Jazz and New Orleans Part I

Finally, I am posting about my trip to The Big Easy. I had a great time. Here are some of the highlights.

At the airport. Right on time. 6:30am. Wow!

Mine and Nancy's hotel room. This was the first time we did not have to share with 2 other people. We had our own beds!

Look out New Orleans, I am ready to have a good time.

This is the group arriving at The Palm Court. The Jazz Band played and then we ate some great food, while listening to another Jazz Band.

The place was really cool--and the kids got lots of compliments about their performance.

Second day of the trip.

The students had a clinic with a professor from Loyola University.

Then we took a tour of the city. Here are some of the highlights. Our tour guide was very interesting, I wish I had taken notes--I only took pictures.

I think their cemetaries are so interesting. They have to bury above ground, due to the water table.

This picture kind of shows the watermark left from Katrina. It's about 2 1/2 feet high. In some areas of the city houses had watermarks 8-9 feet high. The city is recovering from Katrina. It's just a slow process. Some of the houses are still boarded up, some houses were knocked down and the land is just sitting there.

The Superdome. It was huge.

Jackson Square. Named after Andrew Jackson. I think something cool happened here, and I should know, but I missed that in the tour.

The Real World house. I was dating myself, because my students did not know the Real World New Orleans--I was a faithful watcher. (College years)

Next stop--Riverboat cruise and more Jazz.

Me, Nancy and Brek.

We ate and enjoyed the boat cruise up the Mississippi River.

We had salmon, chicken, some other kind of fish, potatoes, green beans and pasta. For dessert we had bread pudding. I was not a big fan of that and we had it for dessert at every dinner.

The skyline of New Orleans.

After we got back to our hotel, we did room checks and then Nancy and Brek and I went down to.....

Oh--talk about good times. Apparently, Mardis Gras and the Jazz festival is when Bourbon street really comes alive. (we just happened to be in town for the Jazz festival) And TRUST me, we saw it all. ALL. It's crazy what people will do for beads.

Bourbon Street is lined with clubs and live music. At night they close the street to cars and people are walking up and down listening to music and seeing the sights. You don't want to blink because you miss something crazy...and you might get hit in the head with flying beads.

We got our beads without having to show skin. We just got lucky.

We loved this club--They played some great Jazz. We went two nights in a row. It was tiny and it went back in, and you sat on wooden benches. I loved it. And it was packed every night.I tried to take a picture of the inside, but it didn't get it very good. I could have gone here every night. It was such a fun atmosphere.

More to come....

My Peeps! They crack me up!

My cousins crack me up. We always have a good time together.

Even when we should be serious, we make it fun.

Top picture: Ace, Smoothie, M&M, Preston, Bottom: Smoothie, M&M Erica, Preston and Sara.

We were practicing the songs we needed to sing for Grandpa's funeral. You can see we didn't get much accomplished. Errol and I could not stand next to each other or make eye contact during the songs. We did make it through the song.

Grandpa Pope

My Grandpa pasted away on April 22nd. We had a beautiful funeral. He was a great man and did some wonderful things. I'm so grateful that I am counted among his family.

We will miss him. I'm grateful for the Plan for Salvation and the knowledge that I will see him again.

The Big Easy

Well, I am off to New Orleans. Perfect timing too, I just finished Spring Break and now I am off. (I really did not want to work this week anyway)I am going with the Lehi High School Jazz Band. It should be a good time. By the end of the trip I will either love Jazz or hate it. I am way excited.

Spring Break or is it?

Ok, so with Spring Break this week and me not going anywhere, I have lots of time to blog. Also with the new camera lens, I'm taking all kinds of pictures. (I am headed to New Orleans next week--so I do have a trip planned.) So this morning we woke up to snow. Gotta love it. So after the early morning gym class, I grabbed my camera and started to take some pictures. I thought it was so pretty.

Hopefully Spring is on the way.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a great Easter. My family is so great. Lisa and Emily and Jen and my mom are so good to hand out little treats for holidays. Once in awhile I get in on the action and everyone is surprised. I did come through with a Carmel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

My mom gaves us all a new scripture bag. I love it. Lisa made the bunny out of paper and filled it with treats. Jen and Emily helped supplied treats as well. (they are not shown, due to fact that Jen's treats are gone--Emily's don't look as pretty as when they were given to me--so no picture. )

And a little tax return present for me. I bought myself a new camera lens. I have been thinking about this for while. I got a lens that has image stability and ranges from 70mm-300mm. I am way excited about it. Now I can zoom up on those celebrities when I see them. Good times. Of course now I need a new camera bag, new filters, maybe another lens. WOW! It just keeps on going.

Beyond good!

Ok--So I was waiting for Lisa to post this blog, but I was way excited about my new camera lens, so I couldn't wait anymore. Lisa and Jen hooked us up with donuts from a place called Beyond Glaze. These are gourmet donuts. Seriously. Just take a look.

There are toppings such as Oreo, Strawberry cheesecake, chocolate, raspberry, apple pie, peach cobbler, key lime pie--I can't remember the others. They were so good. We decided that our plan of action was to cut each one into 6 pieces. Nice cutting Jen!

A coke and a few donuts--is there a better thing? And to think, I almost missed it because I was going to run an errand and then meet them back at the house. Umm, good thing I changed my mind--I would have missed out.

Here is what's left. WOW! is all I can say. Thanks Jen and Lis!!