Not Built in a Day

Last October, I had the chance to visit New Orleans for the first time.  The city felt unique among American cities I've visited: it had the historic district charm of Charleston, but with a modern, skyscraper-filled downtown just a few blocks away, all surrounded by variously well-kept or decaying suburbs that have experienced different amounts of recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  I was intent to see everything for myself, including cool new buildings, cool historic buildings, and everything in between.  Extra special thanks to my college friend who served as my guide, "local knowledge," transportation, host, and restaurant recommend-er throughout our trip! The French Quarter This is a place that you have to see at night, when the gas lamps are lit and the darkness hides some of the imperfections and later additions.  Overall, it's astonishing how consistently the historic architectural style has been maintained here, with the wrought iron balconies...

This post brought to you by: The Doge Here's some stuff I made and some places I visited!  To enhance your blog-reading experience, see if you can find all three outdoor amphitheaters mentioned in this post.* I painted some shoes, as one does when one has plain white Tom's in need of painting.  It only took me a year to get around to painting these after I bought them, but it was pretty fun!  Only now I don't want to wear them because I like them too much.  Oh well. Love me some space ships *space noises* I went to Oakland!  It was a pretty cool place.  All the hipsters are there.  Also a large church that's pretty sweet, some flowers , more hipsters, hipster beer, and cool people. Cathedral of Christ the Light Hipster Jesus.  He's a metaphor ("Christ the Light.")  Actually he's a pattern cut into perforated aluminum.  Which is so hot these days. Gratuitous architectural detail shot Flowers.  Ak...