48 Hours in Louisiana

Work has me traveling a lot lately. Most of these trips are roughly 48 hours, so I thought I'd kick off a "48 hours in..." series (inspired by the NY Times "36 hours in..." series). The first trip that kicked off what will be about a dozen trips over the next few months was to Louisiana.

On a Friday, around noon, our flight arrived in New Orleans and the second we walked out of the airport my jeans immediately shrink-wrapped to my legs. Even living in DC, I don't think I've ever experienced humidity quite like that, and it was about 96-degrees (fahrenheit). Our final destination was Baton Rouge and it started down-pouring the moment we got in our rental car. I have to say, first impressions between the airport and getting on the highway was that New Orleans was kind of a shithole - it was all concrete, power lines and run down strip malls. However, I realize the outskirts of many US cities pretty much look just like this and once you get to the Bayou, which is almost immediately after you get on the highway, it's pretty (if you can see beyond the pouring rain and ignore the oil refineries).

We drove to Baton Rouge through several sporadic deluges. Seriously - it's sunny one minute and the next it's raining so heavily that you can't see more than 3 feet in front of you (see above). But when we arrived it was sunny and even more humid from all the rain. We checked into our hotel: Doubletree by Hilton Baton Rouge - nice digs, especially for a highway-adjacent hotel. My room had almost its own mini living room with a couch and (2nd) tv. We changed clothes (to be dressed more appropriately for the heat) and went to do some of work. Our work that day had us mostly outdoors around the LSU campus and my coworker kept referring to it as "Africa hot." Luckily the rain stayed away while we worked so instead the sun just beat down on us mercilessly. After several hours of being outside, we sought refuge in the LSU gift shop to enjoy their air conditioning and drinking fountain. While I've always found excessive school spirit (or being an extreme fan of any one particular thing in general) to be rather strange, I was especially bemused to find that LSU has its own cologne.

We got several restaurant recommendations from people but the most recommended (primarily because of the view, I believe) was Tsunami, a rooftop sushi restaurant on the Mississippi river. While I'm going to write about this place in more detail, I would say overall it was a positive experience. Of course, it rained on our way to the restaurant but it cleared up quickly enough that we were still able to eat outside.

On Saturday, we were back at work, again near LSU, and it was Game Day for the Tigers, so the fans were out in full force. So was the Southern Hospitality - we were offered food and drink by several of the tailgaters we encountered. My favorite part was a 25-gallon drum of Jambalaya (making 25 gallons of anything taste good is pretty impressive to me).

After a long, very hot and humid day of work, we were exhausted so we stuck close to the hotel for dinner. We went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which is a chain, though I had never seen it before. Despite being in an area of town where the food options are almost exclusively fast food, it was damn good steak in a really nice atmosphere. I would say it was in the top 10 steaks I've ever consumed and the side dishes and drinks hit the spot, too.

Sunday, we drove back to New Orleans. Our flight didn't leave until after 4pm, so we were looking forward to spending some time wandering around the French Quarter. On our way there, though, the GPS took us a really weird way and we got off the highway and I have to say it was pretty depressing how much of the devastation of Katrina you could still see in parts of New Orleans. Anyway, I'll try to stick to the positive.

My coworker has spent a lot of time in New Orleans, so he showed us around. We started on Bourbon Street, which was smelly and disgusting. Maybe it was the heat magnifying the stench of urine and vomit but I couldn't handle it for very long. It was also strange because, while there weren't many people around, there were still a few people here or there who were wasted and partying like it was Mardi Gras and not noon on a Sunday in September. So it was very quiet and then you'd hear "wooo!" and other drunken yelling and someone would stumble out into the street. Then we walked up Royal Street, but almost all the stores were closed (come on, people, this is the 21st Century!)

We ate lunch at a little cafe on Jackson Square. The food was mediocre - I ordered a po' boy, thinking there was more to a po' boy than meat and bread. I was mistaken, although apparently it depends on where you go. So I had a basically flavorless sandwich for $12. But the view from that restaurant was fantastic (see above). We were looking right out onto the square where all the artists sell their stuff and there was the cathedral and it was just lovely.

