bordracer

its totally worth it… they have AMAZING orchids! and other tropical plants as well (lots of bromiliads (sp?))

the banana leaf apollo is a delicious indian restaurant that i think would be a good place for beginners to indian cuisine to visit – it has cuisine from north india and from south india and it is all very tasty.

we stayed at a fantastic b+b called la locanda di san francesco (my spelling is likely off…) – it was a little pricey, but totally worth it, the rooms were fantastic and the owners were great, plus there were awesome views of the tuscan hills every which way you looked, and they have a parking area (bit plus!).

I dont know if that’s exactly what its called… but I went paragliding, or some sort of thing, where you run off the side of a mountain with a parachute – already open – and then you basically float around for about 30 minutes… it was awesome! i really hate the feeling of having my stomache drop – so i’ve never wanted to go sky diving, but this is kind of like sky diving without the stomach dropping part. we floated over tiny houses and over the lakes and green hills and it was incredible!

Seriously, one of the owners, Cat Daddy, has a license to marry people. And so, late one night – the are open weird hours, my husband and I got married there – last march 2006. It was great. The marriage ceremony included 20 doughnuts, that we ate the following day whilst watching bad tv… and then by the end of the day we had total sugar hangovers. But it was totally worth it. The cap’n crunch doughnut (that i see there is a picture of on this site) is amazing!

go check out the ceiling in the lobby of the bellagio hotel – its an amazing piece of art work by dale chihuly!

eat at Dick and Jenny’s on Tchoupitoulas (cross street Napolean – uptown area)!! It is fantastic, and they have a seasonally changing menu, so there are a variety of new dishes on the menu every four months. Its a creole restaurant with an extremely creative menu. Plus the atmosphere is really nice, its like eating in the dining room of a new orleans house, and if you have to wait, there’s a great “front porch” area where you can order drinks and sit on porch swings.

I’d also recommend Domilise’s for Shrimp po-boys… It’s on Annunciation, which runs parallel to Tchoupitoulas, near the cross street of Jefferson (uptown area). Its a tiny place, but oh so good.

i grew up in los angeles and sometimes i have the idea that its actually not the greatest place to be a tourist… but i suppose all those tourists cant be wrong.. or can they?

anyways – i suggest doing an architectural tour of los angeles… go visit the ennis house (where they filmed blade runner), the schindler house (a great example of 1950’s architecture, a place you can see the interiors of), gehry’s disney hall & rafael moneo’s cathedral in downtown l.a. i think its nice to get an idea of the diversity involved in los angeles architecture when one comes to visit the city.

also i would recommend eating at house of teriyaki too in venice beach on pacific blvd – best banana pancakes out there – despite its name, its a delicious hole in the wall cheap breakfast place.