Pluggin' away
After a badly needed vacation to the Big Easy, I found myself smitten with many of the places I visited and of much of the food that I ate. And since I'm allowed free domain on Newmoanyeah, I decided to make it into a plugfest, fuzzypink style.

Fuzzy pink turning angry green
While it's not fuzzypink style to dis much of anything (ask Groovalicious Editor Lisa -- she's been one to tell me I'm too sunny), I have to unplug hotels.com. They made me angry, and hotels.com, you won't like me when I'm angry.

The short story is, after making our reservations well in advance, I made my travel companion (my boyfriend Sean) print out a confirmation number the day before we left. But instead of a confirmation number, he found that our reservation had been changed from four nights in November to one night in September -- without ever emailing us a change confirmation. And there was nothing they could do for us but book another hotel -- a shittier hotel -- without even apologizing for the fact that we could have easily ended up with no place to stay.

An angry email to the company only got me $40 hotels.com bucks -- which I probably won't use because I don't ever want to be in that situation again so I won't use the site again. Travelocity, you've got my bidness for good.

All anger aside
But turning back on the fuzzypinkness, the rest of our trip -- besides the horrible shower in our hotel room -- was an excellent time.

My first plug is for Laidback Bike Tours. Laidback Bike Tours offers bike and kayak tours of New Orleans and surrounding areas. Sean and I signed up for a four hour bike tour on our first full day in town. Laidback Bike Tours offers many styles of bikes including some cool recumbent bikes -- we chose to ride super comfy recumbent trikes.

Our tour guide was a 7th generation New Orleanian who brought us off the beaten track to share the stories and the history of New Orleans. There were only four of us in the tour group which made for a highly personalized tour -- probably the best $65 I've spent in a long time. Overall, the tour was a wonderful introduction to the city and history and a refreshing change of pace from Bourbon Street. Word on the street is the company has started doing gumbo bike tours riding from one restaurant to another to find the best gumbo in the city -- a gumbo crawl on three wheels.

Lots of eatin'... and beer
My next plug goes to the New Orleans School of Cookin'. We took a cooking class at the school and while we didn't get to get our hands dirty (we watched the instructor cooked), the class was second on our list of favorites. The three-hour long class incorporated a little history, a little culinary learning, and a lot of fun. We got to watch the instructor make four dishes and sample them (eating quick to guarantee us seconds when there were seconds). The class cost a mere $25 and hey, they provided beer which is always a good thing.

After a morning of cooking, we headed across the Mississippi River to Mardi Gras World. Mardi Gras World is where 80% of the floats and props for Mardi Gras parades are created and housed. One of the neatest stops during our trip, this tour offered free king cake and coffee, and a total understanding of how floats are made and the work and money that goes into making Mardi Gras parades so entertaining. I give this museum extra props for making it a total hands on tour. Vistors are allowed to touch floats and props, and are encouraged to try on Mardi Gras costumes provided in the waiting area. And the king cake is fabulous too (king cake is the traditional pastry during Mardi Gras. The cake, basically a heavily iced coffee cake, is baked with a plastic baby. Whoever gets the baby wins a prize.)

And the plugs go on!
And while I can't plug every place I visited, my final plug goes to the Louisiana Music Factory. This unique music store offers a wide selection of jazz, blues, zydeco, and other music native to New Orleans. The staff at the Louisiana Music Factory was extremely helpful in finding me some local blues to bring home to my dad. And, I even got a 10% discount.

Overall, my trip down south was worth the long flight (layovers are a bitch) and hotel related annoyances. As a northeasterner, I found the hospitality and friendliness of everyone in New Orleans extremely refreshing. Everywhere we went, we were sincerely welcomed. Smiles and advice weren't for the tips, but because New Orleanians genuinely like talking about their hometown. And, don't even get me started on the food...