New Orleans

Ayla and I took our first trip to New Orleans in October. It was only a quick weekend vacation but we saw lots of sights in the French Quarter and ate, as New Orleans is known for, some excellent food.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square.


















A cast iron "Corn Fence", a sign that you were wealthy in the 1800's
















A pretty typical French Quarter storefront














Ayla in front of an 18th century security system

Ayla in the Voodoo Museum.



















An ornate costume on display in the Mardi Gras Museum


















Fats Domino's piano which was recovered from his house in the Lower Nith Ward, one of the most heavily damaged areas from Hurricane Katrina












One of the highlights was seeing The Tragically Hip at The House of Blues, a significantly smaller venue than anything they play in Canada.










Ayla and I on Bourbon Street at night. As you can see, New Orleans has no laws barring carrying open containers of alcohol. The only rule is that any drink has to be in a plastic cup, no glass allowed.

Where we spent our vacation Pt. II

More photos of our trip to Washington state

Seattle at dusk from the roof of our hotel

We popped up to Vancouver and went for a hike with my Mom to Grey Rocks in Deep Cove

Ayla at Deception Pass St. Park

Ayla on the ferry between Whidby Island and Port Townsend

View north from Hurricane Ridge in Olymic Nattional Park

Ayla on the Hoh river

Spruce sapling in the Hoh valley rain forest (wettest place in the lower 48 states)

Kelp on Rialto beach on the Olympic peninsula


Sunset at Ruby beach on the Olympic peninsula

Mt. Ranier

Ayla and Mt. Ranier

Ayla by the Reflecting Lake with Mt. Ranier (of course)

Where we spent our vacation

We were in Seattle from September 20 - 22. More photos to follow from Vancouver, and the rest of our trip through Washington.

What we did on our summer vacation, Part 2

Evening in Cannon beach: we wandered around the beach taking photos until sunset.






Our second day in Cannon beach was spent hiking in Ecola State park. We got a great view from the end of the very educational trail (lots of Lewis and Clark information signs) through the park.






After that, we drove up scenic highway 101 along the coast.



More to come...

What we did on our summer vacation, Part 1

We flew to Oregon.

We spent a couple of days in Portland (great city). One of the best parts was the Japanese garden in Washington Park. We saw a great view of the city from there.








We also drove to see Mount St. Helens (smoking).









After Portland and Mount St. Helen's, we headed for the coast.

Roadtrip: Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

Moonrise at Idaho Falls:


Old faithful

San Francisco trip

Lunch at the ferry mall: