A day in New Orleans

A Day in New Orleans

We were leaving on a cruise from New Orleans and we only had one full day to see the sites.  We have been a few other times and didn't want to spend the entire day in the French Quarter.  Thankfully, my sister has a friend that lives in the area and sent us a list of things to consider!

1.  Our first stop was the Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery Visitor Center.  There was no charge.  This site is about 6 miles from the French Quarter.

This is the site of the January 8, 1815 Battle of New Orleans.

The 100 foot high obelisk that honors the troops of the Battle of New Orleans. There are 122 stairs to the top which has a viewing platform.

 

The boys climbed all 122 stairs to the top.

The property borders on the Mississippi River.

Malus-Beauregard House

It is also home to the Chalmette National Cemetery.  The Cemetery was established in 1864 as a final resting place for Union Soldiers who died in Louisiana during the Civil War. There are more than 14,000 headstones of Veterans of the Spanish-American War, WWI and II, and the Vietnam War.  There are four Veterans who fought in the War of 1812 buried at this site, as well.

They had a Junior Ranger program for the kids.  Even big kids are participate.

2.  Our second stop was a bit unplanned.  Someone in the car mentioned that a TV show was filmed in New Orleans and you could visit it.  I looked it up and it was less than a mile from our location.  We went to the Villalobos Rescue Center.  There was no charge to enter but it could be a long wait.  We waited in line for over an hour.  We were there just after 11am when they opened. 

If you are not familiar with the show it is about parolees getting a second chance. They come to work at the Center and help take care of the pit bulls that have been abandoned.  We were able to tour the facility and meet several dogs.  They house more dogs then just Pit bulls now.

Posing outside the facility. They were pretty excited to go on the tour.

3.  The next stop was actually listed on the internet as a place to see.  This is the Lower 9th Ward Living Museum.  Sadly it isn't much a museum but there was some interesting pictures and videos.  Looking around at all of the green space it puts into persoective what happened here.

The guide in the museum stated there were houses all around them and when the levy broke there was 22 feet of water.  Its very sad to look around and see how little is left.

4.  Our drive took us through the Lower 9th Ward.  We were able to see many of the new houses that are being built.

We also were able to see the site of the levy break.  It is very hard to imagine the destruction and death that occurred here.

5.  Central Market in the French Quarter for a Muffaletta.   They were good.  I am not a fan of olives but I got mine with the olive spread and it was good.   Very tasty.

6.  No stop to New Orleans is complete without a trip around the French Quarter.  We walked along Bourbon Street and all around the area.

We even ran into a funeral parade.

7.  The St. Charles Ave Streetcar. We weren't really sure what to expect. We got on a Canal Street and rode all the way to the end.  It was $1.25 each way.  It was about 45 minutes each way.  It was a nice ride and we were able to see a lot.  It would have been great if there would have been information about what we were seeing.

This was one of many older homes that were stunning.

Hanging out of the Streetcar checking out the view.

The Robert E. Lee Monument at Lee Circle on St. Charles Ave.

8.  After we ended the Street car ride it was dusk and we had never been on Bourbon Street in the Evening.

The kids had a ball.  People we throwing beads, there were drunk people everywhere.  It was loud and lots of fun.

9.  No trip is complete to New Orleans without a stop by St. Louis Cathedral.  It was Holy Saturday while we were there.  We were able to walk inside as they were preparing for Mass. It was stunning.

St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest Cathedral in the United States.

10.  You must have a beignet while in New Orleans.  We have been to Café Du Monde before so we decided to try the New Orleans  Famous Beignets and Coffee this time.

We loved the square beignets. They were so good.  We tried a Pig-Nay and WOW...That is all I can say. It was amazing.

New Orleans is a great place to have a Cruise port.  It is a neat city with a lot of history.  If you ever get the chance to go make sure you get out and see some of the amazing things in and around the city.

Madison, Indiana

Day Trip: Madison Indiana

 

Are you looking to get away for the day?  Madison is a jewel, almost hidden along the Ohio River, in Southeastern Indiana.  It is about an hour from Louisville and Cincinnati.

