brew dat!
I also moseyed on down to the Maple St. Bookstore, where I picked up the latest copy of the New Orleans Review and some Eracism bumper stickers. NOSTALGIA at its finest.
Then it was time to meet some folks for dinner at Lebanon's--the local restaurant my peeps and I patronized probably twice a week for four years in college. I can now personally testify that after ten years, they still have the best hummus I've ever had in my life.
And then I broke my no-Bourbon-St. rule and headed down to the French Quarter. I was by myself, so I figured it would be wiser to stay in the more populated parts of the city, so I wandered around Decatur St., Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral:
stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets:
headed over to Bourbon St. where I made friends with some girls in New Orleans for a work conference (we discussed love, sex, and religion) and had (3) infamous hand grenades at:
saw a bunch of typical New Orleans signs such as:
and:
And that was enough of that. I grabbed a cab uptown and called it a night. But then this morning, I was right back at it. We had an early luncheon this morning with the event organizers and speakers (as well as some students from the law school and school of social work), which was nice. After the luncheon, I went to a very special place:
The Tulane English Department! It was amazing to see so many of the same people in the building where I spent the majority of my undergrad years. I then took the streetcar to another very special place:
The Columns Hotel . . . possibly my favorite place in New Orleans. If I fantasized about getting married, I'd fantasize about getting married here. There's no place I love to sit outside and sip a martini more . . . it's so quintessential New Orleans, and so reminds me of my time here. This was my view from the big old southern porch today, looking out onto St. Charles Avenue.
And now, I'm scrambling to get dressed for our big event tonight--wish me luck, as the room is set for 270 people. YIKES!