Thanksgiving in New Orleans

Day 1

• Arrived. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard on St. Charles and Canal St.  It was a great location for getting around.
• Dinner at Luke.

Day 2

• Jackson Square - fairly quiet due to Thanksgiving
• Cafe du Monde for coffee and beneigts - a bit overrated as other places had better coffee and beignets
• Dinner at Cafe Adeliade - good food but they seems a bit understaffed

Day 3

• Walking tour of St. Louis Cemetery
• Lunch at Sweet Grill
• Walking tour of French Quarter
• Dinner at Brigstons - fabulous!

Day 4

• Chalmette Battlefield - great history on the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans
• National WWII Museum - great museum for general WWII history but I sought out the personal artifacts
• Dinner at Commanders Palace - deserves its reputation

Day 5

• Natchez brunch - fun cruise on the river with a cool jazz band, Duke Heitger's Steamboat Stompers
• Literary walking tour
• Flight home

Things for next time

• Cabildo/Presbytere Museums
• 1850 House Museum
• See a jazz show somewhere
• Bayou excursion

Jackson Square

Cafe du Monde

St. Louis Cemetary

St. Louis Cemetary

To Live and Let Die

Chalmette Memorial

Tree with Spanish Moss

Ignatius Reilly

Natchez Engine Room

Joshua Tree Exploring

Instead of rock climbing, the troop went up to Joshua Tree NP for some exploring.  The idea was to do some navigation training and find some cool stuff in the park.  Since all the campgrounds were full, we camped out in the BLM land north of town.  It was pretty flat, dusty and very cold but we made it work.

BLM camp

"High Noon" pictographs

Cross country

Old stamp mill

Long abandoned car

Bighorn sheep (can you spot both?)

Sunset

Weekend Activities

• Finally hiked Iron Mountain - decent hike
• Bengt's Eagle portraits
• Balboa Park to see the Museum of Man exhibits "Living with Animals" and "Cannibals"; also took the cool tower tour

Wilson Peak Hike

Mark and I tackled Wilson Peak in the desert.  It was awesome hike and would be great for the scouts if you drive up to trailhead up the road a few miles.