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An earthquake centered about 60 miles west of New Orleans awakened many people throughout eastern Louisiana at about 6:17 a.m. on October 19, 1930. Maximum intensity reached VI at Napoleonville, where the entire congregation rushed from a church, as the entire building rocked noticeably

Tucked away inside City Park, the Botanical Garden is a host of environments that will satisfy every eco-traveler, from the newly constructed, work-in-progress rain collection garden inside the Green Pavilion, to the Japanese Garden Society’s Zen-scape, the Rainforest and Living Fossils of the Conservatory, the Butterfly Garden, or even the New Orleans Historic Train Garden. Get away from your habitual grind and take a mini-eco-cation as New Orleans Botanical Garden Director Paul Soniat gives us the dirt:

At New Orleans’ latest Hollywood-South celebrity ~ John Berendt ~ Krewe du Vieux-ing balcony party, the local flavor helped launch French Quarter parade season in full costume-character. He has a fine way of capturing a colorful mystery about charming, historical southern cities, turning them into a best-seller. You may remember one such story set in Savannah: Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.

In like a lion? The new sustainable decade is blasting in with extreme weather all over the globe. When temperatures in New Orleans begin to rival New York, this eco-traveler looks for a global warming connection, and checks into Manhattan’s latest Luxe hotel–The Strand. Touted as the city’s newest, fashionably green star, when this midtown hotel opened its doors in early December 2009, guests began to jockey for position in its year-round rooftop lounge.

This ecotraveler believes in reading the signs of nature…with a rare Blue Moon occurring on December 31st, it may well be the best time to actually MAKE those REsolutions to save the planet in 2010 and beyond.