Gettin’ Down in New Orleans

January 9, 2013 Leave a Comment

By Lia

Visiting New Orleans has been on my bucket list for-ev-er. A town dedicated to nothing but having a good time? I mean…that is the motto of my LIFE. How is it that in my thirty-plus years, the opportunity hadn’t presented itself?

But when I found out my Gators were a lock for the Sugar Bowl in NOLA, me and my friends were on the job immediately. Within days, hotels were booked, flight plans were made and the countdown began. And it was worth it. New Orleans is unlike any other city I’ve visited in the US. The architecture is so different from anything else I’ve seen, the drinks were cheap and delivered in twos or threes for the price of one..and the food. Good God the food. We’ll get to that tomorrow because it deserves its own post. Today, we’ll talk about the rest of the trip. Seriously, the food deserves its own starring role.

First, I have to talk about how awesome our hotel was. We stayed at the Hotel Monteleone, located on the corner of Royal and Iberville. I can’t stress it enough – this was the PERFECT location. Getting anywhere from here was a snap because of it’s central location and the service was impeccable. Plus, it’s home to a fancy bar called Carousel Bar which rotates. We didn’t spend any time in there, unfortunately, but a lot of other people seemed to so I’m guessing it’s a hot spot! And Royal was a really awesome street, filled with really cute art and jewelry stores. It was a nice break from the otherwise hectic/busy nature of Bourbon Street which was one street over.

Second, I really loved the famed balconies around the city. No two buildings approached balcony decoration in the same way, which I thought was cool. Also, being that it was still somewhat of the holiday season, I thought we were treated to some extra pretty decorations still up for Christmas. No matter how pretty the balcony though, I couldn’t help but picture people leaning over drunkenly and raining beads down on everyone. This town was crazy for a Bowl Game. I can’t even imagine what Mardi Gras looks like.

Some other cool things I noticed around town included….

The Cornstalk Hotel. Apparently the owner built this cornstalk fence out of iron so his wife would feel more at home (they were from the midwest.I t’s hard to see in this photo, but every dot of yellow is corn.) I thought that was a pretty story.

I also thought that instead of regular bike posts, these horsehead posts were kind of cool/spooky/eccentric:

I also loved that we passed by this former residence of William Faulkner and where he wrote his first book in the 1920s. I love seeing where famous writers got inspired and hunkered down. Gives me hope that maybe some day there will be a plaque outside my current apartment one day haha. (There won’t be.)

Next on my list was a ghost tour! I am obsessed with ghosts and the paranormal, even though I never want to experience it first hand. One time I thought I heard a ghost in my apartment and I didn’t sleep for three weeks. Same when I saw the movie Paranormal Activity. (Also, the first night after I saw it I slept with the light on and fully clothed, jacket and all.) However, that didn’t stop me from wanting to see all the haunted places in the city.

My friend and I signed up for a tour with Haunted History. Our tour guide, Jerry, was super unique…I found him almost as amusing as the tour itself.  Jerry seemed to know a lot about New Orleans. And probably a lot about marijuana, too. Also, he had a lot of ghost stories. So put all together, I kind of loved Jerry. He took us to a few spots, including:

The Hotel Provincial, which was a civil war hospital when it first opened. Apparently, several guests have had elevator doors open to their floors…only to see a fully-operational civil war hospital busy at work. Doors close/doors open again – the scene is gone, replaced by the present day. Oooooooooooooh!

This bar and restaurant, which was a brothel when New Orleans was still a place for sailors. One young girl, waiting for her love to return from sea and take her away, committed suicide in the back when his ship came back without him because he had died. Ooooooohhhh!

Apparently she hung herself from this tree. She likes to flirt with males in the bar by tickling the back of their necks. So naturally, I spent the entire rest of the day finding ways to tickle the back of my friend’s neck while standing as far away from him as I could.

Perhaps the most truly spooky place though was the LaLaurie Mansion, which is really supposed to be the most haunted place in America. The home of a former socialite who used to torture her slaves, the home has passed from owner to owner to owner (including one Nicolas Cage) but no one will stay because of the horrors that are experienced within. It was actually the most interesting part of the tour, because it’s weird to see this huge piece of prime real estate sit totally empty. It did seem to be a really creepy place. Here’s a shot of the outside:

Here is an upclose of the balcony where one slave once jumped to her death. Despite my hopes, no ghostly face showed up thanks to the camera. (You wouldn’t believe how many window shots I took during this tour, all of which have been studied for apparitions with no dice. Yes, I know I’m weird.)

