New Orleans

Marie left on Wednesday morning to fly to New Orleans for the National Science Teachers Association's National Conference. Last year we attended the conference in Boston. Like last year, Marie was given a free ride by a new teacher academy grant. Last year it was during our spring break so I went as well. This year the conference was a week before. I stayed in McMinnville and taught my last few days. On Wednesday I judged the high school battle of the bands competition and on Thursday I helped out a track meet. Friday, I ate 10 hotdogs in 10 minutes at lunch, then went to a movie with a friend and eventually cleaned up the house and made it to Portland at 1am. I went to the airport the next day at 6 am and started my trip to the big easy.

I got into New Orleans at about 6 pm. I found the hotel Marie was staying at and met up with her and our teacher friend Alyssa from grad school. We went out to eat at Crescent City Brewery and enjoyed some local fare.

We were standing in line and had a couple coupons for 2 for 1 but since there were three of us, we gave them to the two men behind us in line. We finished our meals at the same time and they came over to thank us. They were middle/high school teachers in Massachusetts. We all decided to go find music. We wandered the city stopping into bars and grabbing drinks to go and listening to one or two songs. We eventually met more teachers wandered to a "soul Party" which turned out to be just a dj at a bar, but it was fun music to dance to.


At about 2am, Marie and Alyssa were ready for bed. We went to Cafe Du Monde and ate Beignets, French donuts.

The girls went to bed and the guys we met took me down Bourbon St.

Needless to say, I got in a 6am and did not wake up for the 8 o'clock swamp tour.

Marie called and the alarm went off at 11 am and I woke up and checked out of the room. Marie and Alyssa showed up quickly after and we went and had lunch and walked through the Insectarium.
After, I was ready for a nap and Alyssa went to her airport shuttle. Marie and I checked into our new hotel and I slept and recovered from 3-7. Marie was just thankful there were people willing to stay out with me. I started feeling better at 9:00pm. We wandered the streets and found a nice eatery. Then went back to bed. We will volunteer for the next few days and return home on Thursday. I will post photos and updates.