 

Plan to head up around 9am on a Monday-Saturday.  Your first stop should be the Madison Visitor's Center on 601 West First St.

 

There you can talk to the friendly staff and they can give you information about what is going on that day in the area.  You can also purchase your tickets to the Lanier Mansion at this time.  There are several racks of pamphlets to give you some ideas about other things you might want to see



 

Be sure to pick up a Visit Madison Guide.  It will give you lots of great information.  We found getting around very easy.  The streets were clearly marked and the map in the guide was easy to read.

 

First stop:  Broadway Fountain. The fountain is only 1 of 4 remaining in the world.  It was presented to Madison in 1886.   We were there in the winter and there was no water so we stepped in to get a close up of the art in the fountain.  Impressive work.  I'm sure its stunning on a warm summer day.

 

 

We completed a car tour of Indiana's Oldest Volunteer Fire Department.  They picked up a flyer at the Vistors Center that gives information about each house and Little Jimmy.  On a warmer day you could do a walking tour of the houses.  It was a bit chilly in February.

 

 

The Lanier Mansion State Historic Site.  Built in 1844 for James Lanier and his family it could easily be overlooked.   There was a small fee to get it but, we felt it was worth it.  Its about an hour tour and you are allowed to take pictures.  There are some amazing views of the Ohio River.  The house is amazing with very impressive architecture.  The guide was great, as well.  He was very knowledgeable about the property.  I don't want to ruin all the surprises so I am only sharing pictures of the stairs.  I loved the stairs.

 

Madison Railroad Station.  Unfortunately it was closed when we were there.  It is near the Visitor Center and looked like a neat place to visit

 

 

The Milton Madison Bridge.  If you are local you might recall this is the bridge that was built and then sled into place.  We didn't know you could walk across the bridge.  The Visitors Center staff let us know about this.  There is a small park at the base of the bridge to park in (free) and you can walk up and walk across.  It was a neat experience since cars are crossing the bridge along with you.  It was chilly but it was a beautiful view of the area from the middle of the bridge.   En route to the bridge you will pass the former 1884 Eagle Cotton Mill.

St. Michael the Archangel .Built between c. 1836-1839, it is the second oldest surviving Catholic Church in Indiana. It is no longer used for services and tours are only available with advanced arrangements. 

 

We spent the early afternoon walking around downtown.  There were numerous shops and we found a variety of treasures.  We are not antiquer's, but if you are there are lots of options.  We ended the day with a stop at Hinkle's Sandwich Shop.  Hinkle's has been around since 1933.  It was a fun diner style hamburger joint.  The boys had hamburgers and liked them, I had a tenderloin and it was great.  Of course we all finished off with a shake :)

 

We moved at a leisurely pace and spend from mid morning to late afternoon exploring.  This is just a glimpse of what Madison has to offer.  Clifty Falls State Park has lots of area for exploring.  Hanover College is close.  If its a great day I'd recommend a riverfront walking tour, you can get a guide at the Visitors Center. The walking guide lists 44 points of interest. There is also information about the Southeast Indiana Trail to Freedom, something we are looking at for the future.   There are several wineries in the areas, as well.  The Visit Madison Guide lists several events and when they take place.  You can access the Guide online.  There is certainly something for everyone in Madison Indiana. 

 

We give it four thumbs up, Married couple with two teenage boys.  That should say something.  Enjoy your visit.

 

References:

http://visitmadison.org/

Leadership books

What is your favorite leadership book?

I have read a lot of leadership books over the years and have liked many of them.  I am sharing a few of my favorite with you.


What is your favorite leadership book/s and why?