Even the the door is creepy. Check out those urns!

I also stepped right on this during the tour which made me say ew:

 

Another really gorgeous area of town was the Garden District, which is known for its huge and beautiful houses. This was on the complete opposite side of town from Bourbon Street and the French Quarter…and you can tell. It’s so calm and peaceful! A good friend told me residents of the Garden District avoid the other side of town like the plague.

 

Finally, after all this sightseeing it was time for the game! I’ll keep that short since it was the most disappointing part of the trip (hint: we lost) but here is all the fun we had until kick off:

 

A symbolic representation of the game we were supposed to have. If only it had actually been a collision. Alas.

Of course, the boys wanted their pictures with the cheerleaders. Some things never change.

Excited on the way in:

Our tickets, which we were hoping would be records of something memorable. Alas x2:

Gators running out:

And that is more or less where the fun ended until I SPIED TIM TEBOW ON THE SIDELINES AND THEN STARED AT HIM FOR FOUR HOURS.

Tomorrow, the food. Oh the food, you guys. The food.

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The Grand Ole Opry

October 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

By Lia

I fell in love with country music my freshman year of high school by accident. I was traveling to a soccer tournament with one of my teammates and her parents, going from Boca Raton to Tampa – a four hour drive. About two minutes into the trip, they turned on a country music station and I instantly wanted to kill myself. I had never listened to country nor did I particularly want to start at that moment. Top 40 radio (which at the time included The Spice Girls, Wyclef Jean, Ma$e and other classic artists), was more my speed. I remember settling into my seat very angrily.

About an hour into the drive, though, a song came on called Jacob’s Ladder. It was about a boy and a girl, and the girl’s father didn’t approve of their relationship. It has something to do with a Bible verse, and a baby, and the father drives the daughter away somehow. Doesn’t matter. The song was really beautiful and it told an entire story. Something about that song made me fall in love with country music. Later on that year, LeAnn Rimes’ first album became my first CD. I also know every single song the Dixie Chicks have ever sang by heart. Just a fun fact about me.

But I digress. When I found myself in Nashville last week, the only thing I wanted to see was the Grand Ole Opry. I didn’t realize when I got there that they actually offer a tour of the new building. So we purchased one for about $17 bucks (per ticket, for an hour) and it did not disappoint!  I had an awesome time.

Our tour guide, Linda, was clearly a huge fan of her job, and of music, and so she made a great guide as we wound our way behind the scenes, onto the stage and in some of the other key areas of the site. Here were my highlights:

Just in case you forgot you were in Nashville, a few oversized guitars like this one greet you at the entrance to remind you:

The outside of the Grand Ole Opry, it’s new home after it left the Ryman Auditorium in 1974. I found it funny, however, that when you told folks from Nashville that you had been to the Grand Ole Opry, they all had to ask you if you mean the new or old one.

If you recall, Nashville suffered from a pretty horrific flood in 2010 when the Cumberland River overflowed its banks and damaged a pretty huge part of the city. The Grand Ole Opry received four feet of water, effectively ruining almost the entire building. However, given the history and meaning of the site, the community pulled together to restore it – and you honestly wouldn’t ever guess it had ever been damaged except for the few reminders they’ve kept to show you just how high the water came.

There is also a full sound stage behind the scenes, which is still in use. This was the home of Hee Haw…and also hosts parties. In fact, when Darius Rucker (I still love Hootie! Don’t judge!) was inducted to the Opry earlier this month this is where his party was held. I thought that was pretty exciting, because I am a huge nerd.

The Opry also keeps a full-on Post Office inside where fans can send letters to their favorite musicians. The boxes are in alphabetical order (with one exception for Lil Jimmy Dickens who is too small to reach the D’s.)  I went nose to the glass to try and figure out whose was whose, and almost screamed when I saw No. 163 was Dolly Parton’s. As a lady, I am obligated to love Dolly, of course, but also Jolene is one of my favorite songs of all time.

