Before heading out from Natchitoches this morning, we drove by the house where my grandmother, aunt and parents had all lived at various times. This is the house I associate with trips to Natchitoches. We then drove out to Sibley Lake where my father and I used to go fishing when I would come down to visit after they moved here. It was just a chance to see the old locales and remember some good times.
From Natchitoches we drove up to Shreveport then headed east on I-80. The weather was really good the whole way across on I-20. When we got to Jackson, MS, we drove into town to "collect" the state capitol. It looks like a smaller and grayer version of the national capitol. It also has a memorial to the women of the confederacy in front of it. We didn't spend a lot of time because we wanted to get to our destination before it got too dark.
Now we are sitting in our hotel in Tuscaloosa, AL relaxing after a Pizza Hut and Amber Bock feast. Tomorrow we are going up through Tennessee and stop in Bristol for the night. That's all for today!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
A Day in Natchitoches
We contacted my cousin Opal last night and talked about our plans to go out to the Sardis Cemetery today. We told her we would also like to visit with her sometime. It became apparent that she would like to go out to the cemetery, also. So today, while she went to her weekly hair appointment, we went to Wally World to purchase some artificial flowers and other items. When Opal got home from her appointment, she called and we went and picked her up. We had told her we would take her to lunch before going to Sardis, so she recommended we go to Merci Boucoup in downtown. Mary got her first taste of a Natchitoches meat pie with dirty rice there. She loved it and shared a little with me. I got fried oysters for some reason. I would have preferred the meat pie platter. From there we headed on out to Sardis which is about 30 miles away.
Opal took the opportunity during lunch and the drive out to the cemetery to talk a lot about family. Some of it was what folks are doing now, and other was about those who have gone before us. I told her later that I wished I had a tape recorder to get some of those stories.
The cemetery looked very well maintained. There were lots of flowers around the markers. The Sardis and Brown cemeteries are in the same area there and are managed by an association to which families donate money. Otherwise, their operations are highly informal. They only ask that you let them know prior to burying someone in a family plot. Family plots are typically just marked off with some blocks or bricks to indicate that a claim has been "staked" on a spot. I had not seen my parents' graves since my mother was buried there six years ago, so I was anxious to see that it had been properly maintained and that the marker had been engraved with her date of death. All was good. In fact, flowers that had been placed by Opal's sister Jewel in July still looked very good and we left them in place. We placed our flowers (actually poinsettias) on each side of the monument. We visited the graves of my Durham grandparents and a lot of aunts, uncles and close and distant cousins. I decided to take lots of pictures so I would be able to document some of the later dates when we get home. I have most all the dates up to the 1980s now, but several have passed away since then. Of course, Opal could generally fill us in on various ones of the cousins as well as ancestors.
We stopped at the Brown Cemetery next. That cemetery is about a mile away from Sardis and has much older graves in it. My grandmother Durham's parents are buried in there as well as various other Durhams of that generation. The last time I was there, the cemetery was not too well maintained, but now it is nicely cleaned up and maintained. Again, I took pictures, but some of the older stones need rubbings to read the inscriptions.
When we returned to Natchitoches we stopped at Opal's house for a short visit. I think she was quite taken with Mary. She told me I couldn't have gotten a better wife. I didn't argue! Opal really got around the cemeteries well and could remember so much. She even still drives (but not at night, she says). Not too bad for a 91 year old. We really enjoyed spending time with her and were glad we were able to do it.
After we left Opal, we had to go to Front Street and do some shopping. One of the first places we stopped was an old hardware store (oldest one in Louisiana) that still carries hardware as well as a lot of other general merchandise. We decided we would stop back there on our way back to the car. As we strolled up the street and stopped in every store along the way, we also checked the menus on the restaurants and selected the one for our evening meal. We didn't buy something in every store along the way, but we didn't miss many. Since there were no special activities today associated with the festival of lights, there were not masses of people about, so it was easy to get around. We did stop back at the mercantile store and purchase a couple items for our kitchen. We both agreed that the prices in the store were very reasonable and we probably would have paid twice as much at home.
After hauling our booty back to the hotel and catching our breath, we headed back downtown for dinner. I decided to try the fried catfish (very popular around here) and it was really very good. I have had fried catfish at other places in the area when I was younger, but tend to stay away from fried food now (except for oysters).
By the time we finished dinner, it was fully dark and the festival of lights was in full swing. Well, actually it was mostly just the lights and music tonight. On Friday and Saturday night, they have various events going on and it looks almost like a carnival is set up on the lake front. I have heard people talk about the festival for many years, but had never seen it before. I was never here at this time of year. So, it was kind of special to actually see it. This is the 81st year for the festival. The main show comprises static and animated figures set up along the shore of the lake across from Front Street as well as lights on the downtown bridge across the lake. The lake front park has a lot of carnival style food vendors set up, but most of them were not open tonight. We strolled along through the park and took pictures and videos of the lights and just enjoyed a beautiful evening.
