Biosophilia

New Orleans

Lisa and I are in New Orleans today. What a place! We drove from Baton Rouge today. We used MSN Maps and Directions for directions to our hotel in the big city. On the whole their directions have been excellent, but these were slightly flawed, so the trip took us an extra half hour.

We are thankful that the directions sent us the wrong way, though, because we got to see part of a high-speed highway chase. We don't yet know how it started or ended, but our viewing started when a small sedan came up the on-ramp with a police car in chase. At first, it seemed as though the police car might be after someone else. It seemed that the police car might coincidentally been behind the sedan, en route to another destination. When the sedan began swerving in and out of traffic instead of getting out of the way of the police car and the police car swerved in and out with the sedan, we knew the chase was on. We tried to keep up with them, but it didn't seem very safe to keep moving between cars with only 12-18 inches to spare! Another 5 or 6 police cars passed us in the few minutes that followed.

After getting off the highway, we stopped at a gas station to ask directions to Prytania Street. We got great directions from the elderly lady working at the station--with one exception. The street she told us to turn left on just before Prytania Street was a one-way the wrong direction. So we kept on a few blocks, missing a few possible left turns and passing several one-ways going right. Finally, we turned onto Enterpe, drove a block, and stopped at Prytania Street. At this point, we weren't sure which direction to turn to get to the hotel, so we tried the right first. We soon realized that we the numbers were ascending away from the number of the hotel, and we looked for a place to turn around--no driveways and several one-ways! Without too much more trouble, however, we made our circuitous way to the Prytania Part Hotel. It is a lovely hotel, with a courtyard outside and comfortable, cozy, and character-filled rooms.

We will be staying here tonight and driving back to Baton Rouge tomorrow. While we are here, Lisa will be attending an international piano competition Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday. We have already seen Canal St. and St. Charles street and Loyola University. The streetcars are delightful, and some of the houses are gorgeous--and enormous. The nicest church building we've seen so far is home to an episcopal congregation. Other sites we intend to see include the aquarium and Bourbon St.