I thought one of the very best parts of the tour was the original stage of the Opry, taken from the old building and put in the new one so that new stars could stand in the exact spot as the original ones. When the building flooded, luckily the stage was able to be saved. Then, they let you stand on it, which of course I wanted to.

Then, of course, I had to stand behind the mic and pretend it was me looking out, like a real singer would. I can’t believe people perform these crowds this big (and bigger.) One time I did stand up in front of like 100 people and almost died from fear.

This is an obligatory shot of my girl’s plaque.

They also let you peek into some of the dressing rooms for the shows. This one is the room that someone performing on stage for the first time gets to use. There are others for when you are getting inducted, and then some people have special ones of their own as well.

Finally, here is a picture of a Blake Shelton family photo, just cause I think he’s pretty great:

If you ever find yourself in Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry is a great tour — even if you don’t like country! You may not know all the stars, but the guides give you plenty of background and it’s just neat to be a in a place with so much historic significance.

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Photo Tour: Covert’s Moose Lodge and Downtown Cooperstown

June 8, 2012 Leave a Comment

By Lia

Every spring, GC and two of our favorite couple friends head out of town to upstate New York for a little vacay. Someone once dirtily named the annual weekend Wife Swap, even though only one couple is married and there is definitely no funny business of any kind. In fact, all we do is sit around, eat, drink and laugh our heads off. I look forward to it all year long.

This year, our friend J. discovered a place way up near Cooperstown called Covert’s Moose Lodge. The proprietors are a lovely couple, who basically built a second home on their property to cater to families playing baseball in nearby Cooperstown and for hunters looking for a home base. For six city dwellers it might as well have been outer space. I’ll let the pictures do the explaining.  We came to love it.

Here is the outside of the lodge, which unfortunately came out a little blurry in the twilight:

As you get closer, you realize you’re not in Astoria/Brooklyn anymore:

And the gun rack confirms that (as you can see, we instead used it for seltzer identification):

Inside, the reason why it’s called the Moose Lodge is immediately made clear:

As was the fact that this was a hunting lodge:

I made GC do his best deer face.  I think he nailed it.

There was also a wolf pelt, which is pretty badass:

After exploring the property Friday night (and getting used to the taxidermy), Saturday morning we were off to the Ommegang Brewery. All of us are pretty big craft beer fans and Cooperstown and its surrounding areas have a number of great breweries to explore.

We took a quick tour of the facilities, which was only $3 and included a tasting of six beers:

Needless to say, we enjoyed every last drop:

Some of us apparently enjoyed it too much:

And it made my one friend sassier than normal. See if you can spot him.

The following day, we visited the Baseball Hall of Fame (more on this next week) and then walked around downtown Cooperstown:

We found ourselves in a really cute waterfront park, where it wasn’t too hot and not too cold and we could all just sit enjoy. Here are all my friends! Aren’t they cute? I’m really patting myself on the back for the artistic-ness of this shot :)

Then my friend Kaitlin took the camera and captured some nice shots of GC and I. For some reason, we almost never take pictures together so I’m always happy to have a few new ones in our tiny arsenal. I really like the third one:

After the park, we went back to the Moose Lodge where I was able to steal away for a few minutes to take a really good look around. Coming from the city, this was so relaxing to look at:

We will be back! It really was an awesome place to spend a weekend with friends – happy to pass along the contact information for anyone who may want to head up there, too.   Next week, I’ll also share some cool shots from the Hall of Fame, because it really was a neat place for anyone who enjoys baseball…even if you’re not a super fan.

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Yay! Travel: The Harry Potter Experience at Islands of Adventure Orlando

February 15, 2012 1 Comment

Before I get into how much I love Harry Potter, and theme parks, I think I need to preface this post by saying that if you ever want to go on a theme park vacation and not have any lines — go to those theme parks in the days after Thanksgiving. They are empty. It is amazing.

With that said, I love, love, love Harry Potter and I love theme parks.  So much so that when I found myself with a few extra vacation days at the end of last year, I knew just where I wanted to go. And my boyfriend didn’t need any coaxing to come with me. He went to college in Orlando and also loves theme parks so it was win-win for both of us.