For a little background on Natchitoches:
Tomorrow we head for home. We are planning on stopping in Tuscaloosa, AL tomorrow night then somewhere around the Virginia, North Carolina border Saturday. Then we are heading up I-81 along the edge of the Blue Ridge into Maryland and on to someplace called Derwood. We are ready.
Opal took the opportunity during lunch and the drive out to the cemetery to talk a lot about family. Some of it was what folks are doing now, and other was about those who have gone before us. I told her later that I wished I had a tape recorder to get some of those stories.
The cemetery looked very well maintained. There were lots of flowers around the markers. The Sardis and Brown cemeteries are in the same area there and are managed by an association to which families donate money. Otherwise, their operations are highly informal. They only ask that you let them know prior to burying someone in a family plot. Family plots are typically just marked off with some blocks or bricks to indicate that a claim has been "staked" on a spot. I had not seen my parents' graves since my mother was buried there six years ago, so I was anxious to see that it had been properly maintained and that the marker had been engraved with her date of death. All was good. In fact, flowers that had been placed by Opal's sister Jewel in July still looked very good and we left them in place. We placed our flowers (actually poinsettias) on each side of the monument. We visited the graves of my Durham grandparents and a lot of aunts, uncles and close and distant cousins. I decided to take lots of pictures so I would be able to document some of the later dates when we get home. I have most all the dates up to the 1980s now, but several have passed away since then. Of course, Opal could generally fill us in on various ones of the cousins as well as ancestors.
We stopped at the Brown Cemetery next. That cemetery is about a mile away from Sardis and has much older graves in it. My grandmother Durham's parents are buried in there as well as various other Durhams of that generation. The last time I was there, the cemetery was not too well maintained, but now it is nicely cleaned up and maintained. Again, I took pictures, but some of the older stones need rubbings to read the inscriptions.
When we returned to Natchitoches we stopped at Opal's house for a short visit. I think she was quite taken with Mary. She told me I couldn't have gotten a better wife. I didn't argue! Opal really got around the cemeteries well and could remember so much. She even still drives (but not at night, she says). Not too bad for a 91 year old. We really enjoyed spending time with her and were glad we were able to do it.
After we left Opal, we had to go to Front Street and do some shopping. One of the first places we stopped was an old hardware store (oldest one in Louisiana) that still carries hardware as well as a lot of other general merchandise. We decided we would stop back there on our way back to the car. As we strolled up the street and stopped in every store along the way, we also checked the menus on the restaurants and selected the one for our evening meal. We didn't buy something in every store along the way, but we didn't miss many. Since there were no special activities today associated with the festival of lights, there were not masses of people about, so it was easy to get around. We did stop back at the mercantile store and purchase a couple items for our kitchen. We both agreed that the prices in the store were very reasonable and we probably would have paid twice as much at home.
After hauling our booty back to the hotel and catching our breath, we headed back downtown for dinner. I decided to try the fried catfish (very popular around here) and it was really very good. I have had fried catfish at other places in the area when I was younger, but tend to stay away from fried food now (except for oysters).
By the time we finished dinner, it was fully dark and the festival of lights was in full swing. Well, actually it was mostly just the lights and music tonight. On Friday and Saturday night, they have various events going on and it looks almost like a carnival is set up on the lake front. I have heard people talk about the festival for many years, but had never seen it before. I was never here at this time of year. So, it was kind of special to actually see it. This is the 81st year for the festival. The main show comprises static and animated figures set up along the shore of the lake across from Front Street as well as lights on the downtown bridge across the lake. The lake front park has a lot of carnival style food vendors set up, but most of them were not open tonight. We strolled along through the park and took pictures and videos of the lights and just enjoyed a beautiful evening.
For a little background on Natchitoches:
- It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It is older than St. Augustine, FL but was not a part of the United States until after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
- It is bisected by Cane River Lake which is most often called Cane River (also the title of an Oprah book several years ago). The Red River used to flow through Natchitoches, but changed course at some point and left the old river bed behind. That was closed at both ends to form a lake. Thus Cane River Lake.
- If you are familiar with the movie "Steel Magnolias", you have seen much of the area along Front street and the river front park. The buildings along Front street have a lot of French style wrought iron work around their balconies.
- It is a beautiful old town with many magnificent old homes and lots of history.
- Although I was born in Natchitoches, the powers that be have not yet placed a plaque at my birthplace. The clinic that was there has been replaced by some old auto parts store.