Hardwiring Excellence
by Quint Studer
I am a Quint Studer student.  I understand the concepts he is presenting.  I have thought of his philosophy as common sense in a book. Hardwiring Excellence offers a road map and practical how-to guide for creating and sustaining a culture of service and operational excellence. I have been to two Studer training's and I worked at a private sector facility that was a Studer Hospital and was able to participate in Leadership development programs for 2 years.  It was a great experience that has shaped the way I take care of patients and families.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Leadership Fable
by Patrick Lencioni


I read this book about 10 years ago and didn't give it another thought.  In a Leadership class in 2011 we were required to read it.  This time it grabbed my attention and pulled me right it.   I could completely relate to the story being told and was able to identify key people as my own employees.  I knew I had to make changes.  The book outlines the root causes of politics and dysfunction on the teams where you work, and the keys to overcoming them.  Outstanding book and I highly recommend it.

A December Birthday Present that turned in a Tradition.

Happy Birthday with a Merry Christmas

I was blessed with Parents that both had birthdays in December.  This always made things a challenge in terms of gifts especially as they got older.  They both said "we don't need anything" and neither cared to receive gift certificates.  Over the years I had heard so much about people going to Actors Theater for The Christmas Carol and I really wanted to go, so in 2004 I decided to get 4 tickets and invite Mom and Dad.  They loved it.  They loved it so much they said lets do something like this again next year!  That started the yearly December tradition of "the Birthday present".  Sally and her family joined on most occasions and even Johns Mom. 
The last 9 years events are listed below with some pictures

1.  The Christmas Carol at Actors Theater
2.  A Tuna Christmas at Actors Theater
3.  Joe Huber's Annual Holiday Dinner & Show
4.  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at Kentucky Center for the Arts.  Buca Di Deppo.  We ate at the table in the kitchen.  We were the only people there because there was an ice storm.  It was a lot of fun!
5.  Conner Prairie Christmas Experience and Meal.

6.  Its a Wonderful Life Radio Show at Kentucky Center for the Art
7.  Kalidescope at the Galt House

8.  Blue Christmas at Huber's
9.  The Polar Express in French Lick Indiana

10.  Rockette's Christmas Spectacular in Nashville Tennessee

Our Family

The Rockette's.  An Amazing show!

Eating at the Aquarium Restaurant in the Opry Mills Mall.  Really neat place to go. 



11. Believe a Holiday Variety Show in Nashville Indiana.  We had dinner at the Big Woods Pizza Co.  Great meal!  Spent time walking around to all the shops too. 

Dinner at Big Woods Pizza Company was so good!  The calzones were huge and delicious and the pizza was excellent too.

After the show Santa met with the kids and they were able to go on the stage where it was snowing!

12.  A cabin in Gatlinburg and Biltmore.  We Spent Thanksgiving at a cabin in Gatlinburg and then went to Christmas at Biltmore that Saturday.  We saw the Dixie Stampede and went tubing at Ober Gatlinburg.  It was an amazing trip.

Part of the family at Bitlmore

13.  We had a difficult time topping last year and finding a day that worked for everyone.  Mom is an IU fan and she was happy to be able to go to the IU vs Purdue Football game after Thanksgiving.  It was perfect weather for a game and a lot of fun.  After the game we ate at Triple XXX Family Restaurant in West Lafayette.

I have enjoyed everyone of these events.  Its fun to take a little time out on Dec to enjoy a day with the family.  As the kids have gotten older they have tagged along with us.  As much as I loved the Christmas Carol my favorite is a tie.  The Conner Prairie Christmas and the Polar Express.  at Conner Prairie you walk through 1836 Indiana at Christmas time.   You make stops at houses along the way.  It was very cold that evening and snowing which totally added to the night.  We visited a young Jewish couple who had just came to Indiana an were preparing for Hanukkah and playing with a dreidel.  Next to a Christian family that was stringing popcorn by the light of the fire.  We visited the Mayors house for his Christmas celebration.  We sang Christmas carols and looked at the food that would have been served in 1836.  We walked through other houses and seen how they were celebrating.  At the end we went inside and ate a nice meal.  he kids were young but all of them enjoyed it!  It was just a neat experience.  Then the Polar Express last year.  There were a pretty sizable snow fall the night before which cancelled the event.  I prayed ours would not be cancelled.  We survived the drive to French Lick which included a semi full of eggs wrecked and spilled all over the place!  We ate a late lunch at a winery.  We all wore pajamas and boarded the train.  I just cant explain how magical it was.  The Polar Express was read aloud as the train traveled along the snow covered area.   The elves sang and danced with everyone.  The conductor came through.  There was hot cocoa and cookies.  Finally there was Santa who gave the kids a magical bell.

