I did a lot of walking long distances and paying for cabs while I was there. Public transit didn't cut it.

They actually have three street car lines now: St. Charles (very convenient for going out to the Garden District, Tulane/Riverbend and the Zoo), Canal Street (just opened, but good for North/South) and the short one along the river (good for getting to the Arts Warehouse district). If you're mostly in the Quarter/Marigny/Garden District you can get around well with walking/cabs/Public Transit.

We could charter a train for a wine tasting; and/or a boat for a tour of the river.

Wow, that sounds like so much fun!

We could hold the prom in the hotel, on a yacht, at the botanical gardens.

Ok, now I really want to dress up in something amazing and floating and dance among the flowers.

hairy armadillos What?! That's bizarre.

We could take a tour of the cemetary where Garfield was buried I know you don't mean the cat, but...how hilarious would a Garfield mausoleum be? (I guess it would have to be a MOUSEoleum...)

Visit Sephora or tour a chocolate factory

God, my perfect day: ODing on makeup, choolate and wine.

Nicole, any time baby. You're always welcome!

Hee! I knew I should have said President Garfield.

I just thought of a cool place for the prom. Not far from my house is a gorgeous park on the lakefront. It's got what they call the rotunda, but would be more like what I'd call a clubhouse. It's a very pretty circular building with a big stone fireplace, a kitchen, a huge wooden deck with steps down to the grass and trees leading off to the lake. I seriously doubt it's very expensive to rent. We could hire a bartender and bring in our own booze, decorate it ourselves, and have a really great prom there. It's not a huge room, but it would certainly be big enough, I think.

God, my perfect day: ODing on makeup, choolate and wine.

Boy, do you need to visit the Bay Area, honey....

I think it would be so cool to have the 2006 F2F in SF. Of course, I also like the idea of Seattle, and I think Tucson would be a huge amount of fun, though I don't know if we have any Tucson locals. It would be close to Erika, though.

I don't know how we're going to pick a city this year. They all sound like they've got great things going for them.

Oh, I was thinking less about the F2F than about Erin having a stolen orgiastic weekend within three minutes of the big downtown Sephora, twenty minutes from the Scharffen Berger factory (or, for less inspiring choc, eight minutes from Ghirardelli Square), and a gorgeous 40 minutes drive up to Napa and Sonoma, aka the Wine Country.

Makeup, choc, vino.

I grew up in Tucson. It would be fab, but really, not so much in May.

If y'all are concerned about being too hot in Austin or NOLA, you don't want to face a Sonoran Desert May.

I think a fall/winter F2F would be perfect, though. Might have to watch out for the snowbirds a bit,

My concern with NOLA is less about the heat and more about preferring to go there when the raison d'etre is seeing the Big Easy as opposed to hanging out with y'all. (something I would do at a cooler time, actually)

I'm going to be with Buffistas-- a few venues for food and amusement will do the trick and can be gotten quite cheaply in a small midwestern city that's gunning for tourists and will cut you deals.

Kansas City, as an example, has a walkable downtown with plenty to do and two-for-one hotel deals that can get you a hotel room for $65 for TWO nights. It's quite driveable for the folks on the middle and those of us on the edge can get short, direct, flights for under (and sometimes well under) $300.

You can always go back just to see the city. Were flights to DC and LA not prohibitively expensive- I'd have wanted to go to the F2Fs in those places, even though I would also want to see the city and I've got friends and family there.

It's hard to get a good idea of hotel rates this far out and without factoring all the group rate deals.

My concern with NOLA is less about the heat and more about preferring to go there when the raison d'etre is seeing the Big Easy as opposed to hanging out with y'all. (something I would do at a cooler time, actually)

I'm with Trudy on this. The Big Easy is something I'll wanna do with the missus and sprog, or perhaps just the missus. It's another case of "I'd rather hang with the 'istas, but golly I'm in Nawlins, I'd be remiss if I didn't wander around and check out the blah blah blah cookies."