2006 L.A. Guns' Message Forum Meeting - New Orleans, LA

We've been planning this trip for well over a year now and I'm so glad that we went. :) Our group consisted of me, Flynn, Brandon, Teresa, Al and Jacob (Illinois), Freerk (Amsterdam), Angela and Rob (Virginia), Sheila (Idaho - originally Kentucky), Jeffers (also Virginia, I think), Tina (California), Kip (Massachussetts), Amber and Alex (Mississippi).

While the drive home wasn't exactly all that and a bag of chips (19 hours), the ride there was fairly quick (14.5 hours). We left home at 10:50pm on Wednesday, August 2nd and rolled into the French Quarter around 2:30pm on Thursday, August 3rd. Here's a picture of Teresa, Al and Jacob trying to keep up with us. ;)

And here's our hotel, the Prince Conti:

Our room was on the third floor and didn't have much of a view. The elevator was rather slow, but at least we HAD an elevator! Thursday night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner with Sheila, Angela and Rob. (When I reference "we" I mean myself, Flynn, Brandon, Teresa, Al and Jacob). It was definitely a rockin' place. The music was just a bit too loud to even hear yourself think much less have a decent conversation with the people at your table. I was too tired to think about bringing my camera to dinner, so no pictures.

Friday morning we all met up for the Cemetery Tour. Our guide gave us a little history on the walk to the cemetery about mistresses, brothels, the birth of jazz music and such. He was actually a very good guide. Here's some pictures:

Flanagan's Pub is where the tour departs from.

Inside the pub wasting a bit of time before the tour started.

Outside view of the cemetery. This was at about 11:00am and already close to 90 degrees outside. Within the cemetery walls, it's anywhere from 10-15 degrees hotter! And it was. *phew*

A natural "oven" built within the cemetery wall. Some can be purchased by individuals or families, but most are swept out every year and re-used.

The Tomb of Marie Laveau - the Voodoo Queen. they say she's not actually at this cemetery anymore. Her body was moved early on for fear that her followers would try to eat parts of her to gain her voodoo powers.

As seen in the movie Easy Rider.

Our tour guide, telling us about an individual (Bernard Xavier de Marigny) who gambled away all of his wealth left to him by his father, including his plantation piece by piece, until he was so poor he couldn't even afford a proper burial at the cemetery. So his "friends" who mostly won all his money bought him this plot.

After the cemetery tour, we walked the streets of the French Quarter and visited shops. The woman behind the counter didn't appreciate us playing with the alligator.

Jackson Square

On Saturday, after breakfast at Cafe DuMonde (YUMMM!) we walked over to board the Steamboat Natchez for our 2 hour tour up & down the Mississippi River. It was threatening to rain most of the day and actually did later in the afternoon.

Leaving NOLA behind...

Freerk and Flynn

Look out below! Brandon's had just a bit much of his Kiddie Strawberry Daquiri.

Steam from a steamboat... go figure. :) One long whistle, followed by 3 short whistles, repeated once, means we're returning. IT'S LOUD.

After the steamboat tour, we walked over to the Aquarium, had lunch and took lots of pictures.

Outside the aquarium.

Our first encounter with a ray... stingray I'm guessing? There wasn't a sign.

A penguin picture for Stephanie!

Brandon and Jacob in, um, yeah I don't know what that stuff is supposed to be. Some sort of replica of sea plants I suppose.

When petting a shark, REMEMBER: One finger feels like a POKE. Three fingers feels like a GRAB. Two fingers is just right. Seriously, that's what they tell you.

A most awesome jellyfish picture.

JAWS!!!

That evening (Saturday) we went on a Ghost and Vampire Tour. This is where we met up:

I was a little disappointed in the tour as we hardly heard about vampires and the only ghost I saw was Teresa walking through my picture:

(Can you see her? Look from the bottom center, to the right) ooooo scary. :)~

Jackson Square at night, while closed off to the general public, hosts a clowder of cats.

There were SOOOO many of them! All different colors, shapes, etc. It was eerie because they weren't there during the day!

Picture of upper balcony taken for Freerk.

And of course, no trip to the French Quarter is complete without a visit to Bourbon Street. I have never smelled such a barfy-smelling street in all my life. OMG... you seriously had to plug your nose at times. YUCK. But, we had fun regardless. Just have to watch where you walk.

Me and Sheila in our new boas and my spiffy new hat. (photo courtesy of Sheila's camera)

I snagged the Bourbon Street photos from Sheila. ;)

Freerk, Me and Sheila.

Jeffers, Flynn, Me, Freerk, Sheila and Teresa in the hotel lobby.

I thought I had a picture from the Huge Ass Beer Company, but I can't find it. They had huge ass cheap beers. LOL Everything else was incredibly expensive all over the place.

Sunday we had brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Teresa has the group picture. I'll add it when I get it from her. Brunch was yummy, but overpriced. WAY overpriced. Afterwards we got turned around trying to get on the bridge across the river to get to the airboat departure location for our swamp tour. But we did arrive, and only a few minutes late, and it was AWESOME!!!!

Brandon took the picture, so he's not in it. L to R, F to B (Jacob, Sheila, Al. Teresa, Freerk, Me, Flynn. Two people from California. Our Captain.)

I'm certain that if Sheila had seen this shack, she probably would have moved in. She was REALLY loving the swamp. :)

Another captain's dog who tried to pick fights with all the alligators. Early on in the tour, a smaller gator actually jumped partially onto the boat and the dog snapped at him several times. Our captain pushed the gator back in and shoved the dog away. GOOD GRIEF!! We were told that for every alligator we saw, there were about 100 below that we didn't see. We saw about 10 or 12 gators in the 2 hours we were out.

They feed the alligators marshmallows because a) it's white and the gator can see it and b) it floats. See the marshmallow in his mouth? heh *CHOMP*

We took turns holding a baby alligator. This one is probably about 2 years old, I think we were told.

After our swamp boat adventure - myself, Flynn, Brandon and Freerk decided to head to the Gulf of Mexico in search of a beach. We were directed to the nearest place with white beaches... Biloxi, MS. It took a while to find a beach that was somewhat open and populated due to all of the hurricane debris still around. The ride there was a reality check on what Katrina really did to these cities and outlying towns. :( Below is a picture of Biloxi from in the waters of the Gulf.

Brandon and Freerk. As you walked out, the water would get shallow, then deep, then shallow. You could go way out to the pole on the right and the water is only up to your chest. Yep, we went out there. :) The water was SO warm too. Very nice and relaxing way to end our day and our trip. Here are some more pictures:

Compared to some of the other buildings we saw on our way here, these two had not so much damage. We passed a hotel where nearly the entire front half of it was blown off it's supports. Entire neighborhoods were dark and deserted.

The sunset was beautiful and definitely picture-worthy.

We stopped at a Shoney's for an all you can eat meal on the way back to NOLA. Finally, some reasonably priced food! haha Got back to the Prince Conti around 11:30pm, dropped Freerk off and then headed home. Teresa, Al and Jacob were already on the road, an hour ahead of us. Funny thing is, they managed to stay just an hour ahead of us the entire time, even though we stopped several times to nap on the way home. It took forever! And that IL State Trooper didn't help any either. Stupid speedtraps.

The trip was a blast and it was so much fun to meet new people and hang out with old friends. I can't wait until our next get-together.