Today marks the fifth anniversary of the failure of the levee system that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Note the way that I’m phrasing that: It’s a deliberate reminder that the floodwaters that swept through huge swaths of the city came from a breakdown of man-made levees,...

“So, what’s the mood down there?” The question came from my dry cleaner, but I heard it in various ways from several people yesterday, as I told them of my weekend trip to New Orleans. The BP oil spill and the spewing pipe have become ingrained our national conscious, thanks to some...

Commander’s Palace, that venerable turquoise restaurant in New Orleans’ Garden District that’s been around since 1880, has always been one of my favorite “occasion” restaurants, in a city where people go out of their way to find reasons to celebrate, no matter what disasters...

Along with everyone else who has ever lived and loved in New Orleans, I watched the Treme premiere on HBO last night with eagerness, as well as a critical eye.  New Orleans is a famously complicated city to decode, which is merely one factor to its appeal, and there are so many colloquialisms that...

Five Reasons is a regular feature, where I outline the reasons why a destination is hot right now. If you’d like to run Five Reasons in your publication or on your website, contact me at chris@caroundtheworld.com. Today, just a day after the city’s football team the Saints defied the...

Here in snowy DC, my husband and I are counting down the hours until the Saints take on the Colts in the Super Bowl in Miami. I’m cooking in between shoveling stints – brownies just came out of the oven and jambalaya is on tap for dinner (alas, I couldn’t find Abita in the pre-blizzard...

As if New Orleans didn’t have enough reason to party during this year’s Carnival season, the Saints have made it to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. It’s the feel-good sports story of the year: I don’t care what team is normally your favorite, you can’t help...

Go Phillies! Ok, that’s what I’m saying now, as the World Series gets underway. A few weeks ago, I was rooting for the Minnesota Twins. I spent my chidhood in Minneapolis, after all, so clearly the Twins are my hometown team. But are they really?

  As journalists, my coworkers and I tend to seek out the novel and unexplored. As reporter Laura  Bly puts it, “My favorite place is the next place.” Plus I’ll never make it to the Century Club if I keep going back to the same countries and cities. That being said, there usually...

I’m still writing up the notes from my Arizona vacation, but in the meantime, I figured I’d post the final part of my “Sin Week” trip – the New Orleans segment. We came in on the Wednesday before Mardi Gras so I could ride in the Krewe of Muses parade (I’ve been a...