Tomorrow we head for home. We are planning on stopping in Tuscaloosa, AL tomorrow night then somewhere around the Virginia, North Carolina border Saturday. Then we are heading up I-81 along the edge of the Blue Ridge into Maryland and on to someplace called Derwood. We are ready.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Bye Bye NO and the Road to Natchitoches
We set out this morning and returned to the Lower 9th Ward of the city. The Lower 9th is between the river and a canal and had water up to and over the roofs of homes after the levee gave way. We drove randomly around several streets of the residential area and every street was the same: Block after block of boarded up, damaged homes with a few undergoing restoration or reconstruction. The empty homes have yards that are completely over grown by 2 years worth of weeds. A few residents were about, but we saw less than 15. Typically, it seemed like about 1 or 2 houses being fixed up in every 2 blocks. We saw a boarded up school and a boarded up church. More than just the people are gone, the neighborhoods are gone.
As we headed back across town on our way out, we passed St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. There are four cemeteries associated with the St. Louis Cathedral. Since this one was open and tours were going on, we parked and took a quick look around. I'm fairly used to seeing above ground crypts in Louisiana, but I had never seen them stacked so high! Rather than family plots you see in other cemeteries, the families there have crypts. As various members of the family are "in need" of a crypt, they are added on top of their ancestors. The crypts in there had dates going back to the early 19th century and as recent as 2003.
From there we headed out US-90 west to New Iberia. On the way we passed through lots of swamp land where the highway was elevated for miles at a time. We also passed by some very large sugar cane fields. We saw sugar cane at all stages of growth including a lot that was being harvested. At one point where lots of it was being hauled to a mill near by, there were a lot of pieces lying along side the road. So, of course, we had to stop and pick up a couple of chunks. We haven't tried it yet, but I remember when I was a kid and we came to Louisiana we would get sugar cane, peel it and chew the center which was very sweet.
We stopped in New Iberia for lunch (it was nearly 2:00 when we got there). We had in mind to get some Cajun food and stopped at a restaurant named Clementine's. It turned out they did not have much choice and we ended up just ordering salads. Mary got a baby spinach with grilled chicken (what else) and I got a Caesar salad with fried oysters! It turned out that both were excellent.
From there we went on to Lafayette. We just drove through the city and noted the somewhat random pattern of streets, University of Louisiana Lafayette campus and some large old houses. We didn't dally long there, but now we can say we've been to Lafayette (and didn't get lost).
From Layette to Natchitoches is about 120 miles by I-49. We rolled into the Hampton about 5:30. While we knew the annual Christmas Festival of Lights would be in progress when we got here, we did not find out until we booked the room yesterday that this is the kick off weekend for it. As a result the hotel is quite full and we were probably lucky to get a room. But, we did. They were having a manager's reception when we arrived, so we just noshed on fajitas and beer for dinner and retired to our room. We'll check out the lights tomorrow night. Hopefully, they will be lit.
I did manage to get a bunch of pictures from Key West put up on Picassa tonight. I'll try to get more pix up before we get home.
As we headed back across town on our way out, we passed St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. There are four cemeteries associated with the St. Louis Cathedral. Since this one was open and tours were going on, we parked and took a quick look around. I'm fairly used to seeing above ground crypts in Louisiana, but I had never seen them stacked so high! Rather than family plots you see in other cemeteries, the families there have crypts. As various members of the family are "in need" of a crypt, they are added on top of their ancestors. The crypts in there had dates going back to the early 19th century and as recent as 2003.
From there we headed out US-90 west to New Iberia. On the way we passed through lots of swamp land where the highway was elevated for miles at a time. We also passed by some very large sugar cane fields. We saw sugar cane at all stages of growth including a lot that was being harvested. At one point where lots of it was being hauled to a mill near by, there were a lot of pieces lying along side the road. So, of course, we had to stop and pick up a couple of chunks. We haven't tried it yet, but I remember when I was a kid and we came to Louisiana we would get sugar cane, peel it and chew the center which was very sweet.
We stopped in New Iberia for lunch (it was nearly 2:00 when we got there). We had in mind to get some Cajun food and stopped at a restaurant named Clementine's. It turned out they did not have much choice and we ended up just ordering salads. Mary got a baby spinach with grilled chicken (what else) and I got a Caesar salad with fried oysters! It turned out that both were excellent.
From there we went on to Lafayette. We just drove through the city and noted the somewhat random pattern of streets, University of Louisiana Lafayette campus and some large old houses. We didn't dally long there, but now we can say we've been to Lafayette (and didn't get lost).
