered in bugs and there weren’t a lot of interesting places to stop on the way…more tomorrow.

antiques, speakeasy theaters and luna eclipse

i know i say this about everyday, but what a perfect day! jocelyn and i headed into dallas to do some antique shopping. it satisfied my urge that i have had to shop, but i didn't actually spend any money...i'll have to remember this for the next time i have that urge! the shops were really neat, it was in an industry part of town and they had everything you could ever imagine and of course some things you really didn't want to see, like stuffed baby bobcats, as jocelyn said "welcome to texas!"
after shopping we met up with keith and jon for a movie at texas' speakeasy theater, i never knew the idea was out there everywhere, it's amazing what i am learning as i travel! as we were coming out of the movie theater i remembered there was a lunar eclipse that was suppose to be occuring and as we all looked into the sky...it was already in progress. we raced back home so jon could get his camera...and these pictures are the result, thanks jon for letting me use these. enjoy!

family time = happy time!

i arrived yesterday afternoon in the dallas/ft. worth area and received a very warm welcome from cousin jocelyn and aunt nancy. its amazing how much you realize you miss family when you are around them again! it was so nice catching up with my texan family as it has been too long since i've seen them! here is a picture from my first home cooked meal since i left colorado 80)

history, music and a surprise stop

so this morning i decided to take a quick side trip to england and easter island, ok not really but i was surprised to find that someone had taken it upon their selves to duplicate stonehedge and statues from easter island. being that i had never seen either of the two places in real life it was a nice treat. apparently the texas stonehedge is not oriented to the sun as the real one is and is much smaller, but who would have ever thought stonehedge would have existed in texas!
after my side trip i headed into san antonio. i was quite surprised at what a nice city it is! not only did i see the alamo and get my next hard rock shirt, but i also strolled around the river walk. luckily the weather was beautiful and the sun was shinning it was a perfect day! the alamo was better then i expected even though they don't allow pictures inside the buildings. after having lunch on the river walk i regretfully left town and headed into austin.
when i arrived in austin i found they had lost my reservation at the hostel for the night, luckily they still had a bed available in the 14 bed dorm room 80) i decided to take a walk in the park, nice and relaxing until i met a couple strange looking people along the way and i decided to head back to the picnic area to relax. when i headed back to the hostel i met a guy from denmark who had been in town for a couple of days and so we went out on the town to check out some live music. if any of you love live music of all kinds check out austin's night life!
three texan cities in one day, talk about tiring!

bugs and more bugs

What a way to start a morning…with a cockroach. Ok so I admit my skills of picking good hotels are lacking! Anyone staying in Carlsbad, NM do not stay at the Motel 6. It may be the cheapest hotel in town, but there is a reason!
After that ordeal the day had to get better, so I headed to the Carlsbad Caverns. Wow! I walked into the cavern by the natural entrance, which is about a mile and drops 750 feet to the cave floor. I have been to the Luray, VA caverns, but they don’t even compare to Carlsbad! Thanks for the tip Sarah! Most of the pictures didn’t come out because it was so dark, but here are a few that did. Apparently the cave is home to the Mexican bat, but they migrate to Mexico for the winter and won’t return for another couple of weeks so I missed their daily flight 80( So since I missed their flight I decided to take the Desert Drive into Walnut Canyon by the caverns. Talk about cool, driving around the desert with no one else around in a t-shirt because it got so warm…nice way to end my time in NM. I didn’t see any animals except birds, but I did see their dung…yummy 80)
After leaving the caverns I made my way into Texas and guess what greeted me…more abandoned towns, mutilated carcass of fox and skunk, oil thingings (just like CA!), Mexican cowboys and a constantly bug splattered windshield. Most of the drive was open desert, miles and miles of empty highways. Oh yeah and I crossed the time line, opps didn’t plan that into my drive time today! Luckily the speed limit on 10E was 80 so that helped with the time change. When I finally stopped for lunch I saw a couple that I had met in the Caverns…small world huh? There were probably more trucks on the highway then cars, but I did see two different caravans from California with moving trucks towing a car and another car following, boy am I glad I’m not moving that way!
When the sun finally started to set, I swear it stays light longer here in Texas, I was racing against the night as the temperatures started to drop as well as the speed limit by 15 miles as the darkness set in. I finally arrived at my hotel and am very glad to see that it is cleaner than last night. Tomorrow San Antonio and Austin!

chasing storms

waking up to hear that there is snow and rain across the state and that i will be following it...YEAH! i explored santa fe this morning, wow talk about galleries, they are everywhere! i even walked around a few residential streets and found some cute houses for sale 80) don't worry i'm not moving to new mexico.
after santa fe i headed south on 285 again to carlsbad, nm. 285 took me through more snow-covered roads, rain, abandoned towns, fields of naked sheep and the longest train that i have even seen!
about 100+ miles outside roswell, nm i began following two government suv's which i promptly lost as soon as we entered roswell city limits. roswell was a big disappointment to me. there were no signs for the UFO landing that i saw. there was one UFO museum and a couple of alien heads around town, but that was largely it. my brother drew said that he heard that the government flew the employees to and from roswell from the airport...well after passing the airport i believe him! there were so many small private planes and the entire time i was in the area not once did a commercial flight pass overhead...hum
i made it here to carlsbad just before the storm...yeah! tomorrow i'll head to the caverns and into texas...hope all is well with everyone out there reading this!

