I heart NOLA

 Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

It’s the greatest thing you’d ever imagine but you’ll never know until you’re there*

It had been way too long since I had been in NOLA. Coming for the Voodoo festival was genius because it allowed for time to do other things while I was there. I won’t go into all the details but I can sum it up in five points as to why I heart NOLA…

5. The city is a photographer’s dream. Cool, old buildings, awesome people watching and surprises at every turn.
4. People who stay in NOLA love their town and they treat people that appreciate their town with that same love.
3. You can hear live music everywhere in NOLA - often times, it is a random group of musicians on the street corner, but none of it sucks, I promise.
2. I don’t think you can have a bad meal in NOLA. I went on a tour de muffaletta and also visited one of my old favorites, The Alpine, for a decadent last-night-in-NOLA meal. Even the liquor store down the street from our hotel served awesome fried chicken!
1. You can get your alcohol to go in a plastic cup anywhere in the French Quarter.

So a few photos and then I’m calling it a night…

(Minnie and Ox at Napoleon House with a Pimm’s Cup for two)
I was soooo stoked that practically every bar served Pimm’s.

We spent a couple of nights at the Pirate’s Alley Cafe drinking Absinthe and Pimm’s. Jill, our bar wench, was totally awesome. Many props to Matty for directing me towards this awesome bar.

(St. Louis Cathedral from the Natchez)

(Domino Sugar Factory from the Natchez)

(site of the Battle of New Orleans from the Natchez)

We went on the steamboat Natchez for a tour on the Mississippi. I’ve been on this tour a few times and I don’t get tired of it. Of course, the scenery has changed somewhat, but that is to be expected. It’s still a great way to get some history about the area and to see some really cool stuff on the Mississippi.

(New Orleans Courthouse)
Walking around the Vieux Carre is the best. I should have taken more photos but I was on sensory overload. I’ll have to make a list of things to photograph the next time I am there (which will be sooner than later for sure.)

*lyrics are from Pas De Cheval by Panic at the Disco

P.S. Of course, I yelped my way through NOLA. You can check out my reviews here.
P.P.S. The rest of the photos are here.

Adventures in Ft. Wayne Indiana

 Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

I know, I go to the most random places for work. But sometimes, these little towns really surprise me and I actually enjoy my time there. Ft. Wayne, Indiana was one of those towns. I met my friends/co-workers from TX and we stayed downtown in the Hilton for the week. I didn’t really have time for sightseeing, but we kept driving past these cool old buildings so I walked around this morning before I left and took photos.

I loved the County Courthouse. It takes up a whole block and I got photos of three sides of it.

(south side)

west side)

Across from the courthouse was the Tower building.

This building reminded me of buildings in NY - with the art deco entrances.

This was the block across the street from the hotel. Every single one of those buildings were in the National Register of Historic Places.

Not surprised that there were a ton of churches in Ft. Wayne - from my hotel window I could see this one - The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

More photos here.

I also yelped some of the fine establishments in Ft. Wayne. Check out the list here.

Santa Cruz and San Jose

 Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

I was in San Jose for work last week but still managed to play turista for a bit.

On Sunday, we went to Santa Cruz. This is the view of the Boardwalk from the Wharf.

I was in downtown San Jose a lot because my co-worker who had the car stayed there. Both the Museum of Art and the Museum of Technology were photo-worthy.

We went the Winchester Mystery House but didn’t have time to take the tour before we had to leave for the airport. I still managed to get some photos.

More photos:

Santa Cruz

Downtown San Jose

Winchester Mystery House

Getting Artsy Fartsy in KCMO

 Artsy Fartsy    Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

I spent a few hours today at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in the Plaza area of KCMO. Lots of cool stuff to see but I was mostly interested in the outdoor sculpture garden.

This is the view from the steps of the entrance. You can see two of the shuttlecock sculptures and the Thinker in the foreground.

Yes, it is The Thinker. I had no idea that this was at this museum. You can see the third of the four shuttlecocks in the background.

So, a little story about this photo. I actually put Minnie in the sculpture when I backed away to take a photo. All of the sudden I heard this voice (coming from a camera and speaker to the side of the sculpture) telling me to take whatever I put on the sculpture off. Woah. So I took her off and had to take the photo this way.

This is the back of the museum. There’s another shuttlecock and a cool fountain.

I took a bunch of photos, which you can see here.

Beautiful Roanoke VA

 Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

Okay, I am only half being sarcastic with the title. It actually is really beautiful here. I got stuff done early today, so I took off to check out their downtown. Um, like a four block square of stuff pretty much.

But yeah, there’s Hotel Roanoke:

You can see this hotel from the 581 and it’s actutally a nice hotel. I love the Tudor architecture.

I walked across the pedestrian walkway that connects the Hotel Roanoke to the Center in the Square.

There wasn’t much going on there, so I went into here to get some ice cream and took off.

I haven’t done much here (because there’s not much to do here.) But the other day, we went to a plantation for lunch. They’re not always open for lunch, but when they are, the guys that I am working with here like to eat the buffet. They lovingly call it “The Spread”. It’s in a pretty cool old plantation home.

You can see the rest of the photos here.

All That Remains

 Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

My friend wanted to go down to Ground Zero and I humored her though I didn’t really want to go. I get choked up at these kinds of things. So yeah, we went down there. I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of the actual site (where all sorts of construction is going on.) But there was interesting graffiti around the viewing area. I think that tells the story more than any photos of the actual site itself could ever do.

Do yourself a favor and click on this one and look at the big photo. Some of what is written is very profound.

This was the boldest bit of graffiti on the wall.

I found these stickers all over the fencing and barriers in the viewing area.

There is a wall next to the WTC Memorial Museum that depicts the heroics of the firefighters (the fire station is right there). The names of all the firefighters that were lost are on the wall. I watched a man make rubbings of names across the wall. I’ve seen that before at the Vietnam War Memorial and it was a moving thing then and it was definitely a moving thing now. 

Turista in Nueva York

 Foodie    Shutterbug    Wanderlust   

I hadn’t been to NYC in 6 years and my friend hadn’t been there since she was a teenager so there was a lot of tourista action going on. Both of the hotels we stayed at were near Rockefeller Center, so that area was our home base. The last time I was in NYC, I really liked that area as well since there is good shopping and lots to see.

Like St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

And the famous Prometheus.

Radio City Music Hall is there as well. (I want to see Kings of Leon there!)

But I think my favorite random find was the Sephora that is in the historic Scribner’s and Sons building.

This is the entrance:

Inside is gorgeous as well:

We were also a few blocks away from Times Square. On Sunday afternoon, we went to Maxie’s for lunch. The place was a bit spendy for what you get ($22 for a sandwich), but this is what a sandwich looks like:

So I guess it’s all relative. We split the sandwich and then had cheesecake for dessert. Really good. Then we talked around Times Square for a bit.

I was really digging the Paramount Building, where the Hard Rock Café currently resides.

I really wanted to head up the Empire State Building, but when we went down there, the wait was an hour and a half and that wasn’t happening. The thing about NYC is that you’ll never get to do everything you want to do in a trip, so you pretty much have to pick and choose your battles and just go with the flow. I probably have one more NYC post and then I’ll be back to the rawk. It was good to get away but I am so ready to get back to normal.