New Orleans, Day 1

I'm so glad that my flight wasn't until 11:45 AM because I definitely needed my sleep.  I'm also glad that I checked WMATA's site this morning to check on the subway schedules.  The station that's closest to my house was actually closed for track maintence so I had to go to the one that's closest to my parents house.  I still made it to the airport with 1.5 hours to spare. 

Once I got to New Orleans, I made a beeline for the nearest Subway and wolf down a roast beef sandwich since I wasn't sure when my next meal was going to be.  I met up with my boss at baggage claim and away we went!

We dumped our belongings at the hotel and then tried to figure out the shuttle system so that we'd know how to get to the convention center on Sunday.  That proved to be kinda difficult because first we had to find the hotel that was on the shuttle bus route (our hotel wasn't on the shuttle bus route) and then the hotel people were saying that the hotel pick up was somewhere else.  We decided to try another hotel and shuttle line.  Once we got on the bus and were at the convention center, then we had to find our booth and set up stuff so that we could spend more time on Sunday goofing off.  The guy at the convention center that helped us with the lead retreival system was cute.  I made a point to mention it.  My boss just laughed at me.  "Well, I gotta know your type!  Since he's from Maryland, you should mention all the nice restaurants where you are!"  I guess checking out cute guys can be a from of networking, right?

After that, it was time to go exploring a little bit.  We went down to the French Quarter and walked around a little bit.  Observations: a) there are a lot of smokers here.  b) this is the place to be if you like oysters. c) and alcohol. d) and strip bars.  It's a like a whole new world here!  My boss and I got dinner at Le Bayou and the food there was excellent.  My boss got the fried shrimp platter and I got the crab caesar salad.  I ate pretty much the whole thing, minus a few coutons.  We each got a hurricane, which to our surprise, came in a novelty cup, complete with beads.  I'm almost done with my drink and man, the alcohol combined with travelling and walking around, it's been a long day already!

My hurricane came in a convenient to-go cup, complete with beads.

The nice TV that I'll be enjoying NCIS on Tuesday night after exhibiting at the conference.

My ginormous room.  I always think it's funny when I get a room with a king bed.  I feels weird to have that much room since I sleep on a full bed at home.

My crab caesar salad.  Yum!

The view from dinner.  It was nice to get a balcony seat because it was like you could enjoy your food with entertainment below (I love to people watch!).