Today in NOLA: Cop runs into car

We were working late the other night at HOP & JAUNT’s office in the warehouse district of downtown New Orleans. There was a crawfish boil going on at the bar next door, but other than that it was a pretty quiet night. Suddenly, we heard this loud crash outside, and then roar of cheers and laughter. We jumped up from our computers and ran outside.

Sure enough there was a wreck outside. Some poor guy in a van got hit by a police car. Fortunately, the only thing injured was the police officer’s pride. The bar crowd got a big kick out of that.

NOLA: An Illustrated Guide

John’s goal was to start this past week with creating an illustration of what he saw around town everyday. Luckily we’ve been swamped with work and illustrating for clients this past week, the downside is that he’s not quite able to create a drawing a day as hoped. But here’s the first couple, let’s encourage John to keep it up!

Day 1: View From Our Office The Day After The BSC Championship

Day 2: Morning Commute Sight: Tall Bike Guy & Smart Car Lady

Day 3: Its a nice, warm January day. And sometimes the people in the hotel across the street don’t realize we can see into their windows.

Short Travel Tales

Guest Post by Charlotte Piper, a panelist in New Orleans for Meet, Plan, Go! Here’s a couple of short stories she’s written about her travels. You can find out more about the New Orleans event on the Facebook page we’ve created! We’re aiming to create a travel community in the city, not just for the one event.

“Why I Went”

As I sat in my desk chair, May 2009, disliking the project I had been assigned and feeling overwhelmed by work, I promised myself that in a year’s time I would leave my job and comfortable reality for an adventure.

The decision to go traveling was easy. I knew I enjoyed it, I had been before, and I had this undeniable urge to see and experience different parts of the world. The hard part was leaving.  What would it mean to leave my job, family, friends, familiar city, and altogether “normal” path that school and society had prepared me for? What would be the financial and overall life consequences to my decision?

I experienced a roller-coaster of emotions preparing for my trip, at once feeling like I could write my own rules while doubting my choices and conviction. The greatest help was the support I received from friends, coworkers, and even strangers each affirming what I believed: I had to get out there and do this before looking back one day and regretting never taking the plunge.

In the end, I left almost exactly a year later with a one-way ticket to Asia on the first of hopefully many journeys abroad.

A top travel experience for me is SCUBA diving

“ Whale Shark, Red Sea, Egypt”

A top travel experience for me is SCUBA diving in warm waters filled with incredibly diverse underwater life. On a trip to Egypt in August 2009, I went on a day trip from Dahab to the Ras Muhammad National Park off the cost of Sharm el-Shiekh.

The focus of the dive package was the Thistlegorm, a 1942 WWII transport ship that sunk in the waters off the Egyptian coast. Dive groups are frequently brought there for the day to explore the outside and inside of the wreck. The sensation of being 100ft down so close to a part of history lost years ago was amazing. The interior of the ship was filled with trucks and motorcycles, rusted over and covered with algae, as schools of brightly colored fish swam from deck to deck making the ship their home.

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Get ready, set: Meet, Plan, Go!

On October 18th, 2011 in the city that never stops dancing, eating,  singing , and mostly drinking we’ll be hosting Meet, Plan, Go! Meet, Plan, Go! will be hosting their second annual nationwide event in 17 cities to inspire people to fulfill their career break and long-term travel dreams. The event will offer participants the opportunity to MEET inspirational speakers and like-minded travelers; get motivation, contacts and resources necessary to PLAN the trip of a lifetime; and start taking concrete steps forward to GO on that global adventure. Meet, Plan, Go! is a nationwide event created to inspire and encourage Americans to take a career break, a sabbatical, or just to go out and travel for an extended time. The idea being, that taking time in your life to explore and live in another country and culture is not a career breaker but a career and life enhancer!

Tickets are on sale now! Limited space available so reserve your tickets today!

Go check out the facebook page we’ve created for the New Orleans group, and if you’re not in the Big Easy check out an event close by!

We have some amazing panelists gathered for this event, let me introduce them to you!

Meet our Panelists!

Kelly Lewis: Founder of Go! Girl Guides, Kelly is a writer, a dreamer and an avid traveler. Originally from Hawaii, Kelly lived in New Zealand for a year before traversing through South America and the South Pacific. After a prophetic dream in late 2010, she started Go! Girl Guides, the world’s first series of travel guidebooks made just for solo female travelers. Go! Girl Guides: Thailand debuts this fall.

http://www.gogirlguides.com

Twitter: @gogirlguides

FB: facebook.com/gogirlguides

Kirsten Alana: is driven by an intense wanderlust, never feeling more at home than when boarding a plane or living out of a suitcase. She is addicted to the butterflies that occur right before an unknown, becomes known!

It wasn’t always like that, at 28 during bitter divorce proceedings, she decided she would change her life for the better and follow her wanderlust wherever the wind blew. More than a year of traveling has taken her to Mexico, France, the Bahamas, Argentina, Uruguay, western Canada and a dozen US states. A career and life break has helped her grow and sharpened her focus. Now, she plans to make a home in NYC where flights are easy to catch and the wind is very multi-cultural. She writes and shares her photographs at “Aviators and a Camera” hoping to inspire others to realize how important travel is to a well-rounded life.

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Our Eureka Moment

A few weeks ago Alyson and I had an unique and amazing opportunity. The chance to view our city of New Orleans from aboard the world’s largest airship.

The Farmer’s Airship

The Farmers Airship Eureka is a 246 foot Zeppelin owned and operated by Airship Ventures of California. It is the only commercial passenger airship in the United States, and one of only two Zeppelins flying in the world.

Awaiting Take off