I just spent a few days with my wife, visiting my daughter who lives in NO, and playing tourist in the city. We got a behind the scenes tour at the museum where my daughter is in charge of educational outreach and tours. If you ever get to NO, I highly recommend the World War 2 museum. It's a huge place and has hundreds of thousands of artifacts from both the European and Pacific theaters on display and being restored.

On the second day... Riverboat cruise.... cue the CCR song Proud Mary.... We were in line listening to the buskers in the park and suddenly.... Oh daang..... what is THAT? Is someone strangling cats? Nope.... The riverboat had a steam powered calliope. Completely out of tune with itself.... and the sad thing was I knew every song the person playing it.... yep, there was a keyboard player making that racket.....The torture continued for what seemed like forever..... It stopped once they started boarding. On the top deck, they had a 3 piece jazz combo.... tuba, banjo, and clarinet. We were up there for the last half hour or so and they were fairly decent for what they were doing.

We decided to do a walking tour of the French Quarter and the world famous Bourbon Street. In the several blocks we walked from the Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop ...yeah, it's actually the oldest tavern in the country according to the story..... back to the main street, there was easily half a dozen bars with live bands playing, doors wide open, people coming and going....and this was the middle of the afternoon. This is not counting the street buskers and performers. Lots of cardboard box, 5 gallon plastic bucket percussionists, quite a few guitarists, sax players, accordion, and various combinations thereof. In addition, there were several with pretty decent PA systems playing and singing to tracks.... a couple of those were actually outstanding.

Yep... we sat down for a bit at the courtyard at Lafitte's and had a shot of bourbon on bourbon st. Check one more thing off the bucket list.

Later that evening, we went back downtown and walked a few blocks from my daughter's museum parking deck to see a parade. New Orleans doesn't just have the Mardi Gras parade.... oh no.... they have parades all throughout the season. With halloween approaching, the city is in full party mode. This parade was the Krewe of Boo.... Essentially a street party with people making room for the dancers and floats..... There were dance groups for Betelgeuse, Elvis, Lady Gaga, Pussycats, Milk Maids, and dozens more.... What a party.... Even my crusty self was smiling at quite a few of those.... Check another thing off my bucket list.....

Too many things to recount here in detail, but we had a good time.

Back safe and sound and 2 very happy dogs to see us when they rounded the corner into the lobby from their boarding.

Now... back to training the girls, and working on music.... Got some news coming soon regarding my music.... stay tuned...


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.