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Instead of sitting here writing this blog post, I should be on a Boeing 757 just taking off from Minneapolis en route to Seattle.  But you’re reading this, which means I’m writing it, which means yeah, I’m not on the plane.  I don’t know if it’s weather or just general incompetence, but Northwest Airlines decided to cancel my 12:45 flight from Cedar Rapids to MSP.   I found this out around 10 AM, contacted travel, and got a rebooked flight on Alaska Airlines, leaving Cedar Rapids at 1:30.

As soon as I saw the booking info, I checked online to see the departure status.  What? Canceled?!?  Yes, American Eagle (codesharing with Alaska Air) canceled the 1:30 flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago.  Back on the phone with corporate travel.  Everything was booked on all the remaining flights out of Cedar Rapids today.  Unbelievable.   Finally I am set up on a 5:10 AM flight tomorrow morning from CR.  If everything goes on time (a big if IMHO), I will get into Seattle around 9 AM Seattle time, and make it to my conference only an hour or so late.

Not fun.

I’m sitting in the airport terminal at Cedar Rapids as the plane that is supposed to take me to Chicago is unloading its prior passengers.   From there it’s off to Seattle.  If all goes well I should be there by 8 PM Seattle time.   I’m making this whole trip in order to be in person to make a twenty-minute presentation for a customer.   Such fun.  But it will allow some time tomorrow afternoon for some sightseeing in Seattle before heading back home early Tuesday morning.  I’m bringing the good camera; hopefully I’ll have some good pictures to share once I get back.

Got back from last week’s trip to New Orleans early on Friday morning. This was my first time in New Orleans, so it was interesting to see an area that I had heretofore only read about and seen on TV. I had a mix of impressions from the city.

The first night I was there I took a walk from my hotel over to the French Quarter. I mean, that’s the place in New Orleans you’re supposed to visit, right? It was only about a mile walk. On the way I passed a rather large Harrah’s casino which I understand to be new development since Katrina two years ago. Didn’t go in, but wow, that thing was big.

The near edge of the French Quarter was Canal Street. It is big, glitzy, lots of neon and expensive shops. It reminded me a little bit of Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It’s a big wide street that includes tracks for the streetcars. Once you walk up it for several blocks, you get to Bourbon Street. This is the one you always hear about during Mardi Gras, right? So I figured it’s worth a visit.

In comparison to the broad, upscale Canal Street, Bourbon Street is narrow and scuzzy. There is very little variety to the shops on the street; the basic repeating pattern is souvenir shop, beer joint, strip club, restaurant. There may be a few extra beer joints mixed in for good measure - it’s legal to have an open container on the street there, so there is a proliferation of lemonade-stand-type beer vendors. Eesh.

I did find some good food on Bourbon Street - the jambalaya from Remoulade was excellent (though the pecan pie left much to be desired). I almost bought one of their t-shirts (I was thinking the Craw Dad one) but finally decided that I already have too many t-shirts, I don’t need another one. Then I wandered up and down the street again looking for some good live music places. I found a couple, I’ll write specifically about the music in a separate blog post. So yeah, I visited Bourbon Street. Suffice it to say I wasn’t impressed. Seeing what it was like on an early Tuesday evening in the middle of summer, I can only imagine how much of a drunken orgy it is during Mardi Gras.

The last day of the trip I had a few hours before my flight so I drove east on I-10 towards Slidell and then up around Lake Ponchartrain and across the amazing Causeway (longest bridge in the world!) back to New Orleans. I was astonished at how much damage is still left from Hurricane Katrina. Even though it’s been two full years since Katrina hit, the devastation is still painfully evident. Not so much in New Orleans proper, but once you get out on I-10 towards Slidell… wow. You would think that repair activities would’ve focused on the areas around the interstate, but there is still so much damage… buildings boarded up, nice houses and apartments with tarps still over the roof; then you go past a field that obviously used to be mostly forest, and now it’s just a field of 8-foot-tall trunks with the tops twisted off. So sad. Two full years later, and still this much mess?

Before I finish this post, a word about the Causeway: amazing. Over 20 miles long. The visibility wasn’t great that afternoon (a storm was rolling in), so there was definitely some time in the middle of the bridge when you couldn’t see anything but water no matter which direction you looked. So cool.

So that was New Orleans. Next month: Seattle. Hoping to meet some old and new friends while I’m up there.