From Layette to Natchitoches is about 120 miles by I-49. We rolled into the Hampton about 5:30. While we knew the annual Christmas Festival of Lights would be in progress when we got here, we did not find out until we booked the room yesterday that this is the kick off weekend for it. As a result the hotel is quite full and we were probably lucky to get a room. But, we did. They were having a manager's reception when we arrived, so we just noshed on fajitas and beer for dinner and retired to our room. We'll check out the lights tomorrow night. Hopefully, they will be lit.
I did manage to get a bunch of pictures from Key West put up on Picassa tonight. I'll try to get more pix up before we get home.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
D-Day Museum
Today we went to the D-Day Museum which is about eight blocks from the hotel. The museum was really impressive. The brochures recommend allowing at least two hours to see the museum. We spent over four hours. We had nothing else definite planned for today, so we did not hurry through any part of it.
When we arrived, a couple of school groups were just arriving. One of the volunteers recommended we wait a little bit before starting to go through the main exhibits. While we waited we chatted with a couple of WWII vets who were hanging out in the main entry hall. When you enter the museum, there is a large open area where a Higgins Boat reproduction, aircraft, an M4 Sherman tank, and other weapons used during the Normandy landings are on display. The best part was the two old vets. They were a joy to chat with. I believe they were there to talk to anyone who came through and to the school kids.
The museum also had a couple themed displays. One was about baseball during the war and contained a lot of memorabilia and pictures of baseball players who joined up as well as baseball teams at US military facilities all over the world. The other display was of a number of pictures that were taken inside an American POW camp in Germany. One of the Americans managed to bribe a guard to get a camera. The pictures he took are the only known pictures from inside a camp. These pictures were especially meaningful to Mary as her father was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war as a POW.
By the time we finished those exhibits, the school kids had returned to the main hall, and we headed on in to the main exhibits. The exhibits were arranged so you would walk through sections that dealt with different time periods leading up to and during the war. The first part detailed the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, then the changes that occurred on the home front when the war started, and so on. It is all set up in chronological order, but the two main theaters were presented separately with the European theater first starting with the preparations for the Normandy landing and on through to the German surrender. Then the Pacific theater was described starting with the Japanese expansion in the Pacific, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Pacific campaign through to the Japanese surrender. Besides all the items on display, there are a number of places where you can select to hear a short narrative of remembrances by the people who participated in the particular operations that are described. As you may know, one of the big efforts by the museum is to collect oral histories from the surviving veterans. It was really great to be able to hear them describe their personal experiences.
The bottom line on the museum was that it was well worth the time spent to visit it. It is one of those things that everyone who has a chance should do. We learned a lot of new information about the war, saw exhibits of things we had never seen before and gained an even greater appreciation for the sacrifices made by our parents' generation during that terrible conflict.
As I said, we spent over four hours in the museum, so by the time we left there it was about 2:00 PM. We walked down to the river front and caught the street car there back to the far end of the French Quarter. There were a couple of stores we wanted to revisit and T-Shirts to be bought. We decided to have a late lunch / early dinner down there at a restaurant called River's Edge. We had our last bit of Creole food and last bread pudding desert. Then we decided to walk back to the hotel meandering about in the Quarter. As we left the restaurant, I said I thought we had done our part to aid the economic recovery of New Orleans! I told all the store keepers that I came along to carry the back pack and the credit card. We managed to pack a lot into that back pack today.
On our round about way back to the hotel, we happened upon the Immaculate Conception church which is a Jesuit parish. It was closed up for the day by then, but we did happen to meet the parish priest who encouraged to come back in the morning. We took a number of pictures of the front the church including the massive bronze doors. The church has a very interesting history, and we may revisit it in the morning depending on how our time goes.
Now we are all packed up and ready to hit the road again. We have our reservation for Natchitoches for tomorrow and Thursday night. It is only about a 5 hour drive up there, so we will try to see some parts of Louisiana we have never visited before on the way.
When we arrived, a couple of school groups were just arriving. One of the volunteers recommended we wait a little bit before starting to go through the main exhibits. While we waited we chatted with a couple of WWII vets who were hanging out in the main entry hall. When you enter the museum, there is a large open area where a Higgins Boat reproduction, aircraft, an M4 Sherman tank, and other weapons used during the Normandy landings are on display. The best part was the two old vets. They were a joy to chat with. I believe they were there to talk to anyone who came through and to the school kids.
The museum also had a couple themed displays. One was about baseball during the war and contained a lot of memorabilia and pictures of baseball players who joined up as well as baseball teams at US military facilities all over the world. The other display was of a number of pictures that were taken inside an American POW camp in Germany. One of the Americans managed to bribe a guard to get a camera. The pictures he took are the only known pictures from inside a camp. These pictures were especially meaningful to Mary as her father was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war as a POW.
