JVPhoto

1) United EWR-MSY Y
2) The Ritz Carlton NOLA
3) New Orleans
4) United MSY-IAD Y
5) The Ritz Carlton Georgetown
6) D.C.
7) United IAD-LGA Y

Just getting back after taking some time to pop around with my Mom for her birthday.



She was already in NY for a few days to do some shopping and meet up with some of our friends for dinner and such. She flew over on the new AA 321T 3 class in Business, she said she liked it and was nice compared to the normal red eye recliners she does to come visit. Usually she stays at The Bowery Hotel since it's 2 min from my place, but this time for a 4 min walk I had her try out the new Hyatt in Union Square that had just opened (I think when she decided to book the Bowery was even more expensive than normal). I went in twice and had drinks in the lobby...rooms and things looked nice, friendly staff, location is a good launching point to get around the city. Elevators were slow as molasses.



Originally I wanted to do the trip where we would take the Acela from NYC to DC and then fly DC-MSY where I would fly back MSY-NYC and then she would go back to California from MSY. But, my sister and her friend decided they wanted to join us in New Orleans and the dates worked better to go there first, but another factor was on the Acela (apparently I didn't realize it until this trip planning and checked) you really can't bring a large proper suitcase on them. I was fine with a duffle/carry on but she had her big 60 pound bag for 12 days worth of travel we had to deal with.



Check in and everything was a breeze...Monday at around 11:15 am there wasn't much going on in the airport. You can see from the photo security was very light, we both had PreCheck (her first time...which she loved).









Not too much going on in Terminal C at EWR...decided to share a little snack at Caliente Cab with the idea we would probably get a snack box or something on the flight down.
Boarding took place in the little ground level gates at the end of the gate pier on the right at EWR. A few smaller things crowded down there. UA used the automated boarding group caller...no real mention of the newly enforced carry on limits. The GA did say that "while this is a larger regional jet" they can probably fit about 40 suitcases on before they have to gate check the rest.



UA has 3 flights down, the morning and evening ones are mainline A320/19 it looks and the mid day flight is a E-170. The timing worked out for us to take this flight and I wasn't really banking on a CPU with the worst case scenario we would be in E+ in a 2-2 cabin so we would be sitting next to each other. With 1K status my CPUs can clear 96 hours in advance...nothing emailed. At check in I was asked if I wanted to split the reservation to put us on the upgrade list but I saw 1 seat available and didn't want to deal with it, so like I said we were fine for 3 hours sitting next to each other in E+.



I could finally use my free drink tickets! Most of what I fly is international and the few times I take domestic flights I am able to fly in Business on the p.s. flights between the coasts. I'm giving a few to a friend who is flying UA EWR-CDG in Y in a few weeks. No Bistro on Board for the length and/or being operated by an express carrier. Just the Snack Boxes.



Instead of finding an operator in NOLA I just used Carmel's worldwide booking to get an SUV for the 4 of us and all the bags. Didn't have to request it but we were met at baggage claim with our name on a sign and a good ole southern boy who talked the entire 30 min ride to the French Quarter...Southern hospitality I guess.



We had two rooms booked and this would be the first time being a Ritz Rewards Gold member (due to the MileagePlus x Marriot Rewards partnership for Rewards Plus where as a Gold+ UA MP member I was given Marriot/Ritz Gold for the year). It got us one room upgrade to a suite and free internet. Can't complain!





Overall the property was great, VERY friendly staff. The layout was a little odd that you can enter from the street at two sections and then take an elevator to the 3rd floor where you go to another bank of elevators to get to the guest rooms.
Certain halls/parts of the hotel smelled a little damp and musty. In the suite the bathtub drained VERY slow...like nearly an hour which made it a problem for someone wanting to take a shower after and not want to wade in the old bath water. In the bathroom some of the wallpaper near the toilet was stained and peeling.





The Davenport Lounge had a nice ambience and some live jazz at certain times. Really amazing vodka, ginger beer, basil drink! Behind that is the M Bistro where you can get breakfast and other food. I didn't do the breakfast buffet I went for their healthy heart eggs which was pretty tasty.





Did room service breakfast one morning...the eggs ben were great, the waffle came cold.




Also apparently on our (the top floor) there is a residence.



All in all I was happy with the stay, it was comfortable and quiet just steps away from Bourbon Street. If I came back to New Orleans (which you'll see in the next post, I probably won't) I would probably check out another property like The Roosevelt.

