nawlins

i'm in new orleans for a couple weeks. it's mercifully warm here, not to natives, but to a northerner its summer--balmy, sweaty, deliciously humid. mike, tim and i drove down in my car in one shot--24 hours straight with a break at waffle house in alabama. i brought a new toy with me, a nikon digital single lens reflex camera with a wide angle 12-24mm lens. it was an impulse purchase after i saw some photographs taken with one. i'm getting used to its complexity and bulk. i still love my little canon elph. it takes movies for one thing and the nikon doesn't. it's also about 1/8 the weight and bulk. the nikon takes beautiful images, and i love the super wide angle for shooting architecture. we're staying in a beautiful apartment on frenchman street, just a block from the french quarter. it's enormous--about 3,500 square feet--with a restaurant grade kitchen. we have a four burner professional stove, a grill and a pizza oven. it's on the top floor at the top of a very long run of stairs (pictured). it was nice to get down here in one day. i had stayed up nearly all night before leaving so i was up pretty much for two days. after arriving about noon, we went to barkus, an dog parade that we viewed in jackson square. afterwards, we ate middle eastern food at a cafe around the corner from our place and then i crashed for fourteen hours.