By the time we finished those exhibits, the school kids had returned to the main hall, and we headed on in to the main exhibits. The exhibits were arranged so you would walk through sections that dealt with different time periods leading up to and during the war. The first part detailed the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, then the changes that occurred on the home front when the war started, and so on. It is all set up in chronological order, but the two main theaters were presented separately with the European theater first starting with the preparations for the Normandy landing and on through to the German surrender. Then the Pacific theater was described starting with the Japanese expansion in the Pacific, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Pacific campaign through to the Japanese surrender. Besides all the items on display, there are a number of places where you can select to hear a short narrative of remembrances by the people who participated in the particular operations that are described. As you may know, one of the big efforts by the museum is to collect oral histories from the surviving veterans. It was really great to be able to hear them describe their personal experiences.
The bottom line on the museum was that it was well worth the time spent to visit it. It is one of those things that everyone who has a chance should do. We learned a lot of new information about the war, saw exhibits of things we had never seen before and gained an even greater appreciation for the sacrifices made by our parents' generation during that terrible conflict.
As I said, we spent over four hours in the museum, so by the time we left there it was about 2:00 PM. We walked down to the river front and caught the street car there back to the far end of the French Quarter. There were a couple of stores we wanted to revisit and T-Shirts to be bought. We decided to have a late lunch / early dinner down there at a restaurant called River's Edge. We had our last bit of Creole food and last bread pudding desert. Then we decided to walk back to the hotel meandering about in the Quarter. As we left the restaurant, I said I thought we had done our part to aid the economic recovery of New Orleans! I told all the store keepers that I came along to carry the back pack and the credit card. We managed to pack a lot into that back pack today.
On our round about way back to the hotel, we happened upon the Immaculate Conception church which is a Jesuit parish. It was closed up for the day by then, but we did happen to meet the parish priest who encouraged to come back in the morning. We took a number of pictures of the front the church including the massive bronze doors. The church has a very interesting history, and we may revisit it in the morning depending on how our time goes.
Now we are all packed up and ready to hit the road again. We have our reservation for Natchitoches for tomorrow and Thursday night. It is only about a 5 hour drive up there, so we will try to see some parts of Louisiana we have never visited before on the way.
Monday, November 26, 2007
NOLA
If it's Monday it must be New Orleans, LA (NOLA). We hit the street (Bourbon) early this morning while it was still quiet. We walked down Bourbon a ways then headed down to Jackson Square and the Cafe Du Monde for Cafe Au Lait and Beigneis. We tried to remember what year it was when we were last there, but can only approximate that it was around 1974 give or take a year or two. We sat in about the same area as last time, but it was a bit cooler today (low 60s). I'm pretty sure the guy playing the trumpet just outside the seating area was not there in the 70s. Otherwise, the coffee and donuts were the same. Well, we did get decaf this time!
We walked all over the French Quarter stopping in several shops and taking lots of pictures. Of course we had to "collect" the cathedral (St. Louis Cathedral). Since there was no service going on, we went in and looked around. It has really beautiful paintings on the ceilings as well as some very interesting, old commemoratives and crypts.
We had lunch at the Court of Two Sisters. They had a jazz brunch that was kind of so, so as it turned out. It was a bit expensive, though. I think they charged based on their reputation and history.
After a lot of walking, we took a street car back to our hotel. We actually only rode it for about four blocks, but by that time, we were ready to ride. The street cars are very neat. They are old electric powered wooden cars with wooden seats. I don't think the one we road was named Desire, but we liked it anyway.
We then drove out to the Garden District to look at the big old homes there. We saw a variety of architecture including a lot of "shotgun" houses. Some of those were very narrow. I took a picture of one that didn't look to be more than 15 feet wide. We came across an old cemetery (Lafayette No. 1), but it had closed at 2:30 PM, so all we could do was take a couple of pictures from outside the gate.
From there we drove west on US-90 into Jefferson Parish, then back north and east to one of the areas (lower 9th Ward, I believe) devastated by the storm. The good news is that there is a lot of rebuilding and restoration going on. The bad / sad news is that there appears to be a lot left to be done. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got over there, so we may head back tomorrow. We did see one entire development of townhouses or condominium type apartments (it was hard to tell which) that was completely boarded up and abandoned.
After returning to the hotel, we walked back down Bourbon Street then down St. Peters to a restaurant we had spotted earlier named The Gumbo Shop. We ate Creole food there as well including gumbo, crawfish etoufee, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. The food was excellent, and the price (including two glasses of wine) was about the same as we paid for lunch. From there we walked some more, ending up at the Harrah's Casino where we quickly disposed of a couple or three twenties. Then it was time for the street car back down Canal Street to our hotel.
