I'm going to be in NOLA that week also, this will be our second trip. After the first trip in early 2010 I told hubby I wanted to go back 'some day' to see the city all decked out for Christmas. I turned 40 this year, and this trip is what I 'asked for' as a gift. :) NO is one city where I absolutely enjoyed the walking tours. There is so much to see in NO, and I found these tours showed you the best & important stuff in a reasonable time. I think they lasted 2 - 2.5 hours. Last time we did three - French Quarter, Garden District and Cemeteries. I would recommend any of them. The tour guides we had absolutely knew their stuff and we SO interesting. The Garden District guy was especially good. This time we're planning to do the 'cocktail tour' which should be fun. We also enjoyed a river cruise on the Steamboat Natchez... and we took one day and rented a car to drive upriver & visited Oak Alley and Laura plantations. That was one of our best days, we really enjoyed it, so I'd definitely recommend doing that if time permits. There are so many great restaurants to try.... we're going to brunch at Commander's Palace this time (had dinner there in 2010), and I really enjoyed Mr. B's Bistro in the French Quarter. Not sure how many 'repeat' restaurants we'll do this trip, but I do want to go back to Mr. B's. When your DD is there, in City Park there is an event called "Celebration in the Oaks" which I don't know much about... it's a Christmas themed event with lots of lights, etc. I think we'll check it out because we've never been to City Park. Also, if they're still there on the 18th there is a 'tour of homes' in the FQ and caroling in Jackson Square, along with a Christmas concert in the Cathedral. Someone recommended on Tripadvisor to ride the St. Charles Ave. streetcar at dusk to see all the lights & beautiful houses decorated for Christmas. Bourbon Street IMO is a bit of a sewer.... we walked down it once, and then pretty much stayed away. I'd like to spend more time on Frenchmen Street this trip. There are great museums... I can't think of all the ones we visited right off-hand. There is one in the Cabildo building on Jackson Square, I think, that we really enjoyed. I'm so excited to go..., if you can't tell. :) I know NO is a city with warts - but what city doesn't have it's issues & dark side. Some better, some worse of course... but we used common sense and good judgement in NO (same as I would in any city) and never felt unsafe. I'm sure it's cliche, but I developed my initial interest in NO reading Anne Rice books as a teenager. I'm much older & over all the 'vampire' stuff now, but I still fell in love with the City. I love the mix of so many cultures & the history. I'm from eastern Canada and although I'm not French, the Acadian influence in LA is very interesting to me also. I hope your DD enjoys it as much as I did!!

Thanks for that personal data, Deedles. I'm 65 in a few weeks. There was a real change in lifestyle in those roughly 15 yrs of our childhoods, wasn't there? My parents' house was built immediately after WWII in a new suburb of St. Paul; one grandmother lived in old 1880s house in decaying neighborhood of St. Paul and one in 1915 [new] house in town outside St. Paul. We all washed dishes but only the grandmother downtown did the scald routine. It was the rural grandma who had the big farm kitchen but the room was awful, much like the one that the kitchen planning film was trying to replace. Mostly because of lighting and lack of decorating taste. I was dating DH whose parents built a mod house by the U. of M. in 1963 with all the Midcentury Modern features that ecologists now hate. The house fascinated me. They had a skylight, a massive open fireplace, lots of glass windows, and a dishwasher! Two ovens! waterless cookware! A garbage grinder! but a dinky dining room and a one-cook kitchen. And vinyl floor even in dining area and countertops of white shiny Formica with flecks of gold. One thing that we don't see anymore and good riddance is the early plastic tablecloths that were literally tacky--they attracted things to stick to them yet the rural people loved them--cut down on laundry I suppose. We had to struggle to remove a plastic tablecloth from another family table in abt 1970 when we visited the bachelor uncle in Iowa--it adhered to the table.

That is so touching. I think the reaction of the audience to him warmed my heart more than his courage and faith. When we were kids we lived down the street from a place that was once called The Home For Incurables. It was later renamed Kings Daughters and Sons. My brother and I used to go there to visit the people who resided there. When I was 14 I quit going there, but my brother continued to do so. There was a young man there that had the very same disabilities as that man in the video. His name was Mike. He and my brother became very close friends. This was 1961. Mike had a motorized wheel chair. We thought his family must have been rich for being able to buy that for him. My brother, Pat, spent a lot of time with Mike. When the home took residents on outings they let Pat go along with Mike. Pat spent time with Mike and encouraged him to do so many things. Mike actually learned how to throw a pocket knife with his mouth to where it would stand up in the dirt. They played games of Mumbly Peg together. Mike had a contraption made to where he could bowl. I can't remember exactly what it was, but the ball was put on a platform for Mike then he had a rod of some sort in his mouth to push the ball. Mike and Pat stayed in touch over the years that Pat was in Germany and Viet Nam. When Pat returned home from the war he and Mike were reunited. Pat had a vehicle then and could take Mike places himself. He sometimes brought Mike to my house to spend the night. For supper and breakfast Pat would feed a bite to Mike then he would take a bite of his own meal. They had so much fun together. They were regular guys ribbing each other and playing pranks on each other all the time. Pat played a guitar and Mike sang along with him. Mike died when he was 26 years old. He lived longer than was expected and under the circumstances had fairly happy life. I didn't intend to hijack this thread and I apologize, but Mike instantly came to my mind when I saw the video. I wanted to share his amazing life with you too. Since I have already hijacked it I want to add one more thing. :) My brother married a young lady who had been at that place since she was 7 years old due to suffering from polio. Linda

Oly, that has to be the sweetest video I've ever seen. The dad makes it look easy, doesn't he? He had a great idea about giving them a quick little bath. But what really surprised me was how those teeny girls were able to carry their plates full of food to the table! I realized when he got their sippy cups ready he didn't do what most of us probably did, he had them come get the cup, instead of the usual, giving the cup to them. Self sufficient girls, good job dad!. Nekotish, I think my husband would marry the grandma if he could. He loves blacka pepper! lol And she sings!