Ok, maybe I love Christmas which made me enjoy all of these events, but I bet most people would enjoy them as well!  Its certainly a fun thing for our family.  

If your parents tell you they don't want anything think outside the box for something to do with them.  Regardless of the time of year there is always something to do with them.  I know a lot of parents that would love nothing more then to spend a few hours with their family doing something rather then receiving a gift they don't need.

  

Crissy Knox: 20 year Registered Nurse

20 years as a Registered Nurse.

Today marks an important day in my career.  20 years ago today I graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelors Degree in Nursing.

December 18, 1995:  Graduation from IU School of Nursing

Let me start from the beginning.  In the fourth grade I knew I was going to IU and I thought I was going to be a Doctor.  As time went on I learned I just didn't have the math skills necessary to be a doctor.  I loved health care.  I was in the 7th grade when my dad was badly burned and I wanted to be in the room when they did the dressing changes.  The nurses were concerned, but my mom knew,  she let me stay.  I became a Candy Stripper.  I enjoyed doing that and I knew Nursing was my future.  In High school, I joined the Fire Department as a Volunteer.  I loved it.  I loved learning everything.  I had no doubt about healthcare, as my career.  As soon as I turned 18 I took a CNA class and began working in a nursing home.  I will never regret that decision.  I truly believe that the 4 years I spend working in a nursing home helped me everyday as a Nurse.  I worked full-time over the summers and PRN on breaks.  I seen my first death in the nursing home and I learned I could handle it.  I was okay with cleaning a body and preparing it for the family to see.  I wasn't bothered by it as I felt like it was a noble thing to do.  The patients that died were not young or healthy.   These were people that were generally older and had lived their life and were not at a point where they often didn't even have visitors.

Me and my family on Easter 1995  They came to Indy to spend Easter morning with me then I went to work at Riley.

In nursing school I was able to work in the ER at Riley Children's Hospital as a Student Nurse.  That is where I met the first patient the truly touched my heart.  She was a young girl about 6.  She needed a heart transplant.  She was in an out of the hospital.   She was from a rural community in Indiana not too far from where I  grew up.  During one of visits to the ER her parents stepped out to meet with the Doctors and I sat in her room, with her, and we watched a Disney movie and talked.  She told me how she knew she was going to get a heart and be ok.  Eventually she did get a heart.  Thankfully, I was working the ER when she came in.  It was so exciting.   Over the next few days I checked in on her daily since the nursing school was bedside Riley. I was so excited to be able to go in and visit her when the time came.  She gave me the biggest hug and told me, she was right, she knew she would be getting a heart!   Some time later she came in for a check up and she had made this little crocheted bears that were wore over a button.  I was so proud when I found mine in my mailbox at work.  It touched my heart.  I knew Nursing was where I belonged.  I went on to graduate and took a job at Wishard so I did not hear anything about her again.  Until an odd, late summer day on the elevator in the Nursing School at IU, when I was working on my Masters Degree in 2005 .  There was a man in my masters class and we were chatting on the elevator and he was talking about how heart broken he was that a girl he grew up with had passed away.  He talked about her and then said where he was from.  I asked him if her name was that of the little girl I had taken care of.  He said yes and wanted to know how in the world I knew her.  I couldn't hold the tears when I said, well I was there the day she got her heart. It turns out she went on to complete high school and was a pretty successful athlete and went to college and at the age of 22 she passed.   Its funny that after all these years I can still remember her name and her smile.  She touched my heart.  That's what people don't know about nurses.  We carry so much in our hearts.

My dear friends at Graduation:  Karen Moore and Mickie Overman.