JVPhoto

So I had never been to New Orleans and originally I was planning on going with a group of friends for a birthday...so when my Mom decided she wanted to come back to NY for a week I convinced her to change that to just 4 days in NY and then we could visit some other places. New Orleans she could gamble and we could hang out and have fun...DC because she has never been and can do some sightseeing.







After we checked in we were hungry so we just popped around the corner and picked The Red Fish Grill which was the first thing we saw, sat at the bar area and had some snacks and salads. All in all not bad, some good tequila drinks. Mom wanted to go straight away to Harrah's to gamble a bit with my Sister and I went up to take a bath and relax.
Well the weather was not what I was expecting in New Orleans...I understand rain/thunderstorms but it was cold too! About 55-60 and very windy the next day as well.













By the time we left Harrah's we were a bit hungry so walked around and found Backspace Bar for some sandwhiches and drinks...their "Hemmingway Cuban" ( a normal cuban + pulled pork) hit the spot!







Weather wasn't raining the next day...but it was WINDY and had some bite to it.





Mom wanted to do a bit of shopping so we walked down to the Canal Shops which is pretty much just a Saks (fairly decent size on for a non-major city like NY, SF, LA, Chi) and a handful of typical mall shops. Directly across from Harrah's before lunch we did another pass at the tables and slots.


"Wow they have an area on Bourbon Street that the police can't come in??"

Ended up near Jackson Square and ate at Stanley's...pretty normal, nothing to write home about other than the MegaMosa.







My sister wanted "one of those big things of seafood they throw on your table and you dig in." So we poked around for some steamed seafood buckets and decided to go to The Crazy Lobster on the water. $82.99 later we were set up with plenty to eat and pick at...along with some salads and onion rings. We were going to order more food but the waiter convinced us to get the bucket first and then see if we felt like it...we obviously didn't order more so it was a good call. We did however hear a very awkward and extremely homophobic story from the waiter.





For my Mom's actual birthday dinner I had booked a table at GW Fins on OpenTable. I made a note in there it was for her birthday and when we checked in the hostess asked me what my Mom's name was and then 4 min later when showed to our table (great center position on the upper level overlooking the whole place) was a personalized menu with her name on it wishing happy birthday.
Was a great place...really good food, lots of drinks, WONDERFUL service and was finally able to find a few things in New Orleans that were not fried and battered.





So New Orleans was...interesting. I'm glad I saw it once, it was fine for 3 nights hanging out with my family and then going to some of the bars at night solo. Of course would have been fun with a handful of my friends. I really couldn't figure out the crowd or the people who were there...it's people who like to walk around at any hour of the day and drink a beer on the street. Obviously location, vibe and lacking any grandeur was different than something like Vegas where you have them doing the same thing. I knew it was going to be down and dirty, but it was just a weird juxtaposition of having a family of 5 from the mid-West milling about Bourbon Street on a Tuesday at 3pm where there are "dancers" in the doorways who are on average about 15 pounds too heavy to be wearing a teddy, have way too many bruises on their arms legs, makeup/grooming problems and what not. Like who is that attracting!? At night of course it was a little bit different as the kids have been put to bed and the adults have gone out to the bars or to do some interesting karaoke renditions (spent an hour at The Cats Meow watching...a delight!) and the singles try to coyly enter some of the strip bars.
I was surprised by the gay nightlife options...I went to a few of the bars around Bourbon St & St. Anne which seemed like they could be fun (obviously with friends) but sitting for a few drinks the service and lack of an interesting crowd left me nonplused.



Do they give you a chart for MX/WX delays?

Happy to head up to DC for a few days...

ozziegumby

Nice report - love the photography...can't wait to see more

FAA1996

Great pictures, thanks for the report.

CHOPCHOP767

Really wonderful shots; you've got quite an eye. The picture with the bottle caps is fantastic. NOLA is a city that doesn't disappoint!

dat4life

Nice report! I never tire of reading about my hometown, which I agree is interesting. GW's is a great place, in fact my buddy's fiance is the pastry chef there. And there are plenty of other places that serves awesome food that isn't deep fried, though a good bit of them are off the beaten path. Anyhow, hope y'all enjoyed it!

