Chrsitmas Getaways Part 2

We continue with interesting places to spend the Christmas holidays....

Key West, FL
Good cheer and warm temperatures are typically Key West’s winning attributes, and Christmas is no exception. The trimmed palm trees, done-up historic inns (tours Dec. 11, 12, 18, and 19), and four festooned blocks of boats along the historic waterfront (the “Bight Before Christmas”) only amplify the town’s merriment.

Where to Stay: Just off bustling Duval Street, the boutique Marquesa Hotel is an oasis of chill: three historic buildings and one new one sharing a leafy courtyard with two pools. On Christmas morning, they serve a buffet breakfast poolside. Doubles from $345.

And for Holiday dinner....Nine One Five, housed in a 1906 Victorian manse, has a holiday menu that mixes tapas (bacon-wrapped dates; duck liver pâté) with entrées such as Soul Mama seafood soup and mushroom risotto.

Shopping: Bésame Mucho is your best bet for sensual gifts like perfume or handwoven shopping bags made from palm fronds. Despite its moniker, local department store Fast Buck Freddie’s stocks tasteful—and sometimes whimsical—housewares and clothing.

Quebec City:
Lit-up cobblestone streets, 16th- and 17th-century stone houses, and lots and lots of snow make Quebec’s 400-year-old walled city an atmospheric and European-like place to be at Christmas. Quebec’s good cheer and great food could make you remember you love winter after all.

Where to Stay: Housed in former 19th-century stone warehouse in Vieux-Port, Auberge St. Antoine stands out for the perfection with which it juxtaposes old and new. Soaring ceilings and cast-iron beams are complemented with such amenities as heated stone floors, and artifacts unearthed during its renovation are on display throughout. Doubles from $209.

Holiday Dinner: Serving traditional Québécois cuisine based on 17th-century French recipes, Aux Anciens Canadiens is offering its main menu on Christmas Day from 5 p.m. Appetizer highlights include foie gras au torchon on a baguette and scallops and prawns in a white-wine sauce, while entrées run the gamut from a vegetable terrine to filet mignon of wild caribou. (Prix fixe $36-$79, depending on the main course, or à la carte.)

Stocking Stuffers: Step back in time with a visit to Maison Jean-Alfred Moisan grocery, a 140-year-old Vieille Quebec mainstay. For Québécois clothes, try La Maison Simons department store, and for hand-wrought ceramics, Boutique Pauline Pelletier is a good bet.

Trømso, Norway
The snowy city island of Trømso offers unparalleled views of the northern lights and a chance to say you’ve been to the North Pole—well, the Arctic Circle, anyway—for Christmas. Plus, there’s dogsledding, great food, and a mountaintop cable car. Here, “day” is just a couple hours of twilight blue.

Where to Stay: Most hotels shut down for the holiday, but not the Clarion Hotel Bryggen, right on the harbor. The great views of Trømso Sound are best seen from the roof’s steamy Jacuzzi. Doubles from $194.

For holiday dinner, stay put at the Clarion for a traditional Norwegian Christmas dinner at its restaurant, Astro. The chef will serve pinnekjøtt, cured lamb ribs, served with puréed rutabaga and boiled potatoes; and ribbe, a crispy version of spareribs, accompanied by Christmas sausage, apples, prunes, and red cabbage.

Shopping: Norwegian chain Husfliden is the place to go for traditional clothing, including bunads (the Norwegian national costume) and handwoven sweaters. Blåst, a glassblowing studio, sells the wares of its three resident artists.


Suzanne Brevelle is from Lafayette and works at Avenues To Travel. You can contact her via email Suzanne@avenues2travel.com or telephone 337-231-5656. She is a Certified Specialist for Sandal’s and Beaches Resorts as well as Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Hawaii. Her specialty is couples and family vacations, groups, honeymoons and corporate travel.

Keep Blanking That Chicken Redux

In yet another tribute to futility and ignorance, the champions of all things futile and ignorant, Da Klan, is staging a march (really just a casual get together of like minded fellowship....who happen to share a bloody, racist history of hate and domestic terrorism) in Oxford, MS today at the Ole Miss-LSU game. And what pray tell has their sheets all in a wad? Seems the Ole Miss band has a tradition of playing From Dixie With Love at their football games. At the end of the song, there is an en mass shout of "the South shall rise again" from the student section. In a story for the LSU Daily Reveille, Xerxes A. Wilson, (lawd, you know Xerxes got teased as a child with that name) reported:

the controversy began last month when the Ole Miss Associated Student Body passed a resolution in favor of discontinuing chanting “the South will rise again” to replace it with “to hell with LSU.” The resolution was never fully enacted because it was not signed by the proper officials after passing the senate, said Peyton Beard, Ole Miss Associated Student Body director of athletics.