After graduating I stayed and worked full-time on night shift at Wishard.   I spent a year working on a med/surg floor.  It was an exciting fast paced year with many learning opportunities.  I experienced a major self pity moment on Christmas Eve 1996.  It was our first Christmas as a married couple and I had to work.  I was so upset.  I was on call and a nurse called in so I had to go in.  It was the perfect Christmas Eve, it was cold with snow on the ground and it started snowing.  Here I was sitting at work.  I started passing meds when I went into Chad's room.  Chad was a 23 year old sickle cell patient spending Christmas in the hospital.  He was laying in bed with tears in his eyes so I walked out and made 2 cups of hot chocolate an took them back to his room.  We sat on the side of his bed and watched it snow and cried together!  In those moments I realized there was something much worse then working on Christmas Eve. 

After a year, I was so excited to learn I was hired for an ER nurse position at Wishard.  It was an amazing place.  Often called the knife and gun club.   I was just a small town girl and was amazed over and over at the things people did to each other.  Mike used to say he loved picking me up on the weekends after I worked, as I would talk the whole way home about the exciting things that had occurred.  I loved the ER.

After a year we decided to move back home and I was thrilled to be going to another Level One Trauma Center.  Little did I know I would be spending the next 10 years there.  Over my 10 years at University I had two kids, build a new house, and earned a Master Degree.  I have so many amazing stories from my time there.  Some are amazing stories of survival and some are heart wrenching.  In one week I sat with a man and his children as they learned his wife, their mom had died in a car wreck, by a drunk driver and a few days later a woman and her in-laws as they learned their husband/son died in a car wreck on the way home from work.  I vividly recall the wife telling me her children's ages, both boys, the same as my two boys.  When they walked in to see his body she laid across him and said how am I supposed to tell our boys.  Without warning the tears flowed from my eyes.  It is the only time I ever cried in front of a family.  I often reserved my tears for my car ride home!  Oddly I can still remember their names, where they worked and other details about them.  I've carried these people in my heart for many years. 

May 2007:  My family at my MSN graduation from IU School of Nursing

There were so many accidents involving teenagers. I could literally write a book.  One teenage girl and her family remained especially near to my heart and little did I know our paths would cross again one day!  It was an early morning and we were getting a teenage girl from a car wreck.  I called her parents and when they arrived her mom was still wearing pajamas.  I watched as her heart broke over and over.  Eventually they left the ER and went home.  I often thought about her when I travelled the path where the wreck occurred.  A sign went up with her name on it.  A few years later the intersection where the wreck occurred had a stoplight placed.  She once again crossed my mind.  Years later I was in a meeting and this lady was introducing herself and she said her daughter had died in a car wreck and immediately I knew who it was.  I told her I was the nurse that took care of her daughter and that I actually knew who the driver of the other car was.  She had a lot of questions about him and wanted him to know she never blamed him and so on.   I left that night overwhelmed at how connected we all really are.  I still think of her when I stop at the stoplight.

The deaths of kids is always the hardest.  To many people, the nurses are just a blip in the course of an event.  To many nurses, the patient and the family touched us more then you know.  Sometimes I shared your story (never your name) to help encourage other teens.  Sometimes I cried all the way home.  Many times I prayed for you.  These patients and family may have only crossed my path for a short time but I promise you left your footprints on my heart.   I represent the majority of nurses when I tell you I truly cared for your loved on in their time of need.  I provided great care and I cared about them.  Being a nurse for me is a calling, and a true passion

After leaving University I landed in a great job where I am able to help patients on another level.  I've been blessed to spend 8 years in this job.  I still have a good 20 years left in nursing.

For me I'm a nurse 24/7.  I may not be at the beside now but I enjoy getting phone calls, texts, pictures, etc. from friends and family.  I never mind getting asked questions.  I don't know everything but I will give you the best advice I can.  I enjoy being a nurse.  I am forever grateful for parents who made us believe anything was possible and for a mom that helped me make it though four years of college to become the 20 year registered nurse I am today.