A Short Exchange in New Orleans
OK, please forgive AlteCocker. She did a 10 day trip to New Orleans on a home exchange in January and February 2017. This was an unusual one She went on someone else's home exchange. You see she has this home exchange buddy from Melbourne, Australia, John. He arranged a series of home exchanges within the US January 2017-March 2017. The hook for the entire trip was that AlteCocker was arranging tickets for Hillary Clinton's inauguaration. After the Russians put the kibosh on the election, there were, of course, alternative plans. AlteCocker met him in New York when he arrived, then we continued on to DC for a short period. Finally, John had arranged for a short exchange in New Orleans. AlteCocker had never been to New Orleans, so she was happy to join him there in a traditional New Orleans "shotgun" house before she returned home and he continued his travels in other parts of the United States. She was too busy to blog the day by day way in New Orleans, so she, well, didn't. She has also been so busy with politics since returning from Italy last September that she has pretty well ignored the blog. Oh well. She did figure that she has to say something about New Orleans and post a few photos before going off on her next home exchange in Sonora, California, shortly. It will be her last home exchange until the fall as AlteCocker is downsizing to a 2 bedroom condo and can't commit to anything until the move is complete. Her townhouse will go on the market as soon as she returns from California. That's another story.
John and AlteCocker flew down to New Orleans at the end of January and stayed about 9 days. We did the usual tourist stuff as neither of us had been there before. A highlight was getting into Preservation Hall without the queuing. Damn. Our home exchanger had a friend who knew someone in the band! Was that ever great! With her senior citizen status, AlteCocker is not fond of queuing anywhere (not to mention back surgery a year ago). She is not a spring chicken. In addition to Preservation Hall, we had the beignets (donuts) for which New Orleans is famous, ate at the jazz brunch at Commander's Palace, saw a couple of plantations (Whitney and Laura), handled some alligators, saw the fantastic World War II Museum, visited Mardi Gras World (we were not there for Mardi Gras itself) and gorged on creole food. Did AlteCocker say she had a great time in NOLA? When we were done, John and AlteCocker sang our song ("We'll Meet Again" of World War II vintage) and the adventure was over. AlteCocker stopped in West Palm Beach and visited two high school friends she had not seen in 40 years. One of them was definitely not Donald Trump.
John and AlteCocker flew down to New Orleans at the end of January and stayed about 9 days. We did the usual tourist stuff as neither of us had been there before. A highlight was getting into Preservation Hall without the queuing. Damn. Our home exchanger had a friend who knew someone in the band! Was that ever great! With her senior citizen status, AlteCocker is not fond of queuing anywhere (not to mention back surgery a year ago). She is not a spring chicken. In addition to Preservation Hall, we had the beignets (donuts) for which New Orleans is famous, ate at the jazz brunch at Commander's Palace, saw a couple of plantations (Whitney and Laura), handled some alligators, saw the fantastic World War II Museum, visited Mardi Gras World (we were not there for Mardi Gras itself) and gorged on creole food. Did AlteCocker say she had a great time in NOLA? When we were done, John and AlteCocker sang our song ("We'll Meet Again" of World War II vintage) and the adventure was over. AlteCocker stopped in West Palm Beach and visited two high school friends she had not seen in 40 years. One of them was definitely not Donald Trump.