It was a lovely visit with Les but off now to New Orleans!
Flights were great - early even and I got to the hotel around 3.20 after a slight mix up with transport. I just remained in the room until Maurice came back around 5.30. We got ready and then went off to join the boat for the river cruise.
We met up with Sian and Steve Searle and socialised the night away in pleasant company with good food and the usual free drink!
We finished off the evening on Bourbon St but not too late as I was pretty tired.
The next day I had a bit of a sore head and went to Walgreen's for headache pills and McDonald's for coffee. Once I had a bath I went in search of Sian and found her gate crashing lunch at the seminar! We then had an afternoon of shopping before returning to the hotel to get ready for the Aquarium for the evening entertainment. Not much food but plenty drink and social chit chat. The rest of the evening was spent in Bourbon St again and we finished off with a hot dog on the way back to the hotel.
Maurice's first day officially on holiday was spent in the French Quarter first of all where we got a mule drawn buggy tour which was interesting. Then we visited the St Louis cemetery where a scene from Easy Rider was shot. After popping back to the hotel we then took a cab to the Garden District to wander around the mansion houses but don't think we quite got to the right place. We got a very packed trolley back to town . Hot and sour soup beckoned and so we had a quick bite from the nearby Chinese before going back to the hotel.
After a short snooze (him) and a bath (me) we got ready and ventured out to Bourbon St to see Steamboat Willie. He was all that we expected - a great entertainer and some great music. Sian and Steve came along just after 8 and we were joined later on by another delegate from the conference. It was an outside venue and getting pretty cold so we went on to a warmer venue but realised that Friday night on Bourbon St was absolutely crazy - the music was louder and more geared to youngsters too. After a quick drink at a bar next to the hotel we went back to our room.
Impressions of New Orleans: a great city with lots for visitors to see and do. The French Quarter is really interesting and the party atmosphere makes for a good time. Weekends do seem to be a bit different and full of groups of younger people with hen night and stag night intentions! But through the week there are more tourists and probably business folk or indeed conference visitors too.
