New Orleans by Night

We had fun exploring New Orleans by night. After dinner one evening, we were meandering through the French Quarter when we heard people shouting and saw a flashing blue light from a cop car. We ran up to the corner and witnessed a two-float parade. I'm not sure what it was for, but they were throwing beads and seemed glad to have someone to throw them to, so we got a bunch. We were feeling in the party mood, so we ambled up to Bourbon Street.

The guidebook said it is not typical New Orleans, but due to its notoriety, we wanted to see it anyway. It was definitely a party street, with lots of bars, strip clubs, food, and music. It sort of reminded me of the bawdy Las Vegas strip, but with more culture thrown in. They close the street at night so it's easy to walk.

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, and the New Orleans website said they were going to have a parade and had a map of the parade route. It was supposed to start at 6, but the map showed several beer stops along the way, so we figured it might take a while to get to us.

We started walking from our hotel at 6:45 down the parade route, with the idea we'd try and find some dinner. People were lined up all along the sidewalks. One restaurant had an hour wait. Then I noticed the almost-empty balcony on the Hard Rock Cafe, and we went over to see if we could eat there. They said yes!

While we were waiting, we saw this cool banana bicycle-for-two go by. The parade watchers hooted and hollered. But alas, we were still in for a long wait for the real parade.

It was getting darker, but there was still traffic on the street below. We ate our dinner, and still no parade.

Emma was getting a little tired.

Darkness had fallen over the city, and yet still no parade. The crowd on the street grew. I was so glad we had decided to eat first!

Finally, about 9 p.m., some cops on motorcycles came by. Then a bunch of little dune buggies. They had beads, and the crowd swarmed them to get the beads. Then there was a long delay as we waited for a fire truck to get back to the nearby station.

The balcony gave us a great vantage point, and it wasn't crowded. That was good for us rural folks, who needed a little extra elbow room.

Finally the floats started coming, and Desert Boy wanted to get some beads, so I took him down to the street.

We saw this bagpipe band.

We also did quite well collecting beads. Some of them may make a reappearance at an upcoming parade in our area.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The parade was a little different than others I've seen. Lots of people were walking and handing out beads. And drinking beer. I've never seen so many kegs in a parade. Or a port-a-potty. I guess that beer has to go somewhere.

Our last night we went out to dinner with friends and then took the free ferry across the Mississippi River. The city looked really neat.

Some of the feral cats that live under the ferry station. Someone feeds them, as there were several big bowls of food.

Grandmas and their grandbabies!

On the walk back from the ferry station we stopped to play in the fountain at the casino.

Ava was ready to get wet!

Emma and Isaac were content to hang out in their strollers.

Desert Boy and Ava were happy to play together.

They had fun goofing off.

And getting wet.
And getting wetter.

Finally it was time to leave.
It was a good time! There is still so much more of New Orleans that I'd like to visit.

New Orleans by Day

If you guessed New Orleans as the mystery location, you're right! I attended a conference there last week. I didn't really wanted to be separated from my kids for that long, and Grandma and Grandpa were willing to check out the Big Easy, so they flew down and watched the kids while I attended the conference.

I still tried to get out and do as much exploring as possible, as I had never been to New Orleans before. In a nutshell, it was really interesting, and I'd like to go back to see even more. March weather was wonderful.

One night we went and had dinner at Jackson Square in the French Quarter. We were entertained by the white man, who played a song when someone tipped him.

Tarot card readers were set up in several locations. I liked that this one claimed to be 98.5% accurate. I wonder how he evaluated his success.

We walked around a bit, enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of this unique spot.

I went for morning runs to see a bit more (and to keep training for some upcoming triathlons). I found a nice path along the Mississippi River.

The Segway tour provided an amusing sight.

I also enjoyed this interesting horse post. Other early morning sights included plenty of delivery vans, street sweepers, and relatively few people. I didn't see any other runners except on the path by the river.

Desert Girl got so worn out by some of the activities that she literally crashed--right into her stroller.

The grandparents and grandkids took the free ferry across the Mississippi River several times. They also became pros at riding the streetcars. Desert Boy was delighted to ride "trains."

Here's another view from the path along the river on a different morning.

I liked this statue.

A close up showed she had her beads, too.

This is yet another photo of the Mississippi River, with a big oceanliner on it. But it was all fogged in that morning!

Next I'll show some of the night scenes of New Orleans. We had some interesting experiences!

Mystery Location

I've actually been away from my desert home this week with very limited Internet access, so I haven't had the chance to post. Once I get back, I'll have some photos to share about this different place. To pique your interest, here are some clues to where I am:

-the city has about half the population it did in 1965

-working streetcars provide both a means for commuters to move about and a tourist attraction

-The St. Patrick's Day parade last night took almost three hours to get to our location.

-Desert Boy only got one piece of candy from the parade because the preferred item for throwing was nonedible.

And for a hint that will make it very obvious:

-much of the city is below sea level.

We're headed back to the desert tomorrow, so we'll be soaking up as much of the culture and sights as we can in the remaining time. Have a great day!

Snow Survey

The last week of February I got to help with a snow survey. I had been intimidated by the distance and elevation gain previous years, but this time around I worked up the nerve to accompany them to the first of the three snow courses. Snow is measured to help determine water supply forecasts by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), and this particular snow course has a record since 1942.

Along with two guys from NRCS, we had five other participants, including John, above. He started out ahead of us to break trail. The snow was great, several inches of relatively new snow.

Heading up the road. It was a gorgeous day.

Greg took a turn breaking trail.

I had a chance, too. The snow was really blowing off the mountain, but where we were, it was nice.

Jacob caught up with us. (Sorry for the sideways photo.)

Did I already say it was a gorgeous day?

We got to the first snow course and found snow quite a ways up the snow course marker.

Jeff was another volunteer, and he and John started off measuring distances so we could get our five measurements in the right locations. Those five measurements are then averaged.

Curt was in charge, and he recorded the data.

The long tube is the snow core, and after it's been filled with snow, it gets weighed to determine the snow water equivalent, or amount of water in the snow.

Greg takes a turn doing a reading.

Then it's my turn. It was harder than it looked to get the pole in straight up and down.

I had another obligation that afternoon so couldn't continue and headed back down. The three that went all the way got back to the trucks around 8 pm, using their headlights to ski down the trail. Maybe I'll have the guts to try that for the next snow survey at the end of March!

It won't be much longer after that when the marmots come out. (The sign says Marmot Crossing, SLOW).