Well, after months of deliberation and angst, Kara has finally selected her institution for undergraduate study.  She's selected Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.  We toured the campus last weekend during a 'Tulane Days' event for prospective students and their parents, and during that event she decided this was the place. 

Since beginning the admissions application process last November, she has been accepted at several institutions, including Rochester, Worcester Polytech, Vanderbilt, Northeastern, St Joseph's, Georgia Tech and Tulane, all in the field of Chemical Engineering, with varying scholarship offers accompanying each of the acceptance offers.   By mid-April, Kara had finally whittled the list down to her top 2 choices - Georgia Tech and Tulane.  She had visited the Georgia Tech campus last fall, as well as the campuses of Rochester, St Joseph's and Duke.  She had also attended several college discussion nights since last fall, at Pinkerton Academy as well as at local hotel auditorium venues sponsored by various Universities.  Of course her parents accompanied her to just about every one of these wonderfully informative events as well.  And so it was that after touring the Tulane campus and speaking with faculty and admissions counselors there, she made her selection.  It was based on the diversity of courses offered at Tulane, both within and beyond the Engineering curriculum, scholarship dollar value, dormitory room and, of course, her requirement that there be the physical presence of palm trees on campus.  Whew, decisions at the age of 18 don't come easy! 

So, following are some pictures we took last weekend.  We were in New Orleans for four days, during which we did a number of things:  in addition to our visit to Tulane University, we ferried across the Mississippi, visited Mardi Gras World (where many of the world's big parade floats and other props are made), visited the French Quarter, walked Bourbon Street, walked the New Orleans Riverfront park and mall, attended JazzFest (dubbed 'WetFest' because it poured rain in sheets the day we were there),  visited Harrah's Casino (Anne), rode the St. Charles Trolley (at midnight), stood in line in the pouring rain waiting for taxi ride back to the mid-town Quality Inn (no place to park our rental car at the JazzFest), saw several performers (some famous, some not) in concert (Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Rock, African, Zydeco and other genres) both at the Fest and at local restauraunts/pubs, dined in several local establishments sampling various regional delicacies and specialities.  All in all, an interesting and busy weekend.  The weather was warm (80-ish) and rained on only one day.  When we finally got home late Monday night we all ended up getting a good night's sleep.      

So, here are the pictures - you also may notice I have included one special picture for the Bearded Wonder (can you guess which picture that is?):