OK, I admit it, NOLA is on my mind. Even though I don’t do taxes, it’s been pretty hectic around my practice, and so if I am thinking about everything great in ‘the Big Easy’, can you blame me?
Scaling New Heights is being held in the heart of New Orleans, ‘the Big Easy’, NOLA as some call it, this June 21 through 24. It is going to be one fabulous conference, there should easily be more than 1000 ProAdvisors participating and 100’s of Intuit personnel plus at least 100+ exhibitor personnel. But if that, and all the courses, and classes and in-depth sessions are not enough, there is the fact that this is New Orleans, home to great food, good times, and history you can hardly believe.
It’s been two weeks since my first ‘thoughts of New Orleans’, so here are some more of my tips for dining, shopping, sight-seeing, and just having fun in ‘the Big Easy, darlin.’
For You Foodies:
The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe located at 800 Decatur Street is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans. Cafe Du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait which means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. There are seven additional locations in Metro NOLA, but the original is still an experience of a lifetime.
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Attention Shopaholics:
Exodus Goods is a hip women’s boutique within the new French Quarter. The store is owned by sisters Lizzy and Darlene Okpo, the same duo behind the couture line William Okpo.
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For You Exploring Explorers:
Steamboat Natchez from the riverboat times of the Mississippi’s past, grand cruisers like this one have navigated ‘Old Miss’ since antebellum times. Step aboard for either dinner or daytime jazz excursion. Steam Engine Room visitation, calliope, live jazz and optional Creole food and local beverages. Come aboard and enjoy NOLA hospitality, steamboat style, daily, year round.
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Clubbinit (Night Life):
Vaughan’s Lounge – trombonist Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet take the stage almost nightly at this no-frills watering hold established in 1959. To get inside this Bywater joint, go to the side door and ring the buzzer.
Located in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, this ain't no laid-back 'sippin lounge', call for more information: 504-947-5562.
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Sites-to-be-seeeeeers:
Audubon Nature Institute is a nature lover’s paradise composed of 10 individual parks and museums including a zoo and an aquarium scattered around NOLA. You won’t go amiss checking out nature in its finest.
Enjoy it, 'it's the Big Easy, darlin.'