Friday
It was a surprise holiday. With July 4th falling on Saturday, I had assumed there were no
vacations which is when I got a mail from the HR that Friday, the 3rd is a day off.
The place, New Orleans, was decided based off of Fodors guide as that is one of the places
close to Atlanta and featuring in best places to visit in the US that we had never been to. The list of sights to visit was as advised by National Geographic.
Started off at 7 AM and reached about 1PM. Moved from EST to CST though.
It was a nice drive. No cops.
Ogden museum
Ogden museum of southern art was the first place of visit. One gallery was about
specific motor cycle route maps which to my mind had nothing artistic about them and
was a total waste of the museum space and time. However, the possibility it might
help local bikers to discover new and interesting routes justified it to some extent.
There was a 'falling dancers' painting or something like that which communicated nicely
and I loved the way the emotion was captured without any details of the people. It was
pretty much like huge polka dots on a blanket but very clearly communicated the dance.
There was a photography section on the subject "Rising" referring to New Orleans
coming back from the hurricane Katrina. I liked the photo "The road ahead" which shows
a man and wife in a car looking into the road ahead shot from the side. The lighting
was perfect and soothing and also nicely captured the "road ahead" feeling.
There were some medieval european style inspired painting as well. One of them
was titled "Neglected Keys" with a lady and a set of keys hanging behind her. The title
seemed to me to impress that all attention of a view would go to the woman and the keys
behind would get neglected.
Jazz dinner cruise on the mississippi (http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/jazzcruise.html)
Have not had much opportunity for food so far. That is the reason I opted for the dinner variation of the mississippi cruise options. Also, jazz is something that Orleans sells a lot to the tourists.
Dinner and Jazz are complementary and both happen when the boat is still. When one set of people enjoy the jazz, the other set has dinner. At 6PM, I belonged to the jazz group. At 7:45 PM , I would belong to the dinner group. The jazz was novel simply because I had not ventured much into it. It was foot-tapping. I enjoyed it to some extent initially. Towards the end, it started getting tiring.
This was the second oldest steam boat in America. The announcements at the start of the boat about how old the boat was and how the engine was even older at once send some historic whiffs into the experience, but at the same time instilled some concern. The guide spoke good clear english and showered the boat with good words. Encouraged, the boat sirened and started moving.
I got myself the spot on the deck closest to the water, leaning into the river, taking in the breeze. Really enjoying the breezes. The night lights on the shore were soothing. The place felt years old, slow and unhustling. Felt like Kochi. The guide kept explaining the sights on the shore. A sugary breeze hit us as we reached aside the Dominos sugar factory. Also were sights of the remnants of what the hurricane Katrina had left behind.
So, around 7:45 pm, the boat docked. And it was time for my group to have dinner. The dinner was awesome. I had chicken and sausage gumbo, pork loin, steak meat(fresh and soft). The food was truly awesome even when there was not much seafood which is what I was after. After dinner, I again found a spot right at the middle of the boat and again leaned into the river and enjoyed the slow pace of the night on the river.
It was a surprise holiday. With July 4th falling on Saturday, I had assumed there were no
vacations which is when I got a mail from the HR that Friday, the 3rd is a day off.
The place, New Orleans, was decided based off of Fodors guide as that is one of the places
close to Atlanta and featuring in best places to visit in the US that we had never been to. The list of sights to visit was as advised by National Geographic.
Started off at 7 AM and reached about 1PM. Moved from EST to CST though.
It was a nice drive. No cops.
Ogden museum
Ogden museum of southern art was the first place of visit. One gallery was about
specific motor cycle route maps which to my mind had nothing artistic about them and
was a total waste of the museum space and time. However, the possibility it might
help local bikers to discover new and interesting routes justified it to some extent.
There was a 'falling dancers' painting or something like that which communicated nicely
and I loved the way the emotion was captured without any details of the people. It was
pretty much like huge polka dots on a blanket but very clearly communicated the dance.
There was a photography section on the subject "Rising" referring to New Orleans
coming back from the hurricane Katrina. I liked the photo "The road ahead" which shows
a man and wife in a car looking into the road ahead shot from the side. The lighting
was perfect and soothing and also nicely captured the "road ahead" feeling.
There were some medieval european style inspired painting as well. One of them
was titled "Neglected Keys" with a lady and a set of keys hanging behind her. The title
seemed to me to impress that all attention of a view would go to the woman and the keys
behind would get neglected.
Jazz dinner cruise on the mississippi (http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/jazzcruise.html)
Have not had much opportunity for food so far. That is the reason I opted for the dinner variation of the mississippi cruise options. Also, jazz is something that Orleans sells a lot to the tourists.
Dinner and Jazz are complementary and both happen when the boat is still. When one set of people enjoy the jazz, the other set has dinner. At 6PM, I belonged to the jazz group. At 7:45 PM , I would belong to the dinner group. The jazz was novel simply because I had not ventured much into it. It was foot-tapping. I enjoyed it to some extent initially. Towards the end, it started getting tiring.
This was the second oldest steam boat in America. The announcements at the start of the boat about how old the boat was and how the engine was even older at once send some historic whiffs into the experience, but at the same time instilled some concern. The guide spoke good clear english and showered the boat with good words. Encouraged, the boat sirened and started moving.
I got myself the spot on the deck closest to the water, leaning into the river, taking in the breeze. Really enjoying the breezes. The night lights on the shore were soothing. The place felt years old, slow and unhustling. Felt like Kochi. The guide kept explaining the sights on the shore. A sugary breeze hit us as we reached aside the Dominos sugar factory. Also were sights of the remnants of what the hurricane Katrina had left behind.
So, around 7:45 pm, the boat docked. And it was time for my group to have dinner. The dinner was awesome. I had chicken and sausage gumbo, pork loin, steak meat(fresh and soft). The food was truly awesome even when there was not much seafood which is what I was after. After dinner, I again found a spot right at the middle of the boat and again leaned into the river and enjoyed the slow pace of the night on the river.
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