But, you know, students at a college football game don't like to be told what to do, and they like to drink a lot. So, they kept shouting the retort at the end of the song. Not a big deal really, but it seems Da Klan is a sensitive bunch (ironic huh?) and they want the kids to be able to keep shouting. Whatever! Maybe they just like to dress up in their money costumes and parade around. Who doesn't like a parade, remember this post? It's a Southern thing!
Read the Reveille story here. And ponder this quote by Shane Tate the "grand titan" (it's his real title) of the he-man haters club:

“We aren’t coming there to cause problems or cause trouble,” Tate said. “Trouble has already been caused by a handful at Ole Miss, including the black student body president, who wants to shape Ole Miss into yet another liberal sodomite college.”

Grammar much? Over-react much?

Photo by dklimke

Christmas Getaways Part 1

Hard to believe but there are only 34 shopping days left until Christmas. Wouldn't it be great to spend the holiday traveling to a new place. Here are some destinations that do Christmas right:

Taos, New Mexico
This remote village on a high desert plain is especially magical at Christmas, thanks to its rich mix of cultural traditions. Not to miss: historic Ledoux Street all lit up with luminarias; the ceremonial reenactments of Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, called posadas; and the dramatic American Indian Christmas Eve celebration that takes over the main square in Taos Pueblo. Plus, you can ski all day long on Christmas Day at Taos Ski Resort, 18 miles away.

Best Place to Stay: Near the town square, El Monte Sagrado Living Resort and Spa features objects from around the world culture in its spare, elegant rooms. Book a room with a fireplace to up the cozy factor. Doubles from $309. Have Christmas dinner on twinkling Ledoux Street, at the seven-table hideaway Byzantium, with dishes like shrimp ceviche and grilled pork scaloppine with apple, cabbage, and mustard-seed compote. Reservations are a must.


Chicago
The Windy City embraces yuletide cheer to the max, with a million holiday lights along bustling Magnificent Mile; Christkindlmarket, a huge outdoor German crafts market with beer and fare like sausages to stoke your fire; a towering handmade Christmas tree; and Navy Pier’s Winter WonderFest, a holiday-themed amusement park and indoor skating rink.

Where to Stay: Peppy, tropical-themed Hotel Monaco Chicago is a Kimpton boutique hotel with verve and a sense of humor. Its wild combo of lime and plum is eye-popping, and there’s a free social hour with wine and nibbles from 5 to 6 p.m. daily. And, it’s in The Loop. Doubles from $129.

Holiday Dinner: Cozy wine-driven eatery the Cellar at Bin 36 is serving its creative, locally sourced menu ($110) from 5 p.m. on Christmas Day. Starter highlights like semolina-crusted soft-shell crab and Applewood smoked bacon sausage are followed by the likes of a star-anise duck-leg confit with crispy potato Rösti, grilled Angus New York strip steak with truffled celery purée, and wild-mushroom and Gruyère cannelloni. Expert wine pairings are, of course, de rigueur.

Stocking Stuffers: The Chicago Architecture Foundation Shop is a must for Chicago-centric fare like Frank Lloyd Wright notecards, Lego sets of iconic buildings, or a round Chicago-sewer doormat.


Suzanne Brevelle is from Lafayette and works at Avenues To Travel. You can contact her via email Suzanne@avenues2travel.com or telephone 337-231-5656. She is a Certified Specialist for Sandal’s and Beaches Resorts as well as Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Hawaii. Her specialty is couples and family vacations, groups, honeymoons and corporate travel.

Let's Take A Hayride Baby!

Sadly, this young singer drifted off into obscurity after this landmark performance on The Louisiana Hayride radio show in 1954. We'll never know if his experimental "rock and roll" music would garner a wider national audience, or remain a regional phenomenon. Now pass me a Lucky Strike, and let's start the ding dang weekend!