new mexico bound

On the road again. After not having to drive for about a week it was weird being on the road again! And this time by myself…in the middle of nowhere with no good radio stations, oh it was fun! But seriously the views along the drives were spectacular! I stopped by the Great Sand Dunes in southwestern Colorado, who would have ever thought they had sand dunes around the Rockies? But as you can tell from the pictures it is true! I really wanted to hike up a dune, but the weather was too unstable, (rain and snow). So off I went to New Mexico.
Amazingly it looked just like Colorado in the beginning, but further on 285 South the landscape changed dramatically and it looked more like a desert. For many miles it was just me on the road, no one else around, it was really liberating realizing that there was no one with me and I was on my own, then my sensibility started sinking in and I started paying attention to mile marker signs in case I broke down 80) Getting closer to Santa Fe the road got confusing, but I’m happy to say that I found my hotel on the first try!
I decided to try downtown for dinner, but Santa Fe is a silly town, all the stores close between 5:30 and 6pm and there were few restaurants and bars, but not many. I did find a place that had homemade chicken tortilla soup…yummy! I also made some new friends, local hippies, they are everywhere! We hung out and played pool and they gave me some tips on where to go in town, so now I’m off to explore Santa Fe before the snow hits again! Fun, fun! 80)

all about colorado

I love vacation! It’s so nice not to have a schedule or be responsible for anyone but me…what else can be better?
I left Boulder on 2.12, very sad! Thank you Nat, Brooks and Berkeley for all your hospitality! I migrated south to Conifer, Colorado to see Chris and our friends Debbi, Scott and their two cats Dallas and Nike.
Somehow I convinced Chris to go to Red Rocks with me and to the Coors Brewery the next day. Added to my list of things to do before I die is to see a concert at Red Rocks! It was such a warm day, windy, but not cold. Coors Brewery was fun. Dad I thought of you, not sure if you made it there when you and Mom went cross-country.
We got some snow the next day so I decided to stay in Conifer for Valentines Day. It was a nice lazy day that it was hard to try planning the next leg of my trip. I did get Chris to go snowshoeing, another first for both of us. I always thought you were suppose to stay above the snow in snowshoes, not us, we sank up to our knees, guess we were doing something wrong! Oh well we had fun, that’s all that counts.
Debbi and Scott were great for letting me stay an extra couple days with them in Conifer, but I knew that I had to leave Colorado soon or else I never would! If only I could be land locked…Colorado is where I’d live, but I’m an ocean kind of girl!

a day of skiing

what a day we had yesterday! waking up at 6am to get on the road to Breckinridge for a day of skiing. luckily Rt 70 didn't have the whiteout conditions that it had when chris and i traveled through! so keep in mind this is probably my 5 or 6th time skiing and natalie and brooks took me up a blue for my first run...they had alot more confidence in me than i did. the mountain was crowded because it was a beautiful sunny day so the lift lines were a little long, but one can't complain when they are skiing for free and only had to pay $11 to rent skis, boots and poles! anyone who has been skiing in colorado as well as on the east coast will notice the big difference in the distance of the runs. colorado runs are much longer then east coast runs. so the first run i went on with natalie and brooks (who are expert skiers!) took about 30-45 minutes to get down the hill. i only fell twice, not to bad for someone who hasn't been on skis for over 2 years and is starting on a blue run rather than green one! the second time down the same run was much faster 15-20 minutes and i didn't fall once...i must have been getting the hang of it quickly thanks for two good teachers! since the mountain we were one was crowded, natalie and i decided to try another one, boy was that interesting! we had to cut across many other trails to get to the other mountain and when we got there it was much harder blues than where i started. the beginning was ok, then we hit a steep hill and i fell a couple times trying to get down it, the most embarrassing fall happened right under the lift so the riders had quit a view of me with skis and poles flying every which direction! but that didn't stop me i got right up and kept going. we did another run and stopped for lunch which we had buried under the snow by the lodge...lucky us we remember where it was! after lunch i had only one more run in me before every muscle in my body was screaming for mercy. one the last run i must have fallen three more times and it was on a green the easiest runs, oh well, it was a long run and i was exhausted! natalie, brooks and friends went on to ski their black diamonds while i sat around the out door fire at the lodge relaxing and celebrating my successful injury free ski day with a Coors 80)
on the way back we got stuck in some nasty traffic and stopped at a locally famous pizza place Beau Jo's for dinner. they have what is called the challenge...the rules are as follows...ANY TWO PEOPLE CAPABLE OF EATING THIS PIZZA, CRUST AND ALL IN ONE HOUR AND ONE SITTING, WILL BE GIVEN THE PIE FREE OF CHARGE, AWARDED A $100.00 CASH PRIZE, AND 2 FREE BEAU JO’S T-SHIRTS. The Pie…Our Grand Sicilian, 12-14 incredible pounds of our hamburger sausage combo pizza. Our cooks begin with super-thick 16” crust, adding pounds of green peppers, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage and hamburger. The entire pie is covered with cheese, exquisitely baked, and served to you … The Challenge. so the picture is of a 1 lb pizza can you imagine eating 12-14 pounds of pizza? not me!
all in all it was an awesome day! i am quite sore from the skiing, but it was well worth it! PS Benny was fixed today, it turns out it wasn't the master brake cylinder, but a bad connection in the rear breaks instead! 80) happy pocketbook!