We spent a significant amount of time browsing the art on the fence at Jackson Square. My coworker bought a few small paintings for his kids. I bought one medium-sized painting for my home, which I love. I would've bought more if I could afford to. There was one artist who I wanted to buy from but he had left a sign saying he was around the corner at a bar watching the Saints game and to text him if you wanted anything. Apparently that's not uncommon at Jackson Square but I found it surprising that he was that trusting.  I didn't want to wait around for him though, so I bought a painting from someone else. Most of the artists take credit cards and are willing to ship the art to you if you can't take it as your carry on (I guess another example of trust, since I don't know these people, but my painting arrived safe and sound).

Then we walked to the Mississippi River. The view of the French Quarter from there was quite nice (see above). But my coworker was focused on the shoreline to see if he could see some famous New Orleans-specific rat-type creature. We never saw one, which I think I'm thankful for. And then we headed to the airport, sticking our heads in the few open shops and galleries along the way back to our car. There was one cool antique store open that had all sorts of random stuff - weapons from various wars, old armor, antique art from different regions of the world, etc. But we didn't buy anything there, most of it was quite expensive.

Freestyle Cruises - Know Before You Go

So-called "Freestyle" cruises are really the primary type of cruise that seems to exist anymore. Here's what it means (at least on Norwegian Cruise Lines) and some of the things you should know before you board the ship:

• Cruises are basically impossible to do on the cheap. Even if you get a "deal" for the base price, the extra costs add up quickly. Only go if you can afford to spend at least a few thousand dollars on this trip. 
• It is REALLY easy to lose track of how much you're spending. Your room key also serves as your "credit card" (they connect it to a credit card when you board) and so it's easy to feel like you're not actually spending money since it's your room key you're swiping. You are constantly waited on hand-and-foot, so it's so easy to say "sure, I'll have another drink," and it's not like you can check on how much you've spent so far by looking at your credit card statement online. They do give you receipts though so if you're diligent, you can keep track that way.
• Your time is not structured, you can participate or not participate in activities exactly as you please.  When you go to meals, you go whenever you want and sit where ever you want. That's why they're called "freestyle," as opposed to some cruises where things are more scheduled, you may sit with a certain party at each meal, etc.
• Excursions away from the boat cost extra (prices should be outlined in the list of options) but they make it super simple for you. They literally shuttle you to shore and to your destination and then shuttle you back so you don't have to worry about a thing. You may or may not have some free time to shop or eat near port after your activity. Some of the excursions will take you on a shopping detour. All of this shopping will be tourist trap stuff but some of it is worthwhile (we got a really nice stone mask in Mexico and some cheap rum in the Cayman Islands).
• If you purchase booze on shore at one of your excursions, you don't get it back until the end of the cruise. They hold it for you, supposedly for legal/tax reasons but really I think it's just so that you keep paying for the overpriced booze on the ship.
• While you probably think of cruises as time to relax and do nothing, you can actually jampack your trip. There are tons of activities on the cruise ship, most of which are free. There are stage shows, comedy shows, there are games, there are ice-carving demonstrations, barbecues, clubs, pretty much anything anyone might possibly want to do. Most of them are better than they sound, so if you're skeptical, go give it a try.
• On our cruise, you could eat for free at the primary buffet. However, the restaurants were all amazing - seriously some of the best food I've ever had in my life - and only an additional $10-15/person (not including drinks). AND, to top that all off, something we didn't learn until our last night there is that for that $10-15/person, you can literally eat as much as you want. We assumed it meant one appetizer, one entree and dessert. Nope. You could order 10 appetizers, 4 entrees and 7 desserts and try a few bites of each if you really wanted to. Now, I don't actually recommend this because it's super wasteful (and cruises are overindulgent enough), not to mention the increased potential for overeating (the average cruise attendee gains a pound a day). But it comes in handy to know if you can't decide between two appetizers and just really want to try both.
• Internet was not free, which always makes me mad. And I don't think there was any wi-fi, you could only access the internet from their computer lab. This may be different from ship to ship though. Then again, this may have been a good thing for keeping us truly disconnected.
• There are spas and a gym and they'll try to sell you all sorts of expensive stuff. The gym is free and is very nice but they'll try to sell you stuff while you're there. Needless to say, the spa is very pricey.

New York, NY - 9 upcoming outdoor Spring attractions

This Time Out NY article is full of great suggestions for things to do outdoors in the Spring (or Summer). Some of these things will be brand new experiences, even for the most veteran of NYers. For example, the second section of the Highline will be opening up, and Brooklyn Bridge Park's expansion will (finally) be complete. Granted, with the horrible winter NY has been having, some NYers are starting to doubt that Spring will ever arrive.

