Down in New Orleans

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently (meaning 2 weeks ago) got back from a business trip to New Orleans. Sooun (my boss) and I were there attending a convention for Ace Hardware. Ace holds conventions twice a year in different city (like Las Vegas, Orlando, St. Louis, etc) and it is an opportunity for all the franchisees to gather together and have corporate tell them about what they have accomplished in the last year, discuss future goals, introduce media and advertising plans for the year (which is why Sooun and myself were there...not to present anything, though), and then the majority of the convention is spent browsing the different vendors/product offerings. I guess these conventions used to be the major times when store owners would make their orders for the year, but with today's technology it's now more just getting updated on product offerings and then possibly score some deals on orders (vendors offer special rates at these conventions). Anyway, that's just to explain a little bit of what the trip was about.

So this was my first time to attend one of these conventions, plus both Sooun's and my first time to the Big Easy. Seeing as we would be at the convention on Thursday and Friday, we both decided to stay an extra day and spend Saturday doing some sight-seeing (beside the bit of sight-seeing we did on the other days). 

In order to attend the kick-off meeting/presentation Thursday morning, we arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday night. After arriving at our hotel, and then deciding that we wanted to switch hotels from the Courtyard Marriott to the Marriott (staying only the first night at the Courtyard), it was time to have our first taste of New Orleans. We had received numerous recommendations on places we needed to eat, so we decided our first stop would be Acme Oyster House.

I should first explain that our hotel(s) were right by the French Quarter so it was easy access walking around the quarter. Here's a picture of me as we waiting in line for Acme...Sooun wanted a picture of me in front of a gentleman's club because she thought it was funny.

We eventually made it inside and had some really wonderful food. I had a shrimp po boy while Sooun had a sample platter. We also shared some crawpuppies (hush puppies with crawfish in them) and they were really delicious. I think those were my favorites. Here's a picture of Sooun as she is enjoying her drink.

While at Acme, we ended up running into the folks from the creative agency, Scott and Candace (I don't have any pictures of them). It was my first time meeting them, as their offices are in Austin, TX. So we ended up moving down the bar to sit by them and chatted for a bit. Then we parted ways (briefly) as Sooun and I decided to explore the quarter a bit and check out this Voodoo Mart we had seen earlier.

This was just some of the beads at the Voodoo Mart. They are very serious about beads here.

While at the store, we ran into Scott and Candace, again (we had told them about the store). Seeing as Scott and Candace really didn't want to head back to their hotel as I guess it was a real dump (it was the popular conversation and "joke" of the night), we all decided to try and find a bar or something. We ended up going to a nice restaurant and bar named Mr. B's and got desserts and drinks. Then we called it a night (after running into some people from Ace's PR agency on the street as we headed back to the hotel).

And now the reason for the trip...

The big presentation meeting before "the floor" was opened.

And then it was down to the "big show" itself...

 

 

  

After spending some time at the convention, we decided to check out the area (district/downtown). We came across the Riverwalk and decided to check it out.

We also got a late lunch while we were there. After eating, we continued on and checked out some of the shops and stuff there. Of course Mardi Gras and Voodoo stores were everywhere.

Back to Canal street, the main drag...

...and back to the hotel (now at the Marriott) to rest for a bit before our fancy dinner with the client and the other agency representatives. Here's the view from our hotel room.

After resting up a bit, but before dinner, we continued to discover more of the French Quarter.

Finally, dinner at Arnaud's.

I really didn't take any pictures the rest of the day, but dinner was very good and quite interesting. I got to meet Mr. Fix-It himself, Lou Manfredini, and definitely got to know the people at Ace and the other agencies pretty well. There was all types of topics of conversation going on at the table, but at one point the conversation of celebrity doppelgangers came up. Scott and Candace were going around the table asking people which celebrity they've been told they look like while the rest of us at the table would agree or say who we thought they looked like.