To get an idea of where we are from the French Quarter, our hotel is on Carondelet Street about two blocks from Canal Street. At Canal Street, Carondelet becomes Bourbon Street. From Bourbon to the river is three blocks. From Canal Street to the French Market at the other end of the Quarter is 12 blocks. So, we are just outside the French Quarter and within walking distance of everything.
Tomorrow we plan to tour the D-Day Museum and drive around to see the Katrina damage a little more. I keep wanting to post some pix on Picassa, but by the time I get around to it, I'm too tired.
We walked all over the French Quarter stopping in several shops and taking lots of pictures. Of course we had to "collect" the cathedral (St. Louis Cathedral). Since there was no service going on, we went in and looked around. It has really beautiful paintings on the ceilings as well as some very interesting, old commemoratives and crypts.
We had lunch at the Court of Two Sisters. They had a jazz brunch that was kind of so, so as it turned out. It was a bit expensive, though. I think they charged based on their reputation and history.
After a lot of walking, we took a street car back to our hotel. We actually only rode it for about four blocks, but by that time, we were ready to ride. The street cars are very neat. They are old electric powered wooden cars with wooden seats. I don't think the one we road was named Desire, but we liked it anyway.
We then drove out to the Garden District to look at the big old homes there. We saw a variety of architecture including a lot of "shotgun" houses. Some of those were very narrow. I took a picture of one that didn't look to be more than 15 feet wide. We came across an old cemetery (Lafayette No. 1), but it had closed at 2:30 PM, so all we could do was take a couple of pictures from outside the gate.
From there we drove west on US-90 into Jefferson Parish, then back north and east to one of the areas (lower 9th Ward, I believe) devastated by the storm. The good news is that there is a lot of rebuilding and restoration going on. The bad / sad news is that there appears to be a lot left to be done. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got over there, so we may head back tomorrow. We did see one entire development of townhouses or condominium type apartments (it was hard to tell which) that was completely boarded up and abandoned.
After returning to the hotel, we walked back down Bourbon Street then down St. Peters to a restaurant we had spotted earlier named The Gumbo Shop. We ate Creole food there as well including gumbo, crawfish etoufee, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. The food was excellent, and the price (including two glasses of wine) was about the same as we paid for lunch. From there we walked some more, ending up at the Harrah's Casino where we quickly disposed of a couple or three twenties. Then it was time for the street car back down Canal Street to our hotel.
To get an idea of where we are from the French Quarter, our hotel is on Carondelet Street about two blocks from Canal Street. At Canal Street, Carondelet becomes Bourbon Street. From Bourbon to the river is three blocks. From Canal Street to the French Market at the other end of the Quarter is 12 blocks. So, we are just outside the French Quarter and within walking distance of everything.
Tomorrow we plan to tour the D-Day Museum and drive around to see the Katrina damage a little more. I keep wanting to post some pix on Picassa, but by the time I get around to it, I'm too tired.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Road to New Orleans
We woke up in Pensacola Beach this morning to a heavy overcast with brisk wind. It wasn't all that cold, but not exactly balmy either. We went down to the beach and walked in the Gulf. Finally, we got our feet wet in the Gulf. So we now have done the Atlantic, Pacific, Phillipine Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Another milestone!
We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay in Pensacola another day or head on to New Orleans. Heavy rain storms were predicted and we expected we would encounter heavy traffic on I-10. Finally, we decided to just go for it and deal with what ever we encountered. As it turned out, we did not run into any rain until much later in the day.
We stopped in Mobile, AL getting there around noon. We walked around the downtown area a bit and "collected" the cathedral there. The city has a strong Spanish heritage and many of the buildings had very ornate wrought iron. I found the downtown area interesting because it was neither "run down" nor modern. In other words, it was pretty much as it has probably always been. A lot of people were all about (church services were starting and ending) including at a restaurant that had a Sunday brunch. The restaurant had both inside and outside seating with the outside seating on both sides of the street between the restaurant and a nice downtown park. Lots of folks were sitting outside although (see above) it was not exactly balmy. Anyway, we took lots of pictures of buildings around the downtown district.