Seattle, WA - The Space Needle

I often shy away from tourist attractions, but the Space Needle in Seattle was awesome. Eat at the restaurant there if you can afford it (it's quite pricey but completely worth it - day/night tickets cost $22 for adults if you don't eat a meal there, so why not get a nice meal too - and you don't have to pay for tickets if you're eating at the restaurant). We went at dusk, which was really perfect because we got to see everything in the sunlight, then getting duskier (it's called "magic hour" in film for a reason - that warm glow that dusk settles on everything) and then we got to watch the city light up as it became night time. The Space Needle rotates ever so slowly, so you get to see the mountains, the harbor, and the city no matter where you sit, and it really is a breathtaking view in most directions.

One of many breathtaking views of the Seattle skyline from the restaurant in the Space Needle

The food was exquisite, as well. I had the Oven-Roasted Jidori Chicken and for desert we shared a rich, mouth-watering chocolate cake (which I can't find on their online menu to tell you what it's called). It really was a spectacular meal and a very romantic night - my boyfriend and I were there celebrating an anniversary, and this was the perfect way to do so.


If you go during the summer, there's a whole amusement park at the base of the Space Needle, but that was closed when were were there, as it was October so I can't tell you if it's any good or not.

Baltimore, MD - the Inner Harbor

I was lucky to be staying in a hotel just a few blocks away from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We were staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, which has one of the nicest gyms I've ever seen and is smart enough to have a separate pool for small children, so it's actually pleasant to swim there for adults. Plus it had free wi-fi, which should be a requirement for all hotels but unfortunately is not. The Inner Harbor is a really nice area, not nearly as dangerous as people keep telling me the rest of Baltimore is. We were there on a beautiful weekend, and so we spent a lot of time just walking around the harbor, people watching and seeing the sites. There's a cute little red lighthouse that you can go up into, and many ships from different eras and even a submarine to check out. The harbor was bustling with people, including street performers in a little square that gathered quite the audience. It was a really pleasant little area, though I was disappointed that most of the restaurants seemed to be big chain restaurants - I wanted to eat on the water but I didn't want to eat somewhere that I could eat in NY.

My favorite Inner Harbor experience was paddle boating. I always find paddle boating on a sunny day to be quite relaxing, and it was interesting to see the harbor from the water in a teeny tiny paddle boat. You can go in a regular paddle boat for $11/half hour (half an hour is typically plenty of paddle boating) or you can go in a brightly-colored "Chessie" (pictured above - the Chesapeake Bay's version of Nessie, the Lock Ness monster) for $17/half hour. We chose the regular paddle boat because the wait was longer for a Chessie, but the Chessies seemed bigger, so they're probably more family friendly for those of you with kids. Plus they're just a lot of fun. Definitely a great activity when the weather is nice.

Baltimore, MD - The National Aquarium

The main reason that my boyfriend and I went to Baltimore was to go to the National Aquarium. If you're planning on taking a trip there, there are a few things you should know. First, it might be best to go during the week (although there may be school groups then so I'm not quite sure how accurate that statement is). We went on a Saturday, and during a holiday weekend, so it was packed. We bought our tickets around 11am and the next entrance time we could get was at 1:15pm, the next dolphin show we could see being at 3:30pm. I think this is common practice there, so be prepared to have some time to kill between buying your tickets and going inside unless you go really early in the morning.

When we got inside, it was often really hard to see anything because every aquarium had a swarm of small children pressing their faces against the glass. So a lot of the smaller aquariums were very hard to see. Note: There are ledges for kids to stand on, so be careful when approaching the aquariums if you are trying to get in close - I banged my shin really badly trying to get close to take a picture of some anemones and not seeing the ledge in the darkened room.

One cool part is the sharks and rays that are in an ovular 3-story tank, and you start at the top (on the inside of the oval) and work your way down and around. The rays are really quite beautiful in an eerie/not-of-this-world kind of way, and one of my favorite discoveries was the sawfish, which is bad ass (and is actually a ray, and not a shark, though it looks more like a shark at first). We also got to see the rays being fed, which was quite cool. Two scuba divers were in the tank and the rays just swarmed them and were swimming all over them. I imagine that would be a little freaky at first, having rays swimming on your head.

The rainforest exhibit was kind of disappointing in my personal opinion - it was really hard to see anything with everything hiding in the trees, although we did see a few different types of birds that I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Australian exhibit, which we both really wanted to see but after a long day and not seeing any signs for it to remind us, completely forgot about.