Eventually it came to Sooun and me. I mentioned that I don't really ever get told I look like anyone, although I've been told Kristen Dunst once or twice. Scott then looked at me and then it struck him, "I got it!" he said. "Jodie Foster." Everyone at the table was in complete agreement. I had never gotten that before, but Scott and everyone else was admit that I had the look of a young Jodie Foster, like in the 1980s movie Little Foxes. So after that I picked up a new nickname that has now permanently stuck...Little Fox. The rest of the evening, and trip, they just called me Little Fox and people even started referring to Scott as Big Fox (since he gave me the nickname, plus he is like 6'3" or something...pretty tall). It was pretty hilarious.

So after dinner the evening continued on moving around to different location on Bourbon Street (my least favorite part of the city...think of it as a older, dirtier Las Vegas). Eventually we made our way to Pat O'Brien's which apparently is famous for their hurricanes (a fruit punch/rum drink that was invented there).

 While at O'Brien's the fun (and for everyone else, the drinking) continued. At one point Sooun suggested we play a game where each person writes a name of a famous person on a piece of paper (we used Sooun's business cards) and then you pass it to the person to your left and without looking at the name put it on your forehead. Then you go around the circle and you have to ask everyone else questions to try and guess the name of the person on your forehead. So Jeff (the new head of marketing at Ace), Scott, Sooun and myself each wrote down a name and passed it to the person next to us. I was sitting to the left of Jeff and as he was writing he was so sure I would never guess the person he had put down. Well, when we all went to put the names on our foreheads Scott and Jeff about died.

Turns out that Jeff and I had both written the same name and so Sooun and I had the same name on our forehead (although we didn't know it). Scott, but especially Jeff, was weirded out by it, and he even commented at the end of the round that it must be a sign that he needs to marry me (mind you there is probably a 10-15 year age difference). We had both put down Chevy Chase (random I know) and we all had a good laugh about it.

With some change in people playing (Jeff stepped out and Dana and Candace joined in), we played another round. This time, in order to try and avoid writing the same name as someone again I wrote down the name of the lead singer of the band The Killers. I thought Sooun would at least know who he was, but no one knew, so had to write down a different name. So this time a wrote down Betty White. Well, without realizing it, now Dana and I had the same names on our foreheads. This time I had matched Sooun who had passed the card to me and by some weird coincidence we had both written down the name Betty White. Needless to say, everyone had a good time thanks to Little Fox.

The rest of the trip wasn't quite as eventful, but the following days we spent time during the day at the convention and then spent the rest of the time checking out the city and sights. Also considering this post is now getting ridiculously long, I will keep my comments brief and let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part.

Shops in the quarter...

The back of St. Louis Cathedral...

 

Jackson square and the front of the cathedral...

 

...the Moonwalk...

 

 

...another view of Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral...

...our first glimpse of Cafe Du Monde (where you have to go to eat beignets).

Saturday morning...

Jackson Square during the day...

...the Cornstalk Hotel...

 

...more of the quarter as we window shopped...

 

 

Saturday afternoon Sooun and I hopped on a streetcar and went to the Garden District to check out the famous homes and mansions there.

 

John Goodman's House (below)

 

Apparently the wife of the man who built this home picked this cornstalk fencing because it was so expensive.

Then it was back to the Canal Street. As we rode along in the streetcar, we noticed all the beads stuck in the trees and stuff...

After getting a bite to eat we stopped back at the hotel to take a break before venturing out one last time. I love this view from the hotel at dusk.

The last items of business before leaving the next morning were to take a ghost tour, which ended up being just a carriage ride tour of the French Quarter that included the history of the city, plus some of the ghost legends, etc. And we finally made it to Cafe Du Monde to try the world famous beignets.

And that was my trip to New Orleans. It was a very insightful and very interesting trip to say the least. Not sure if I'll ever make it back, but I definitely had a good time and enjoyed most everything (except the going ons around Bourbon Street). Anyway, this is Little Fox signing out!