From there we got back on I-10 to Biloxy, MS where we drove down to the beach road (US-90). Mostly we just wanted to see what things look like 27 months after Katrina. What we found were a number of new casinos seeming to do a good business while the surrounding residential areas were still completely devastated. Originally, casinos in Mississippi had to be floating. However, after Katrina tossed the floating casinos all over the bay front area, the laws were changed to allow the casinos to be built on land. It looked like there were six to ten brand new high rise buildings with casinos and several more under construction. As we drove west on US-90 we saw mile after mile of devastation. It was a little strange because in some areas, you might not even notice anything amiss except that there were no buildings at all for about a block from the bay. There were streets but with no houses on them. Often, the only way you could tell that there had been a house on a lot was a random set of concrete or brick steps that at one time led to a front door or a fireplace or swimming pool in the middle of open ground. There were also For Sale signs (mostly "by owner") all over. Some houses were being built or rebuilt and some that were still present were just boarded up. One interesting affect of the storm was how it affected multi-story commercial buildings. Many of those building now look like they are raised up on pilings. However, what happened is that the ground floor was completely washed away leaving the second floor on up standing on the steel girders that form the skeleton of the building. The upper floors were generally still present but were wind damaged. We saw lots of places where there was a large parking lot, but no buildings around it indicating that a small shopping center or large store was completely wiped away. Other places, the only indication that a church had once stood on a chunk of land, was a sign indicating what the church was and that they planned to rebuild. At one point we passed an auto "junk yard" that did not have any indication that it was an established business. However, there were literally hundreds of vehicles stacked up in a large lot. They all seemed to be late model cars but all with heavy body damage. We saw many FEMA trailers parked in vacant lots or in front of boarded up or gutted houses or sometimes in what appeared to be communities set up on large parking lots. When we drove through Pass Christian we went through an intersection where traffic lights were torn from their supports leaving just the wires sticking out. However, there was no need to replace the signal lights as there was no traffic at that intersection since all the buildings that had been in the area were gone.
As we got closer to New Orleans, the skies darkened and the rain got heavier. It was pretty dark by the time we got into New Orleans itself, but we could still see that the results of the storm. We saw one place where there had apparently been a fire station, but now the fire trucks, etc. are just parked out in the open. Since it was dark when we got into the heaviest damaged areas of the city, the most noticeable thing about the neighborhoods was the lack of any lights in or around the houses. The houses were mostly boarded up and there was no sign of life in the area. Even the street lights on the side streets were out. It's all very sad.
Our hotel is in the downtown area of New Orleans just a couple blocks from the French Quarter. Since it was raining so hard when we got here, we just ran down to a corner deli / grocery store here and got some fried chicken, a meat pie and red beans and rice to bring back to our room. Our first New Orleans meal was a big success! It was all good stuff. We spent the rest of the evening reviewing tour guides to get an idea of what we want to do tomorrow and how we want to get around. The weather is forecast to clear up tomorrow so we are looking forward to a day of walking, looking and eating.
We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay in Pensacola another day or head on to New Orleans. Heavy rain storms were predicted and we expected we would encounter heavy traffic on I-10. Finally, we decided to just go for it and deal with what ever we encountered. As it turned out, we did not run into any rain until much later in the day.
We stopped in Mobile, AL getting there around noon. We walked around the downtown area a bit and "collected" the cathedral there. The city has a strong Spanish heritage and many of the buildings had very ornate wrought iron. I found the downtown area interesting because it was neither "run down" nor modern. In other words, it was pretty much as it has probably always been. A lot of people were all about (church services were starting and ending) including at a restaurant that had a Sunday brunch. The restaurant had both inside and outside seating with the outside seating on both sides of the street between the restaurant and a nice downtown park. Lots of folks were sitting outside although (see above) it was not exactly balmy. Anyway, we took lots of pictures of buildings around the downtown district.
From there we got back on I-10 to Biloxy, MS where we drove down to the beach road (US-90). Mostly we just wanted to see what things look like 27 months after Katrina. What we found were a number of new casinos seeming to do a good business while the surrounding residential areas were still completely devastated. Originally, casinos in Mississippi had to be floating. However, after Katrina tossed the floating casinos all over the bay front area, the laws were changed to allow the casinos to be built on land. It looked like there were six to ten brand new high rise buildings with casinos and several more under construction. As we drove west on US-90 we saw mile after mile of devastation. It was a little strange because in some areas, you might not even notice anything amiss except that there were no buildings at all for about a block from the bay. There were streets but with no houses on them. Often, the only way you could tell that there had been a house on a lot was a random set of concrete or brick steps that at one time led to a front door or a fireplace or swimming pool in the middle of open ground. There were also For Sale signs (mostly "by owner") all over. Some houses were being built or rebuilt and some that were still present were just boarded up. One interesting affect of the storm was how it affected multi-story commercial buildings. Many of those building now look like they are raised up on pilings. However, what happened is that the ground floor was completely washed away leaving the second floor on up standing on the steel girders that form the skeleton of the building. The upper floors were generally still present but were wind damaged. We saw lots of places where there was a large parking lot, but no buildings around it indicating that a small shopping center or large store was completely wiped away. Other places, the only indication that a church had once stood on a chunk of land, was a sign indicating what the church was and that they planned to rebuild. At one point we passed an auto "junk yard" that did not have any indication that it was an established business. However, there were literally hundreds of vehicles stacked up in a large lot. They all seemed to be late model cars but all with heavy body damage. We saw many FEMA trailers parked in vacant lots or in front of boarded up or gutted houses or sometimes in what appeared to be communities set up on large parking lots. When we drove through Pass Christian we went through an intersection where traffic lights were torn from their supports leaving just the wires sticking out. However, there was no need to replace the signal lights as there was no traffic at that intersection since all the buildings that had been in the area were gone.
