We're Jazzed You're Here! NATA 2011 New Orleans! (Part 1)

As a teen growing up I became obsessed with the idea that when I turned 21 I was going to celebrate it New Orleans style and head on down to bayou and partake in some Mardi Gras!                              

That never happened .

Fast forward 6 years and now at 27 I have made the trip to New Orleans!

NATA 2011!

The national athletic trainers association convention happens every year around the end of June and is a gathering of great minds that share lots of knowledge of the field. This years location:               

New Orleans!!!

 

"We're Jazzed You're Here!"

The convention started Sunday June 20th but Randy and I arrived Monday the 21st because we were celebrating Rachel and Casey's wedding.

We checked into our hotel, changed and headed to the convention center to check in and get our stuff and check out the exhibit hall.

We grabbed out first meal of red beans and rice and poboys at "Ernst's" restaurant and then headed to the hotel to shower off the sweat from the New Orleans heat and get ready for the WUAT alumni party.

Fact: It's hot in New Orelans in the summer! I ended up taking 2 showers most days while we where there.

I helped this year with the planning of the party so I was sort of stressed in the beginning but once it kicked off and everyone enjoyed themselves, I no longer had to worry.

With KMann, LA and Marianna

Class of 2007 (The greatest class, ever.)

WUAT Alumni!

Afterwards we headed to Bourbon street. It was loud, bright, smelly and interesting. I'm glad I waited to come until now, really. We checked out the "Cat's Meow" karaoke bar and watched Katherine sing "Jump around" (Oh yes she did) and then I dragged my feet and sang "Don't go breaking my heart" with her. I was terrible, she was great. It was fun to say the least.

Bourbon St.

Oh yes she did

And then I sang with her

Tuesday morning I met up with Katherine to take in more of the convention and Randy stayed back to work on his presentation. We took in more of the vendors, and sat in on some lectures. I met Randy for a late lunch on the river walk and we headed to see the keynote speaker, Mr. Archie Manning, the father of the all mighty Payton Manning and little brother Eli Manning. The speech was good but he kept referring to Athletic Trainers as "Trainers" which the NATA has been trying to shoo away from for the past 3 or 4 years. His speech mainly pertained to achieving greatness and being ready to face ups and downs through leadership (I don't see how this pertains to athletic training, at all) but it was neat to see him speak but if you didn't make it, you really didn't miss out on anything.

Tug boat chugging up the Mississippi

Huge boat chugging up the Mississippi

Archie Manning

Tuesday night Randy and I found the "The Garden Market restaurant" which had a fabulous patio. We had gator tail and craw fish and listened to the fantastic jazz band they had.

Side note: a lot of the sidewalks are made of slate which become very slippery when they are wet which was most nights due to the evening storms that rolled through. I almost sprained my ankle several times or nearly fell on my butt. I made the comment that they should posts signs somewhere. Then on the walk to meet katherine we found the sign on the sidewalk however, it was for the train tracks. Really?

We met up with Katherine at Lafrittes Blacksmith Shop which apparently is the oldest active bar in the U.S. It was very dark but really cool to check out. We stayed for a drink and then headed back up to Bourbon street and went to Razoo's where we met up with Jackie and some of Katherine's friends and called it a night.

Eaten craw fish

New Orleans at Night

"Slipper when wet" FOR THE TRACKS!

Lafrittes Blacksmith Shop

Inside

We finally saw Jackie!

Wednesday morning we headed out to the Cafe' Du Monde for Biegnets and Coffee.

Quick fact: It's the original coffee stand in the french market, it's open 24 hours a day and it only serves coffee and biegnets. Also they only take cash, we had to borrow 3 dollars from Katherine because we forgot about that little fact (oppss) thanks Katherine! 

We looked around for a table to open up because it's open seating, first come first serve and Stefani, Katherine's friend found two tables together and we were able to get seating for everyone. The coffee was hot and good, the biegnets were hot, fresh and had lots of powder sugar and totally worth it!

Katherine wanted to take pictures and Randy being Randy decided to have fun with it, so we did "Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil" and confused Katherine in the process. It was classic and made for a good laugh.

Clearly she's confused

After 2 minutes of explaining, we got it 

Me and Randy

SO good

Of course she would need a bib

That afternoon Randy presented at NATA and for a Wednesday on the last day of the convention had a fairly good crowd. I have never see him present so it was really great to see him do his thing. Needless to say he nailed it and got great questions and everyone seemed please with his information. I enjoyed it.

For dinner we went to a local place called "Bootleggers" and got the "Juicy Lucy" burger which is simply a hamburger with cheese grilled in the middle as opposed to placing it on top of the burger and it was FANTASTIC! I didn't actually take a picture of it but this picture should explain it. (Thanks google)

This was not the burger we had, ours was about 8 times larger BUT you get the point

We had originally planned to meet up with Jackie, Mckelle and Rachel from Campbell but it started to storm, so Randy and I called it night, it was good idea because I was too full from the burger so sleep and TV was a good call.

Stayed tuned for part two of our adventures. There's MORE to come!