Help Your Neighbors Help Themselves

Leslie Turk, of The Independent, wrote an excellent piece about Acadiana Outreach Center's big Palates and Pate' fundraiser being held tomorrow night at the Cajundome Convention Center. It's the kind of article we here at The Daily Meaux would have liked to have written. Especially, since having been kicked to the curb by the faceless, souless, corporate machine, fully one half of the Meaux staff (the better half) now works for Acadiana Outreach. The other half washes dogs for a living and day dreams about having once been a minor local rock star.

Be that as it may, Turk, a real journalist (unlike us here at TDM) knows where to put her apostrophes and knows a good organization when she sees one. Her article points out the importance of the work being done by the Acadiana Outreach Center, and the need for the community to help support their efforts. Indeed, Turk points out that area contributions are matched by federal funds thus far bringing in $11.4 million to the area since the fundraiser's inception in 2001. That's a lot of millions y'all, going to help our fellow residents here in Acadiana. About 30 percent of Acadiana Outreach Center’s operating budget is funded by Palates & Paté, with donations used as matching funds to draw federal dollars into our community. For more information on the center’s work and programs, click here. Below is a glimpse into the Outreach Center’s work since Palates and Pate was launched nine years ago:
From the article:

Increased clients served by 380 percent:
• Provided 10,884 low-income adults and 2,450 children with case management, rental assistance and other stabilizing services
• Opened the Lighthouse Women’s & Children’s shelter, helping 810 women and 378 children since 2004
• Graduated 100+ clients from addictions recovery to live fulfilling and independent lives

Significant economic and community impact:
• Reinvested funds in employing people, providing services to help clients become tax-paying residents, paying rents to local landlords, and purchasing from local businesses
• Shifted from providing shelter to addressing root causes of addiction and lack of safe, affordable housing

Transitioned from a traditional charity solely dependent on donations to a social enterprise:
• Provided market-based solution by launching a 90-bed behavioral health center helping Louisiana residents of all backgrounds overcome addiction and mental illness (December 2009)
• Catalyzing $25 million in mixed-income housing development (2009-2011)
• Secured U.S. Congressional seed funding for urban revitalization model (2007, 2009)

For more information or to purchase tickets, call 237-7618. Tickets will also be sold at the door.

More of Turk's story here.

Image is Steve Schneider's "Belle Fields", which will be auctioned off at the gala.

Hey Look At Us

The Milken Institute, a non-partisan think tank, recently released it's annual list of 'Best Places to Find a Job' and while Texas accounted for many of the top 5, Lafayette ended up the #9th best city in the nation to find a job (up from #14 from last years list). That is, unless you've recently looked for one, then you may have a different perspective, but here's the list anyway:

1. Austin-Round Rock, TX
2. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX
3. Salt Lake City, UT
4. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
5. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
6. Durham, NC
7. Olympia, WA
8. Huntsville, AL
9. Lafayette, LA
10. Raleigh-Cary, NC

Slide show and more here on HuffingtonPost.com. Thanks Mothy for the submission.

Teche Clean-Up This Sunday

Coming off of a successful fundraiser at Cafe des Amis where Cajuns for Bayou Teche raised $1,600, the group is organizing it's next move; a clean-up on Bayou Teche slated for this Sunday, November 15th from noon until 4pm. Volunteers with motor boats are needed. Kayaks and canoes are encouraged to come out, as well. Supporters who do not have a boat are invited to the pavilion to join in a gumbo and to show their appreciation for the clean-up effort. Hebert's Superette on Grand Pointe Highway will be donating everything for the gumbo and Furman Guillory and Richard Burgess will lend their culinary expertise to feed volunteers and supporters.

The Kiwanis Club of Breaux Bridge, Keep St. Martin Beautiful and Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development have partnered with Cajuns for Bayou Teche and the St. Martin Sheriff, Ronnie Theriot and St. Landry Parish Sheriff, Bobby Guidroz have sent out crews to work on the bayou with Blake Couvillion and volunteers since the clean-up efforts began in May, 2009.

"This is a new day for Bayou Teche," says Kristen Kordecki, watershed coordinator from Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development. "Our communities along the Teche know we need to address non-point source pollution and water quality in the Teche if we want to improve fishing opportunities and habitat in the Teche. Cajuns for Bayou Teche has started us off on the right foot by first helping get trash and debris out of the waterway, which is no small task. Now is time for us to look at erosion and run-off from our urban, residential and agriculture areas into the Teche and see what we can do to help slow that down. We are all in this together and Cajuns for Bayou Teche has showed leadership in addressing some of the issues at hand."

