The beginning of our walking tour through the French Quarter

Continuing on my New Orleans adventure ... I thoroughly enjoyed our walking tour of the French Quarter. I think it was supposed to last an hour, but we were still going at the 2 hour mark. Our tour guide was quite a character and he was full of interesting information about the area. I found it fascinating when our guide shared that this street view was Walt Disney's favorite view of the French Quarter, and that it was an inspiration for New Orleans Square at Disneyland.

New Orleans Adventure: Lunch at Antoine's

Continuing to finish my journal of my trip to New Orleans last November (NOLA Live!) ... I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed our first lunch together at Antoine's. I felt pretty spoiled in the elegant setting, with delicious food, and new friends. I even had my first Martini - for all of 25 cents. Unbelievable!

Antoine's Restaurant originated in 1840 and is one of the great dining establishments of New Orleans. They serve amazing French-Creole cuisine. After lunch we got to take a peek in their 14 dining rooms! Amazing place.

Kodak moment

A bit of sadness and nostalgia swept over me today as I read that Kodak has decided to stop making cameras. What? Even though I knew that they had lots of competition in cameras, the news still came as a bit of a surprise to me... Kodak had been synonymous with 'cameras' for so many years.

My own memories came flooding back to me of my first camera -- a little Kodak Instamatic 104. I vividly remember the bright Yellow-Gold and Black box that it arrived in and how excited I was to be able to take "my own pictures". I was pretty proud of my little camera and it was always a big deal to take in a roll of film for developing, and go back to pick up the prints (and negatives of course). I think getting my camera was yet another step along my path towards independence - it enabled me to choose what "I" wanted to take a picture of, but with choices also came responsibility. The rolls of film with a fixed number of shots, and the cost of developing, caused me to be more mindful and selective. I had to plan ahead on a trip to ration the number of 'shots' as each roll was limited to either 12 or 24 shots and the developing cost quickly added up. Simple times!

What a difference from now! I just checked my files for 2011, and I took 8500 photos last year alone!! If that were old fashioned film, think of all the trips to the drugstore and lots of $ in developing costs!! Taking this many photos in a year would have been unthinkable back then with my Instamatic 104!!

Looking back...Kodak was founded way back in 1880, and became known for its simple Brownie and Instamatic cameras all over the world. I remember my Dad fondly talking about his Brownie camera. I was surprised to learn today that Kodak even created the first digital camera back in 1975. But, they were up against serious Japanese competition during the 1980s and Kodak wasn't able to keep up with the shift from film to digital cameras. It is a sad day for me to see them stop making cameras.

How about you? What special Kodak memories do you have? To help jog your memories.... here are some Kodak slogans I found on the web:

America's storyteller

You press the button - we do the rest

The real Kodak moment happens when you share.

Share moments. Share life.

I especially like that last one "Share moments. Share life."!!

Kodak, thanks for the good times and the memories!