JVPhoto

When we landed at MSY and walked through the terminal I noticed there wasn't much there (not even a sit down faux Irish airport pub or anything) so on our way out flying to IAD I didn't plan to spend much time there.

Got dropped off at the airport, this time just took a taxi straight from the hotel ($33 flat to the airport) since my Mom and I were the only ones going to IAD…Sister and her friend would be flying back MSY-DEN-MRY.
Dropped the bags off no problem and we both had PreCheck…which was a breeze and seems like it's a decent operation for the size of the station. Walked up to a line with no one, scanned our BPs and I thought we were going to get funneled into the main scanners like they do at JFK T7 but they told us to go to the right past a little plastic swinging gate and it was a dedicated lane with no one in it except for 3 TSA agents.



Our flight was mainline A319 so slightly bigger F cabin than coming down but when we checked in only 1 seat open so I didn't bother splitting our PNR again as we were seated in row 20 which is a unique exit row that only has two seats on each side. It's a E+ seat row with the window seat missing. So perfect for a duo traveling, I could store my stuff in the seat front next to me, cross my legs no problem, didn't have anyone intruding on one side of me.
No DTV or individual entertainment but there is a drop down monitor that plays some sitcoms….~2:30h flight so we had a snack box, some screwdrivers and I finally caught up and watched The Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones. So needless to say in a way it was the worst flight of my life!

Excuse these photos…I was AV Geeking out at all the liveries and planes as we were on our direct from Hoth looking pseudo-military intra terminal transport at IAD and just shot these with my iPhone and then put on Twitter (hence the change in quality…the other photos I normally host here are through my Tumblr…but I have some better stuff from IAD on my trip out).

We waited as this Qatar football livery taxi'd by before we made our way out.

BA 747, *A Livery and Virgin Atlantic all parked.

Right up the butt of the AF A380 in 80th model livery.



No pictures I really took at The Ritz Georgetown. However, again a very friendly and welcoming staff. We were given a late check out of 3pm on Sunday. The room was plenty big, better bathtub with separate shower than NOLA. Only thing is the lounge is pretty much just the lobby lounge which is gorgeous and the bistro/bar seem like an afterthought…but really in the middle of Georgetown not like you need to spend much time there. We did get one afternoon some grilled shrimp and one of the best tomato soups I've ever had delivered.
The room was on the "lower level" towards the very back of the hotel which is still actually about 2-3 stories above the street level because it sits on a hill…it still made it seem a little dark and tucked away. I was worried because it was next to the fitness center but no noise and problems from that.

For Easter Brunch they had a nice buffet spread with a lot of oysters, shrimp, crabs plus prime rib and ham, salad station, omelette station, grilled cheese bar and typical breakfast stuff. I felt for $75 with the food could have done more than one mimosa included and the next glasses being $15/each (make it an even $100 and bottomless ^ ).
There was no coffee maker or tea in the room and the mini bar was never restocked after we had used a few things.









My Mom had minor knee surgery a few weeks ago but still wanted to come on the trip so I was trying to think of the best way for her to enjoy this. She is fine to walk flat for the time being, stairs she just has to take by putting both feet on each landing before making the next and after about 30-45 min up just needs to sit down for a few. I knew it was then going to be tough with all the monuments and the National Mall and what not…even without the knee problem she always complains that my 6'2" long legs always leave her in the dust.



SEGWAY TOURS!! Poking around online I randomly came across the Segway tour groups in DC and went ahead and booked a private tour from City Segway Tours. For about $20 more per person your private group from 2-8 people get to go around with your own guide for 2:30h (15 min of it is getting comfortable and trained to ride) that you can tailor to what you want to see at your pace. If not you're stuck in one of the pre-selected tours with a group that can be like 10-12 people.
We went ahead and did it so we could hit up the monuments and were able to star near the Kennedy Center and go down the street into the Mall to see the WWII/Washington Monument and then down and through the tidal basin to Jefferson, FDR, MLK, Korea, Lincoln & Vietnam with pretty much just stopping at FDR, MLK and Lincoln to take some time to get closer to them. Was a perfect little package and absolutely fun, my Mom was thrilled, the Segways are so fun to drive and in 2.5 hours we were able to see what would take a full day walking around in between.















Another day we headed over to The National Gallery because I wanted to see the Garry Winogrand show which was great. Familiar with his work it was awesome to see a lot of unseen work from the 6100 mixed rolls of unedited/developed film he left behind. Bonus was that one of the classes I work is covering him this coming week and extra bonus were some two dozen photos that were shot in airports/planes in the 60s-80s and one of a 747 up close and personal.