Blake Couvillion, director of Cajuns for Bayou Teche and president of the TECHE Project says, "It will take a while to pull refrigerators, hot water heaters, and all the other junk people throw in the bayou, not to mention the log jams. And that's just from Port Barre to Keystone Lock and Dam!" He also said, "This is our heritage, our history, the story we will tell our children of how so many of us came to this land. We used to be able to fish out of there for our meals. We need to treat it with the respect it deserves and stop using it as a back ally to dump our junk and throw our used motor oil."

Cajuns for Bayou Teche will be out with their boat, the "St. Michael" and invites the community to join in the clean up effort or to enjoy some home-cooked gumbo and cheer on the volunteers!

Photo by Natalie Maynor

Landreth on NPR

Sonny Landreth made his 7th appearance on the Mountain Stage music series and NPR was there to broadcast the performance. Click here to hear Sonny's set of 4 songs off his recent release, From the Reach.

Photo by: ceedub13

Hold Up...We EAT Those!

This is a sad story...especially since it's been a few months since we've been able to enjoy the delicacy that is boiled crawfish but today's story is out of Germantown, WI and apparently they think having a pond full of Louisiana "Crayfish" is a bad thing. So bad in fact, that they POURED 4000 GALLONS of BLEACH in the pond to kill the mudbugs. They said the crustaceans were everywhere and are bigger than what they are used to seeing. The kids were frightened because they described having 'lobsters all over the backyard.' I know....painful to think about, but they did. WISN.com has the full story here.

Photo by trentroche

Whoop I'm 'Bout To Sit Down

OK, lets trip the light nostalgic shall we? The year 1980 (or around there), long haired hippie Meaux ventures out to New Orleans to see The Clash at the Warehouse. Culture shock awaits our young protagonist in the form of Punk Rock and all it's fashion and rituals. Heretofore, my punk rock experience had consisted of merely listening to my coveted records and fermenting my teenage angst. I can still whip up a pretty good mess of irrational anger (after proper stretching, of course) so back off man!

So, the only guy more out of place at this particular show was the artist opening for The Clash that night, Lee Dorsey. Resplendent in a burgundy double knit blazer, and Sansabelt white pants, Mr. Dorsey was met with a sea of upheld bird fingers flung with blissful ignorance by an audience that didn't deserve to witness his talents. Still, it was pretty dang fun. He closed with this number, and never let the young cretins in the audience get to him, or affect his performance. He was a Professional. Plus, even though he was already suffering the affects of the emphysema that was to take his life in 1986, I got the sense he could have easily kicked the ass of each of those youngins out there taunting him that night.
It's TGIThursday! Happy weekend everybody!

More Guiness World Records for Louisiana

1895....that's the year that Maggie May Renfro Thornton was born and her 114 years of life make her the oldest living African-American person in the nation according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It also makes her the 4th oldest person in the nation and 7th oldest in the world. Believe it or not, Thornton also has 2 living siblings ages 103 and 107 and only recently did Thornton's daughter move in with her to help her with household chores...including cooking her favorite breakfast of grits and sausage, which she eats every day. The Minden, Louisiana siblings' stories are being documented by the Board of Cultural Crossover and NBC's The Trio website has a full story and video here. Rock on Maggie May!

Wild West Coming to Southside

Watch out Logan's, Texas Roadhouse and the old defunct steakhouse by the mall who's name escapes me....there's a new sheriff coming to town....LongHorn Steakhouse is starting construction on their new $1.135 million, 5500+ square foot restaurant. From their website it looks to be typical chain steakhouse fare: Steaks, Salads, and of course their version of the blooming onion, The Texas Tonion. According to the LongHorn website: (see how many times they say 'West')

When you come into LongHorn Steakhouse, you're paying a visit to the West. The authentic West. The West of loyalty, hospitality, and of course, real good food.

At LongHorn, we work to capture the flavor and the fun of the West in our restaurants. That's why we serve the highest quality food and serve it up with a big helping of Western hospitality. Our steaks are hand-cut, hand-seasoned and carefully prepared. Our burgers are thick and juicy, our salads freshly made. So no matter what you're in the mood for, we have the delicious, legendary Western fare to match your appetite and the genuine service to boot.

The new steakhouse will be located on Ambassador Caffery by the Academy Sports & Outdoors store.

Photo by cyberdees