New Orleans vacation/conference

What a crazy trip!!! New Orleans wouldn't normally be our first choice for a vacation spot but I had a work related conference so we decided to make a trip out of it. The trip started with arriving at the airport only to be told that my work never purchased a plane ticket but made some sort of general reservation. We called the travel department at the VA hospital frantically but to no avail and had to purchase a very expensive one way ticket. Then we had to run through the airport after learning Chris' ticket was standby and the plane was full. We got very lucky that others on the place were willing to give up their ticket so Chris was able to get on the plane. Thankfully we made it safely to New Orleans and settled into our very nice hotel room...courtesy of VA hospital.

The first night had some excitement when I woke up in the middle of the night and smelled ammonia. It was really strong and I was surprised when, after waking up Chris to inform him we were being gassed, that he couldn't smell it. We talked about it the next morning and determined I must have had an olfactory hallucination. I was vindicated when two days later I smelled it again and this time Chris smelled it too. It odor came in waves and since we weren't spending much time in the hotel room, it was easy to ignore. The second to last day though, ignoring it became impossible. The smell was so strong it was giving us a headache. After dragging the housekeeper into the room to confirm we weren't crazy, we went to the desk and informed them we wanted a new room which we were given. That night, in our new room, we heard yelling in the hallway. A man was standing outside a room door and was cursing and threatening the couple inside. We called security and despite us staring into our peephole, we couldn't see what happened. We did see the couple in the room (when they walked by our peephole) get escorted off the hotel room floor by the police and we heard the woman say they were separated and this was the first time her husband had seen her with another man. Interesting...

The thing about New Orleans that Chris and I learned is that mid August is NOT the time to go. We were told this by a few locals and were informed that the heat and humidity would improve in about 3 weeks. In the meantime, Chris and I avoided the sun and after walking around each day, would lie on the bed with our hands and feet in the air to bring down the swelling. Imagine a dead bug. That was us. This is a picture of the trolleys. We were going to take the St. Charles trolley to the garden district to walk around and look at the beautiful houses. Instead, we stayed on the trolley until the end of the line and then hopped back on and took it home. It was just too darn hot to walk.

Two other low lights had to do with walking the streets of New Orleans. First, the place smells foul. The French Quarter reeks of stale beer, vomit, and garbage. The garbage is place on the edge of the sidewalk but the streets and sidewalks are so narrow that it is impossible to avoid walking dangerously close to the garbage. Second, the begging for money was out of control. The moment I pulled out my camera to take a picture, someone would offer to take the picture for a small tip. There were different mimes or clowns in the streets, children tap dancing, and the run of the mill homeless person all wanting money. I had one woman put her arm around me and proceeded to call me stingy after I wouldn't give her any money. She then tried to get money from Chris and I informed her that the bad news of the day was that Chris was just as stingy as me. She left quite annoyed. Oh well.

There were a few highlights...Chris getting peed on by a baby alligator, feeding alligators marshmallows during the swamp tour, eating, eating, and eating. And best of all, Chris and I not only remembered to bring the camera, we actually used it.