Louisiana Trip Part 2 – New Orleans

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Jaime

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Louisiana. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures from New Orleans came out not so great, and then my battery started to die (and I didn’t have a charger). Which left me with not a ton of great pictures. Guess that’s just a reason to back, right?

Saw this on a bin (and later on a truck). Just thought it was a fun slogan

The view from the hotel in New Orleans was not quite as nice as the view in Baton Rouge

A view of the Superdome from the rooftop pool at our hotel in New Orleans.

One of the best parts of the trip was taking a cemetery tour. Although it was a miserable day (95 and super humid), the tour was great. Our guide was named Bartlett and gave us tons of history of the city. It was nice to have an honest tour (New Orleans was apparently a pretty crappy place to live when it was founded!). Here are some photos from the tour.

A statue in the St. Louis #1 cemetery in New Orleans

This tomb from the cemetery was covered in “XXX”. According to our tour guide, people are supposed to leave an offering a voodoo tomb and make a wish, then mark the tomb with “XXX”. If the wish comes true, then you return to circle the “XXX”.

Nicolas Cage owns this tomb in this cemetery.

This tomb was one meant for groups of people, in this case, Italians. This is for people who cannot afford their own personal family tomb.

Another of those voodoo tombs.

The tomb of Marie Laveau, the most famous and most powerful voodoo priestess.

Later that night we did a ghost tour around the French Quarter. We got to see lots of supposedly haunted locations, but again there was lots of history. Learned a lot about the history of the homes as well as the people who lived there and helped shape the city. Unfortunately, the tour was at night, so lots of the pictures didn’t come out so great. We didn’t see any ghosts, but we did get to check out the buildings.

A hotel in the French Quarter

Another hotel in the French Quarter

The infamous LaLaurie House in the French Quarter.

The Andrew Jackson Hotel in the French Quarter

Louisiana Trip Part 1 – Before New Orleans

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Jaime

Last week we took a trip to Baton Rouge for a bowling tournament. Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of pictures there, but I did take several at an old plantation house where we took a tour on our way to New Orleans. I’ll write a little more about the actual trip later, but for now here are the pictures. This first one is the view from our hotel room in Baton Rouge looking down on the Mississippi River:

We rented a car for the trip from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and stopped for a tour at the Houmas House (http://www.houmashouse.com/), an old sugar cane plantation. The tour was great, and we got a lot of the history of the area, which was one of the best parts of all the tours that we did.

Some art above one of the marble fireplaces in the Houmas House

This silver statue of Abraham Lincoln had amazing detail. You could see his fingernails and the veins on his hands.

This is a vampire hunting kit that was a gift from Anne Rice

The tour guide said that they consulted several voodoo priests who would not even come into the room because of this item

The oak alley leading up to the front of the house used to be much longer. The wind would blow down the tunnel, cooling all along the way and eventually coming in to cool the house.

One of the old oak trees. The tour guide said it was around 600 years old.

A fancy old Tiffany lamp

An old fountain at the back of the Houmas House

The gardens at the Houmas House were beautiful. I think the guide said there are 14 full time gardeners. I’m used to the dry heat of California where all the plants bake. The humidity and the moist ground in the south are great for helping all this foliage survive.

A photo of the wife and me on our way out of the garden.

Women’s NCAA Fresno Regional Championship Awards

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Jaime

In honor of the Women’s NCAA Final Four, I wanted to present my awards from the Fresno Regional Championships I went to last week. But everyone gives awards to the players, so I’m going with the mascots! Here are the awards as voted on by me:

Most Swagger – The Duke Blue Devil

This dude is arrogant. He knows he’s a badass. And he has a cape. He has an aura about him that just says “Yeah, I’ve got big fake muscles, you ain’t got nothin’ on me!”
Best Dancer – Cocky from South Carolina

This dude is kind of a dirty bird. He can dance and he’s not afraid to show it off. Plus he can flap that beak like a mad bird.
Most Entertaining – The Stanford Tree

The mascot for the Stanford Cardinal is…a tree. But this is a lighthearted tree, just prancing around the court, putting in some dance moves here and there and skipping off the court. Definitely not an intimidating mascot, but the tree brings the fun.
Best Lightning Bolts – Johnny from St. John’s

Not much else to say. He’s got lightning bolts on his head. Ummm….yeah.

Not the biggest hail ever…

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Jaime

…But definitely the biggest hail we’ve had around here in a while. It was a weird storm we got. Normally the hail falls, followed by a lot of rain, then we’re good. This hail started and stopped for a good 15 minutes. Again, not the biggest storm in the history of the world, but pretty good for California’s central valley!