New Orleans, post 4: Jackson Square & St. Louis Cathedral

Various views of Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral. 

The square is named after Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, which took place in January, 1815. Jackson later became the 7th president of the USA. The victory is widely considered the greatest land victory in the War of 1812 against the British (Wikipedia). The cathedral dates from 1850, and "...has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the (as now constituted) United States" (Wikipedia).

New Orleans, post 3: The Garden District

The Garden District is a 15 minute trolley ride west of the French Quarter. Lots of beautiful homes from the mid-1800s, very well-preserved and surrounded by lovely gardens - hence, the name of the district. We rode the rumbling, loud streetcar one afternoon and meandered around the neighborhood. Beautiful homes and beautiful magnolias lining the streets.

Begun in 1833, the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 pictured below is one of several similar cemeteries in the city where the dead were 'buried' above ground in crypts (due to a high water table, I imagine). It's both eerie and beautiful.

New Orleans, post 2: Food

Fried oyster po-boys and a sno-ball at the New Orleans Oyster Festival; the famed Camellia Grill; crab cakes; red beans, rice, and local sausage; ham and eggs at Mother's; and chargrilled oysters at the well-known Acme Oyster House. The pictures speak for themselves.

New Orleans, post 1: The French Quarter

As a graduate research assistant at the Center for Postsecondary Research, I have the opportunity to collaborate with the professional staff on papers using the data that we collect about student engagement. The Center is very generous with their graduate assistants: they will pay the way for us to present an accepted paper at up to two conferences per year (there are 3-4 annual conferences in which the Center regularly participates). I did this a couple of times last year. It is wonderful professional experience AND all expenses are paid, which is an obvious blessing.

Last week, along with numerous staff and fellow graduate assistants, I headed to New Orleans for the annual conference of the Association of Institutional Researchers. My team presented a paper titled, "Using Cognitive Interviews to Improve Survey Instruments". Interesting stuff. 

But the Really Fun part was this: Julianna joined me! (She left Gemma with her parents in N.C. - Thank You, Mum and Dad H.!). Since Gemma's birth 19 months ago, this was our first time away, together, just the two of us. It was a very special few days!

We found time in the midst of the conference to explore the French Quarter and eat as much as we could. What a fascinating city and wonderful food! The next few posts will be comprised of various facets of our New Orleans excursions. Enjoy.

Wonderful Bill and Teresa

What a lovely evening (dessert and chatting) we had with Bill & Teresa Welch last week! They are special people to us, having been our first point of contact when we moved to Bloomington almost 3 years ago. They hosted us when we first arrived, drove us around to orient us to B-town and helped us search out a place to live (Bill even came along a few times when we were with a realtor looking at condos). Such gracious, supportive people. 

And the chocolate icebox pie was really, really good too. If I do say so myself. First time making it - I've had the recipe from Southern Living for ages. It's a rich chocolate pie in a chocolate crumb crust, topped with whipped cream, milk chocolate pieces and peanuts. Deadly.

Here's the recipe link for interested folk. Quite easy to do! I changed it up by doing peanuts instead of pecans; in future I would probably do Cool Whip instead of whipping cream to lighten it up a bit.