We walked a bit by the Capital and then over to the Botanical Gardens which was a zoo (of people) so didn't do much, just looked at a few things and went to the medicinal section which was lacking one critical herb.





DC is full of food but just a quick recap of places we went should they ever be on your radar.

Filomena: Wow…apparently they go apeshit and decorate to THE KISTCH MAX for most holidays so what I thought was going to be a moody old school Italian place was covered with bunnies and eggs. Food and service was great! Pasta was huge two could easily share one dish.
DF Centro: Mediocre "Mexican" food served by lackluster hipsters.
Bangkok Joe's: Says dumpling bar on the windows so I was hoping for more than 8-9 choices, but a huge menu of "thai street food" which has enough things to share and pick at. On a Sat night without reservations at 8pm only had to wait about 20 minutes which wasn't bad. Pretty good cocktails.
Cafe Soleil: Hungry for lunch before Segways and randomly came across it near Farragut Square…french menu in what looks like an Italian restaurant served by cold Russian waitresses. The all veg sandwich was pretty good as were the salads.
Pavilion Cafe in the National Gallery: Hey not bad for a cafeteria, have a little wine, relax for a second from walking the galleries and then make an impulse purchase in the gift shop before taking the Star Tours people mover.

A fun trip with some bonding time before I had to make my way back to the caverns and tunnels of IAD connected by planes, trains & moving cargo containers.

JVPhoto

Please then give her a pat on the back, high five or big wet kiss for the chocolate molten cake and baked apple pie with cheddar crust! ^^^

And I figured there are probably some gems in the city but didn't really search for much more than what was a 10 min walk from the hotel.

JVPhoto

Originally I was booked to fly from DCA-EWR with the idea that I could go to DCA with my Mom (flying AA DCA-LAX-MRY) at the same time. At first it was a single class RJ and then month or so out it changed to a Q400 and my fare class got me an instant upgrade…first class on a 40 min prop plane flight! Thought it was going to be fun for the novelty factor. Then when I was looking at the DCA-EWR flights I noticed that 30-40% are canceled to be combined or can be several hours delayed. Not wanting to deal with that and then realize I was going to be coming back into the city from EWR on Easter Sunday I didn't want to be stuck in tunnel traffic forever. So I went ahead last week and changed my flight IAD-LGA.







West security said 15 min, East security said 20 min….the big PreCheck in the middle took all of 4 min. Nice to see it was operated properly and not just an add on to other security lines where TSA will start funneling in non PreChecks. Friendliest TSA agent checking BPs too!



Wandered around the maze from security a bit and then decided to go down into the caverns and just walk to A/B instead of waiting for the train.









Geeked out and walked from end to end getting to see some of the planes I normally don't at EWR when I'm waiting around. Not much to write home about other than staying out of the A1-6 area of the A/B terminal until you have to as it's dark & crowded.



Boarding was on time but they had 3 planes boarding out of A4 at once which led to some people being confused as to which to go to (I guess the destination cities above the sub doors were too complicated). No drama on board with the little CRJ200 for the 40 min flight into LGA…aside from the woman who brought on a few pieces of 4x4' poster board…what overhead bin have you ever seen lady??

We left the gate on time were taxing out for a few minutes, stopped at about 5:20 and captain came on and said LGA has given us a wheel's up time of 5:51 so we would be sitting there for about half an hour. Still landed on time 6:45 as they build in the travel as being 90 minutes. Bags came off quick, a red coat was stopping everyone checking everyone's bag tags and stubs (never seen this at EWR or JFK). Shortly after Carmel picked me up and we were rocking out to some banghra making my way back to the city, drop my stuff off & to meet friends at a bar by 7:45.

goodeats21

That bottle cap shot caught my eye as well.

Nicely done. ^

JVPhoto

When I finally caught up with the fam....what were you doing down there on the ground??

krazykanuck

I agree, the photography is spot on!

As to New Orleans, I used to live there and have a bit of a soft spot for the city. Although I could never live there again, I always enjoy visiting. I was there on a business trip last month and stayed just a couple blocks from you. You're right about MSY though. There's nothing there, eh its a bit of sh*t hole to be honest, but it gets the job done.