Being from Florida and being such a big Harry Potter fan, it was kind of a crime to me that it took me so long to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. But time, money and other vacation needs all conspired against me…until last November. We had so much fun exploring, drinking butter beer, taking photos and generally acting like excited children.  I would recommend it to anyone who has a few days to spend and wants to feel like a kid again.

My only complaint with this part of the park is that I wished it had been bigger! Big enough to move in and live there.  I think the team at Islands of Adventure and Universal did an amazing job bringing to life the places and ideas that Harry Potter fans already know so well from the books and movies.  My hope is that they can continue to expand the experience until one day it is fully interactive.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day.  True fans will note they combined some elements of Hogsmeade with stores from Diagon Alley into one whole village.  (Wow, this is SO nerdy!)

The Entrance of Island of Adventure. I have been to this park probably four or five times and I can never resist taking this photo.  I just love this sign.

Here is the entrance to the world before you head in.  Respect the spell limits?! So cute, right?  The whole winter wonderland theme was so adorable too.

Almost immediately upon entering, a giant replica of the Hogwarts Express sits to your right.  I loved the steam coming out as if it had just come into the station. I practically ran up to it when it was my turn.

Across the street from the train is Zonko’s Joke Shop.  Inside are all sorts of old-school toys.  GC was a little disappointed that there weren’t too many joke sets, but he’s a boy and I think he expected dung bombs for real.

Though you couldn’t go in, you could look in (as GC is doing here) into a fully stocked Pottages Cauldron shop.

A quick lunch in the Three Broomsticks was delicious. There is a fairly real looking hog’s head above the bar and kegs of butterbeer and the whole place is made to look very old – just like how you picture from the books.

One of my favorite things about the world was the performance you get in Ollivanders. “Mr. Ollivander” selected a kid from the audience for a wand matching ceremony.  He asked him to say magic words holding a wand and then the lights would flicker and things would zoom around on his command to see which one suited him best. The look on the child’s face who was picked was just amazing.  

In the book shop was the famous monster book from the series. It jumped, growled and moved around.

Hogwarts! Nothing really more to say here. I have about 10,000 pictures of it from all angles.

Mostly of us doing things like this:

The bookstore is also just a front, but they had full displays of all of Gilderoy Lockhart’s books, which I thought was super cute.

At an outdoor resting place, where we snacked on some Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor beans – some of which were very nasty – you can watch owls at rest.

Small touches like the little crooked chimneys just gave the whole place such a cute feeling.

Okay one more picture of Hogwarts.

Another cute touch was the Hogwarts choir that performed acapella songs.  They were really good! And the frogs sang bass.

Finally, many hours and too many snacks later, we had to leave.  But we’ll be back.  Because inside, we’re both still eight years old. :)

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Pretty Places and Spaces – The W South Beach

December 7, 2011 Leave a Comment

On a recent trip to South Florida, GC and I stopped by my friend’s apartment on South Beach.  (Why not? Gotta take advantage of friends with apartments on South Beach!) We wound up popping into several hotels to see the grand lobbies and cool spaces, and I snapped a few shots of the great areas around the W Hotel pool that I really loved.  I thought these were simple ideas you could execute in the home to make them more tranquil!

Enclosing lights (not to mention finding softer colored lights like the ones pictured) in pretty birdcages strike a balance between vintage and chic. This is simple to DIY. Simply find an old birdcage (easy when you go through thriftstores or garage sales) and spray paint. If you want to take it a step further, distress it a bit using steel wool.

I just loved the color scheme of warm wood and black, made really soft with all the surrounding greenery.  Some of those accent blues were realy unexpected to – like the big vase on the left.

You can see how the landscape architects brought it all together in this shot. Soft lighting, strong yet feminine furniture, lots of green and wood — doesn’t it seem like the perfect place to curl up with a book?? I was sad that my flight was leaving later that day and I couldn’t stick around.

Thanks to the W staff who let us poke around and take a few photos!

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Yay! Travels: Minneapolis' Mall of America

June 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

Three weeks ago, me, my college friends and our significant others spent Memorial Day weekend in Minneapolis.  One of our friends recently moved there and on one of the rainier days of the weekend, we headed to the world-famous Mall of America. It did not disappoint and I’m not even a mall person!  We wound up being at the mall for around seven hours and in that time – covered approximately only one floor of FOUR.  Pretty incredible.

After the jump, a photo tour of the day!

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