New Orleans

St Patrick’s Mardi Gras

 in Louisiana / Snowbirding  tagged beads / cabbages / Mardi Gras / New Orleans / St Patrick's Day Parade / travel by

Mardi Gras is one of those can’t/must miss experiences.  Crowds aren’t my thing, but I’d watch from a balcony if Steve weren’t horrified at the very idea.  So I knew the New Orleans St. Patrick’s Day parade we saw with friends last year was the closest I’d ever get to doing Mardi Gras, and I was charged.  The parade was rated ‘family friendly’ so who would have thought I’d end up trading kisses for flowers?  I expected to see paraders tossing cabbages. I’d even brought a grocery bag to haul the veggies home.  Instead, I filled the bag with beads and watched revelers squirt drinks […]

House Haunter on the Loose

 in Louisiana / Snowbirding  tagged amputations / Avenue Plaza Resort / Civil War / ghosts / graffiti / haunted house / Louisiana / New Orleans / piano / toys / travel by

The Avenue Plaza Resort in New Orleans offers a pool, rooftop sundeck, fitness center…and a haunted house? Yes, a Civil War era house occupies the resort’s back corner, and on certain evenings, hotel employees offer free tours. Our guide was new and had only heard rumors of ghostly goings-on.  She’d been told that twelve ghosts inhabit the house which was used as a hospital (amputation factory) during the war.  One of the ghosts objected to visitors playing her piano.  Another sometimes rearranged the toys on one of the beds. If our hosts were in, they apparently were not feeling it.  Vigilant as we […]