We ended the day at the dolphin show, which was a bit underwhelming compared to the Miami Seaquarium's shows, but still fun. Dolphins are just so amazing - so smart! Seeing these shows makes me really want to abandon my film career to be a dolphin trainer and swim with the dolphins every day.

The Miami Seaquarium

I have to admit that when we first decided to go to the Miami Seaquarium, I thought it would be cheesy and I thought I would feel sad for the animals. It was a little cheesy and maybe I did even feel a little sad for the animals (not to mention it was EXPENSIVE) but overall I thought it was actually quite cool. The dolphins seemed pretty content (they're fed quite well, probably much better than dolphins eat in the wild). We saw the sea lion show and the Orca show. Plus we got to see the bottle nose dolphins being fed. The shows were definitely a little cheesy but still really fun. The seal show was by far the cheesiest, but it was cute. The orca show was actually pretty cool - I was always obsessed with whales and dolphins growing up and orca's were my favorite so it was pretty awesome for me to see one up close and personal like that. And he seemed to be treated well although his tank did seem kind of small for a creature of his magnificent size.

Overall, I would say it was worth the cost of admission, especially if you're obsessed with whales and dolphins like me. In the end, this was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

Louisville, KY - The Bourbon Trail

I spent less than 48 hours in KY back in August, but we packed it full of activities. My favorite of the activities was the Maker's Mark distillery tour, which is part of a much bigger Bourbon Trail (not actually in Louisville but an hour or less of a drive away). Something along the lines of 95% of the world's bourbon is made in Kentucky. I won't give away too much of the Bourbon making process, but it's quite amazing. First off, the Maker's Mark distillery tour is completely free (which I really didn't believe at first). The tour guide was so nice and informative. Second off, at Maker's Mark, everything is done by hand in surprisingly small batches, and each batch takes 5 or so years to complete. There's so much science to it, which was really interesting to learn and you get to see all the steps first hand.

At the end of the tour, you get free tastings (if you're over 21) of the bourbon at two different stages. I'm not much of a bourbon drinker myself, but it was interesting to taste it after learning about it. And if you want, you can buy a bottle to dip in wax yourself, which is pretty cool (I bought the really small bottle because I don't intend on ruining the wax that I dipped by opening the bottle and drinking it since I don't even like bourbon...).

If you have time, stop in nearby Bardstown on your way there or back. It's a very cute historic little town. There are carriage rides (though it was raining so we didn't partake in that), adorable old style restaurants and pubs and some awesome boutiques (I bought myself the cutest clutch wallet at Izzy's Boutique).

The best way to see Salt Lake City

When I went to Salt Lake City for the first time in May of 2008 on a business trip (to film for a documentary), I was in awe of the mountains (it was my first time seeing real mountains in person). So naturally, my favorite memories from that trip were the ones in which we got some lovely views of them from on high.

Our second to last day we went to the Sundance Institute (an hour or so outside of SLC) and took the ski lift to the top (we're not wusses, we were just short on time so we didn't hike it). The views were amazing. It was also my first time being at that altitude and I made the mistake of running up part of the rest of the mountain, and could hardly breath. But the views were breathtaking. And the drive was beautiful too (the drive between Park City and Ogden at the Sundance Film Festival was equally gorgeous and one of the only positive things about that trip). If you're there in the non-skiing season, it's definitely worth taking the lifts to the top just for the views. You can also use the lifts to bring mountain bikes to the top and bike down.

Our last morning in Salt Lake City, one of the people we were filming took us up in his small 4-seater private plane. We flew around the mountains, dipping and swaying with their peeks (not for the weak of stomach mind you) and over the Great Salt Lake, which was so much more amazing than I expected it to be. We got to see Promontory Point, wild bison, old Native American caves, the Spiral Jetty (totally underwhelming btw), salt mines, red and orange water (different minerals in different parts of the water). It was seriously such an amazing experience and I got to see parts of the lake that I never would've otherwise. So if you can hire a pilot to fly you around Salt Lake City, do it. It would be expensive, yes (although probably not as expensive as you're imagining if you do it in a small plane for 4 people or less), but I think it's worth it. The best things that Salt Lake City has to offer you are its natural wonders, some of which would take days of hiking or hours of driving uninhabited dirt roads or boating through dangerously shallow waters to see. And some of which can only be seen from above. As proof, the slide show: