"Take Me Back to New Orleans"

What a great trip!

So I didn't get to go to Preservation Hall to hear jazz...but I got everything else on my checklist done.

- Biegnets are absolutely delicious...but cafe au'lait (yeah, forgive my horrible spelling mistake before...I was thinking Spanish not French) doesn't really have my flavor. I got to go to Cafe du Monde twice while in town and the second time there was quite a crowd of us! Just a note: If you ever go, make sure to bring some hand sanitizer. Pigeons tend to descend on the leftovers as it's an outdoor Cafe. They're pretty entertaining while you wait for your own to arrive!


- Hurricanes are also quite yummy. You should be warned, though, they hide quite a bit of alcohol behind all that sweetness :) We spent a couple nights at the notorious Pat O'Brien's, which is the best place to get Hurricanes. They have an amazing piano bar off the patio, too. Hand Grenades are just as good but don't hide the liquor as well. Oh, and a little bit of trivia: only one place on Bourbon St. can sell the actual Hand Grenades - Tropical Isle. Evidently there's some kind of copyright on the name.

- What book did I buy? A nice biography about Fats Domino, a New Orleans native. Why do I buy books, you ask? I realized when I was living in DC that it was pointless to buy tshirts or keychains that I'd eventually toss in the garage sale pile. Books seemed like the perfect option for a nerd like me - I could learn even more about a place even after I'd left!

- Nobody I know got mugged. Yay! We all went in big groups back and forth from the French Quarter so we felt pretty safe. The only thing traumatic happened to my friend Chris. A couple of our group tried to help a slightly...no, very intoxicated guy back to the hotel and somehow Chris got slammed into the brick sidewalk headfirst. Eventually a trip to the hospital in an ambulance was needed to stitch him up, but he's alright now. Well, except for the realization of how horrible grad student insurance is. Basically none of his hospital trip was covered - and they wouldn't even do a CT when he was there to check for a concussion. Woooooonderful.


- Networking, good talks, etc: The conference was great! I met some important people from SAIC, TTI, NOAA, UCAR, Weatherwise Magazine, and the Weather Service. The most exciting news, though, came after I went on the Hurricane Hunter Tour. NOAA operates a couple P3 aircraft that fly through hurricanes every season. We got to tour one of the P3s and the Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft. I found out that the P3 has seats onboard for researchers on every flight. Well, I mentioned this to my advisor later that day and he informed me that he'd been thinking about trying to get a project together with the Hurricane Research Division...which would mean that a few people from UAH would get to fly with the plane. Since we returned to school, I chatted with my advisor again and he plans to talk with the head of the HRD in the next week...and since I was the first one to talk to him about it, I get the first crack at a seat on the P3 if it works out!!! Nevermind chasing tornados in cars - this is the big leagues :)

What else did we do in NOLA? Well, we went to our first Mardi Gras parade. Don't worry, no beads were actually earned in our presence ;) The floats and people in the parade were...well, not quite as family friendly - it was quite a night!


We also had time to roam around the French Quarter one afternoon and I realized how much I really love the architecture down there. The balconies, the LAMPS! (If you've seen any of my pictures from Europe, you understand my little obsession with lamps...I have no idea where it got started) and St. Louis Cathedral are all beautiful. Definitely ready to go back whenever we get the chance!