NOLA 2015

Our second visit during French Quarter Fest.  As with last year, the french quarter fest certainly didn't disappoint.  We had a slightly bigger group with us than last year and rented a house via AirBnB that that we could all stay together.  The accommodations ended up being a hair smaller than we thought, so jen and I slept on a mattress topper on the balcony, but given the little time we all spent sleeping, it didn't much matter...

A very fair trade for a place a block from the action, two balconies and enough room for us to always be around those we love in a place we love.  What a superb time!! Many of this year's shows were rained out as the city was plagued with thunderstorms off and on almost our entire stay, but it certainly didn't dampen anyone's excitement or enjoyment.  We usually got a fairly late start to our days, both recovering from the evening events and Skyping with BnD's kids back in PDX.  Then we would stroll out, grab beignets, Po Boys and bloody marys and take in all the madness that is the beauty of quarter fest.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that...but mostly we wandered the streets following the whims of whoever in the group had the strongest opinion or best recommendation.

As the days got later we headed toward whatever late night venue we chose to end each day with (or on some nights multiple options from a sing along at margaritaville to karaoke) and eventually finding our way home.

Mostly we listened, danced, ate, drank and played our way through the quarter for 4 days until we simply couldn't take any more.  Each day seemed to be a perfect series of experiences with amazing friends...  Just the ticket to take my mind off the projects waiting back home.

I'm not sure how it could have been much better of a weekend, and I can only hope we can talk everyone into future trips both to NOLA and other new destinations.

Now we head back to portland, love on karma (always feels not quite right to travel without her) and kick off our exciting new project.  We will be pretty head's down on it for the next month or two, but are pretty excited to get underway.  It's a remodel that we hope will provide for us on many fronts.

A place to stay when the garage is rented, hopefully a bit of an income stream through AirBnB, and if all goes well…a chance for us and other portland makers/artists to find a broader audience both in and out of town.  We haven't been able to really leap into this project until after the new orleans trip.  But now the time is here, and we are very excited to see what this little idea we brainstormed up develops into.  Should be quite an adventure.