<p>OK… I posted a Visit Report on the Campus Vibe page of CC, but I’ll also post the more detailed report here:</p>
<p>Arrived Wednesday evening 1/16. Flew from White Plains through Charlotte. Next time will fly direct from LGA even though it’s farther from our house. The connection was tight and the gate was SO FAR…not fun.</p>
<p>Stayed at the Hampton Inn St. Charles. Taxi is $33 flat rate from the airport before tip.Took about 25 minutes to get to the hotel. </p>
<p>Hotel is very nice, not ‘upscale’ but not cheesy either. Bed and bedding were great. My son slept on the sleep sofa and was comfortable. Room faced St. Charles St. and it was not noisy. Breakfast is crappy though, so skip that. Go instead to Coulis which is right around the corner. (took us 2 days to figure that out). No mini bar in the room but there’s a mini fridge and microwave.</p>
<p>First night we ate at Superior Grill which is Tex Mex and right next door to the hotel. Decent, fun place and lots of students were eating there. </p>
<p>On Thursday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel (blech) and then took the streetcar to Tulane. $1.25 each way or $3 gets you a day pass. Went directly to Boggs (Science & Engineering Building) where my son sat in on Intermediate Biochemistry/Metabolism. While he did that, I talked to random students all of whom were happy to talk to me and all of whom LOVE the school. </p>
<p>Our plan had been to tour Loyola after that class, but when my son came out he said he loved it, didn’t want to go to Loyola, and that was that. There were only 11 kids in the class, btw.</p>
<p>After that, we went to talk to Hannah Udell, his admissions rep, for a little while. Then we walked to Camellia’s for lunch on Carrollton. That was amazing. I had an omelette that was the fluffiest thing I’ve ever eating in my life. My son had the catfish po’boy. Loved it.</p>
<p>Took the streetcar back to the hotel where we went online and submitted his deposit.</p>
<p>That night we took a cab to the French Quarter to Ralph & Kacoo’s. He loved it, I thought it was just ok. The service was great though. (the streetcar is under construction and not running all the way to the Quarter, so that was the only night we went there).</p>
<p>On Friday morning we walked over to New Orleans Coffee and Beignet on St. Charles for breakfast and then walked to the school. (It’s about 2 miles). The sidewalks are very bumpy due to tree roots, but I’m used to that, having grown up in Brooklyn.</p>
<p>We met F2F with his financial advisor which was very valuable because we have a unique situation with finances. She (Andrea Nolan) was great. Then we took the tour. First Jeff gave a 1/2 hour talk with a 9 minute video, all of which was interesting and entertaining. Then we took the tour with a guide named Phil who was pretty well-informed and fun. (I say “pretty well-informed” because on all these school tours the kids tend to say “Oh, and that’s the science building but I don’t know anything about that. Haha.” Maybe they can be trained to talk about disciplines other than their own majors? Just a thought.) Anyway my son, who was saying he ‘didn’t need the tour’, really enjoyed it. Loved the Reilly Center and he’s not even a sports guy. </p>
<p>He showed us a room in Paterson which was a very good sized freshman dorm room. I’d say overall the tour was one of the most comprehensive we’d been on. About 90 minutes covering the entire campus.</p>
<p>Took the streetcar directly to Jacques-Imo’s Cafe also in the Carrollton St. area as we were told it opens at 5pm and if you don’t get there early, you wait forever for a table. Well, we got there early, sat right away, but the food kind of sucked. The place is very cute and the menu is interesting, but not well-executed. On the upside, I loved the art of Jamie Hayes that is hanging in the restaurant (and he has a small store on the street) and I ordered some of his prints online as well as a voodoo doll keychain.</p>
<p>Saturday morning we ate at Coulis around the corner from the hotel. Delicious. I had a simple dish of 2 eggs and a biscuit and it was amazing. My son had the bagel and lox and loved it so much he ordered a second one. We were going to go on the City/Cemetery Cajun Encounters tour but I didn’t feel well so we cancelled (they gave us a full refund). Once I felt better we took the bus (streetcars were not running) to Audobon Park and walked to the zoo. </p>
<p>The zoo was fun, but be forewarned…we bought a combo admission pass for the zoo, butterfly exhibit, insectarium and IMAX… no one told us that the butterfly/insects and IMAX are in two other locations, not at the zoo itself! We ended up giving those tickets away as we could never have made it there before closing that day. </p>
<p>Again we got to talk to more students in the park, and when we took the bus back to the hotel it was packed with kids going to the parade. We were going to do it too, but we were wiped out. We walked a LOT every day.</p>
<p>That night we ate at Superior Seafood which is about 7 blocks from the hotel. Walked there and back…the weather was lovely. Food was good and it was convenient. </p>
<p>Next time I’d hope to go to more of the ‘foodie’ type places in the city…like Nola, etc.</p>
<p>Sunday morning we left for the airport at 8:30am (hotel arranged the cab the night before) and were there by 9.</p>
<p>Overall, a very successful trip! My son has submitted his housing request (Paterson/Sharp), joined the FB page and now we’ll wait for March 1st when we can schedule the orientation.</p>
<p>Oh, and we dropped about $250 in the bookstore on t-shirts and sweatshirts and the all-important car decal. ;)</p>
<p>Seems like only yesterday we were sweating it out checking Gibson!!!</p>
<p>(Cheer…I was wearing a grey knitted beret and dark brown hoodie with “13” on the back. My son was in a grey hoodie and jeans. We were toward the front of the tour group.)</p>