I’m back as promised with my top four favorite spots in Shreveport. It is hard when you live somewhere to really appreciate the great things about it – it is even harder when this place is Shreveport, LA. I feel like everyone complains about how lame Shreveport is but really it wasn’t a bad place to grow up. It is a bit stifling and yes, you get death stares if you mention that you aren’t in church every Sunday (or um … ever), but there are lots of great things about it too. A few of my favorites:

The Robinson Film Center

In Boston, you can find any film you want playing somewhere close by. Before the Robinson Shreveporters did not have that luxury. There are good artsy theaters and there are horrible artsy theaters – the Robinson definitely falls into the former category. There is a great bistro with amazing food and cocktails, and you can bring your cocktails into the theater. They show all sorts of new independent films and occasionally throw back some classics as well.

Glenwood Village TeaRoom

The incredibly creepy photo they have on their website.

Clearly someone is trying to make up for the classiness of the drive-through daiquiris by planting a successful British tearoom in town. I have been going to this place since I was a toddler, first with my grandmother, then with anyone who would come with me, then when she moved back to town with Moddie. It makes you feel incredibly classy to drink tea out of delicate china cups and pay absurd amounts of money for tiny tea sandwiches. Plus their food is delicious.

Betty Virginia/Highland Park

Betty Virginia is a classic and for good reason – it is such a beautiful area. I have had tons of picnics here and usually it is not too crowded (unless there is a school group but that is a story for another day). I like Highland Park because it is a little bit out of the way. This is where they have the Highland Blues Festival (Jazz Festival?) every year.

Columbia Cafe 

One of the hidden gems of Shreveport-Bossier, I think. This looks incredibly unassuming from the outside but it is such a quiet, cozy place to hang out. I used to study there in college but they have delicious food as well. The menu is always changing so you never get bored.

What is your favorite place in Shreveport-Bossier? Is there somewhere I missed? Is there a city you want me to cover next? I’d love to hear!

You all know how I feel about the Best Western Tria, or as I like to call it, the Oasis, but I have not shared any other favorite spots around Boston. The plight of the graduate student, or any student but especially graduate students, is that we are too busy (and broke!) to enjoy our surroundings much. Not to say that I never go anywhere, because I do, but most weekends are spent running errands, doing chores, and writing papers than galavanting around this amazing city.

Karma

This photo is from their website. I am fairly certain that is an eco-friendly rowing machine and it is making me crack up laughing.

Where else can you get so many things all in one place? This little nook in Harvard Square offers cozy chairs, a million different varieties of tea, take-out Thai food and surprisingly delicious vegan desserts. That alone would be enough reason to come, but they also have yoga, a full gym, and massages. It is quiet but not too quiet and never crowded. If I have an hour or two between classes, this is often where I go.

Concord 

So this is a city and it isn’t technically in Boston but it is right outside! If you are into history at all Concord is the place to be. I have been a few times and I still want to go back. Henry David Thoreau’s cabin is located at Walden Pond (where he wrote Walden) which is beautiful in its own right. This is where the Southern Gentleman and I wandered around in the snowy woods like a Robert Frost poem for a good two hours. Concord also hosts Revolutionary War cemeteries and sites, Louisa May Alcott’s house, Emerson’s house, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house. You can also eat delicious Chinese food at Chang An.

Clink 

The Liberty Hotel, which houses Clink, is awesome in its own right. It used to be the jailhouse but now is a boutique hotel. Going along with that theme is Clink. The cocktails are original, the food is divine, and they have a cheese plate worth going for alone. I’ve only been for dinner but from what I hear the bar scene is great here as well.

Schlesinger Library 

Admittedly I am biased, because I have the honor of working here. Schlesinger Library is the premier library on the history of American women. Maybe that doesn’t sound so exciting, but it is open to the public (or at least any halfway serious inquirers) and houses the collections of every major notable woman and women’s organization. Betty Friedan’s personal papers? We have them. Susan B. Anthony’s? Have them. You can look through Alice Paul’s journal from her freshman year of college or the very cookbook Julia Child cooked out of (it even has her signature). Amazing.

I’d love to know your favorite spots around Boston, or wherever you live! Do you have a lot of local hangouts or are you committed to one place? And up next, I’ll be showcasing my favorite Shreveport spots. xoxo 

When I was growing up, I could never imagine my family as any other way then we were at that moment. I don’t mean this in a Peter Pan, never grow up kind of way, but I always pictured us as just six. We have so many inside jokes, such strict family dynamics, that I could never imagine anyone infiltrating our close-knit family.

Candid!

About a year ago all of that changed. My brother Cameron brought Jenn home for Christmas and we all fell in love with her. She just fit. She understood our jokes and kept up with our witticisms. She somehow made Cameron more relaxed and easy-going. I don’t know that I believe in there only being one person who is meant for another, but I know that Cameron and Jenn are meant for each other.

I was so grateful to get to share in the celebration of their marriage this past weekend. In the South, we start planning our weddings around age ten and attending them long before that (everyone in the South gets married so damn early!). I’ve seen casual weddings and fussy ones, low-budget and high. I may be biased, but until this weekend I have never been to a wedding that was so much fun.

For one thing, the wedding was in the Virgin Islands. You can't beat that.

Everyone arrived by Wednesday or Thursday – the wedding was set for Friday (11/11/11) . The morning of the wedding all the guys went out deep sea fishing and the ladies laid out by the pool and went to the spa.

The ceremony itself was held on the beach under a bamboo hoopa wrapped in white and Tiffany blue gauzy fabric and tropical flowers. A friend performed the wedding and we all limo’d back to a beachside restaurant for drinks, dinner, and cake.

Jenn I’m so happy to call you the 7th member of our family and know you two will have a long and wonderful marriage!