Weekly Adventure: New Orleans

On a quiet Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago, my friend Liz from D.C called me to catch up. This is the conversation that followed.

Liz: Hey, what are you doing this week?
Me: Nothing.
Liz: Want to come to New Orleans? I'll be there for a conference starting on Wednesday and have a paid for hotel room on Canal Street.  Seems like a waste not to take advantage of it.
Me: Um, yes, absolutely, done! See you on Wednesday!

I don't think she believed me that I would actually hop in the car and drive 8 hours east to New Orleans on a whim until I showed up knocking on her hotel room door.

I've been to New Orleans on two previous occasions (both post Katrina), once for Mardi Gras in 2007 and once for New Years in 2008-9.  But I wanted to see the city during a "normal" time in the city, if there is such a thing. I spent 3 solid days there walking around the French Quarter, Garden District, St. Charles Ave, Frenchman Street and a few other places in between while Liz was at her conference. We had fantastic food, drinks heard some great music and I even ran into a few people I knew who were working on films there.The photos are a mix of iPhone (the square ones) and regular old digital camera I resorted to when my phone kept dying from over use.

I love the architecture, the light, the sights, the food, the drinks, the people, the different 'hoods, I love New Orleans - it's definitely one of my favorite cities to visit.

Sheraton-our hotel

view from the hotel room

Courtyard somewhere in the French Quarter

Bourbon street

view from my window at lunch in a French Bakery off Magazine St.

Cemetery in the Garden District

Gorgeous Houses on St. Charles Ave.

Drinks and music at Three Muses on Frenchman St.

Film crew shooting Treme at the bar next door

The End, or Begining.....

First of all, yes, the Challenge is over and I did complete it! Or well, most of it. I (stupidly) took a job that last week of the challenge that took over my life and was the hardest dang thing I've done. I ran the half marathon but did not do the triathlon as I had to be in Ennis, TX for that crazy job. I learned many valuable lessons, like the word "no" that I will go into more details about in a later post. In the meantime I will be posting photos of my last weekly adventures in New Orleans and Dallas.

Weekly Adventure: Enchanted Rock

When I'm traveling out of this glorious state (or country for that matter) people will inevitably find out I'm from Texas, usually because I've dropped "y'all" into a conversation. The first question they ask, after telling me how they feel about George W. Bush and telling me where to stick it is, "do you ride a horse?" After politely telling them that I am from an actual city, where we have real cars, paved roads AND stop lights, I try to describe the variety of landscape we have here in Texas that does not include horses. For the record, I hate horseback riding. It’s not that I hate horses; it’s just that I don't trust them. They are bigger and stronger than me AND smarter, why the hell would I put myself on their back and at their mercy? That’s just asking for trouble if you ask me. I’ll pet them, while avoiding eye contact, feed them a carrot and then go play with an animal my own size. Something that does not have the power to break both my arms, legs and back, like a goldfish. But I digress…

One of the many things I love about my home state besides rattlesnakes, Republicans and Houston is the wide variety of landscape. Granted, sometimes you have to drive 10 hours clear across the state to get there, but still, Texas has it all. We may not have the most amazing mountain views (I’m talking to you Colorado) or the most pristine beaches (Florida has got to be good for something; otherwise no one under 65 would ever venture there.) Texas has a little taste of it all, a smorgasbord if you will, of mountains, deserts, plains, rolling hills, big cities, small towns, coastline (367 miles of it to be exact), numerous rivers, lakes, streams, bayous (Hi Beaumont!) and many other things that give this state it’s larger than life reputation. Or maybe that is just the people. Either way, there is more to Texas than just horses and the people who rode in on them. 

Last week, I finally ventured to one of these spots that make the landscape here unique: Enchanted Rock. Enchanted Rock is a state park with a giant pink granite dome (and other rock formations) peeking out of the tree covered hills.  It’s located in the heart of the hill country 20 miles north of Fredericksburg and two hours west of Austin. It's an easy day trip away which is why the place gets so packed on the weekends apparently. And cheap too, entrance fee is $6 per person for day trippers. My friend and I (both being gainfully funemployed) drove up on a Thursday afternoon so we could avoid the crowds and climb the rock during “magic hour” (the last couple hours of light before the sun sets). It was a warm, sunny and gorgeous spring afternoon. After wandering around a bit trying to find the right trail, we headed up to the summit which is a steep hike but totally doable, especially if you actually stay on the marked trails the whole time. There are multiple trails in the area, we just took the main one up to the top. We took a “creative” way down and had to climb over a few boulders, but that made it that much more fun.  Plus, we really had to something to earn the beers we stopped for in Fredericksburg before heading back home.  The view on top of the rock was incredible and the pictures really don't do it justice, but they are still quite perty if you ask me.

 

Trying to find the summit trail

On our way up the rock

View from top of rock, there are people on that other one too

Shawn on the edge of the world

Prickly pear on the summit

Magic hour

Shawn is really strong

As am I

Colorful moss on a boulder

The boulders we climbed down

Deer on the summit at sunset

Sunset