As we got closer to New Orleans, the skies darkened and the rain got heavier. It was pretty dark by the time we got into New Orleans itself, but we could still see that the results of the storm. We saw one place where there had apparently been a fire station, but now the fire trucks, etc. are just parked out in the open. Since it was dark when we got into the heaviest damaged areas of the city, the most noticeable thing about the neighborhoods was the lack of any lights in or around the houses. The houses were mostly boarded up and there was no sign of life in the area. Even the street lights on the side streets were out. It's all very sad.
Our hotel is in the downtown area of New Orleans just a couple blocks from the French Quarter. Since it was raining so hard when we got here, we just ran down to a corner deli / grocery store here and got some fried chicken, a meat pie and red beans and rice to bring back to our room. Our first New Orleans meal was a big success! It was all good stuff. We spent the rest of the evening reviewing tour guides to get an idea of what we want to do tomorrow and how we want to get around. The weather is forecast to clear up tomorrow so we are looking forward to a day of walking, looking and eating.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thanksgiving
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in the Deltona / DeLand area in Florida. We arrived in the area late Tuesday and spent most of the day on Wednesday with Vikky's family. Lorraine and Wyatt have really grown! It has been quite a while since I have seen them. Mary came down in January right after she retired to help celebrate Wyatt's fifth birthday. We all went out to dinner to celebrate Mary's birthday.
Thursday we went to Erik's folk's house for Thanksgiving. There were about 2 dozen people there including folks from California, Maine and Massachusetts. There was enough food for about 4 dozen people and it was all good (I can attest to that). The weather was a bit threatening and it rained briefly, but the day turned out to be very nice and warm.
Friday we all went to Erik's brother's house for barbecue. It was a sunny day, but a bit cool (upper 60s). Of course it was only in the mid 40s at home in Derwood, but we were spoiled by the Key West experience. Again there were something on the order of 24 people and lots of food. By then we had gotten to know a lot of new friends and really enjoyed another chance to chat with them.
Today we got an early start and headed to Pensacola. We drove US 17 and SR 40 across the peninsula to I 75 and took that up to I 10. We enjoyed the drive since it was all new territory for us and the weather turned out to be quite nice. We managed to get past Gainesville (site of the Florida / Florida State football game) without delay. We crossed the Suwanee River while trying to remember the words to the song. We headed into Tallahassee (trying to remember the words to that song) and "collected" the state capitol. Florida has a new high rise capitol building, but it is directly behind the old, more traditional building.
Just east of Pensacola, we headed south to drive along the Gulf Shore. As usual, we saw a lot of new construction and some unique architecture. With the time change, we managed to arrive in Pensacola Beach around 4:00 CST. That gave us the opportunity to take a walk on the beach before we even checked in. Although it was overcast and windy, it was not really cold. It was not the first time we had seen the Gulf (see previous post about Key West) however it was the first time we had a chance to walk on an uncrowded beach. We have yet to dip our toes in the Gulf waters, though. After checking in at the hotel we headed out to dinner at a place called Peg Leg Pete's Oyster Bar. With a name like that you know what I had!
Tomorrow is a short drive to New Orleans. We hope to meander our way over there seeing sights along the way. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast, so it may not be such a great trip. I'll try to update tomorrow night.
Thursday we went to Erik's folk's house for Thanksgiving. There were about 2 dozen people there including folks from California, Maine and Massachusetts. There was enough food for about 4 dozen people and it was all good (I can attest to that). The weather was a bit threatening and it rained briefly, but the day turned out to be very nice and warm.
Friday we all went to Erik's brother's house for barbecue. It was a sunny day, but a bit cool (upper 60s). Of course it was only in the mid 40s at home in Derwood, but we were spoiled by the Key West experience. Again there were something on the order of 24 people and lots of food. By then we had gotten to know a lot of new friends and really enjoyed another chance to chat with them.
Today we got an early start and headed to Pensacola. We drove US 17 and SR 40 across the peninsula to I 75 and took that up to I 10. We enjoyed the drive since it was all new territory for us and the weather turned out to be quite nice. We managed to get past Gainesville (site of the Florida / Florida State football game) without delay. We crossed the Suwanee River while trying to remember the words to the song. We headed into Tallahassee (trying to remember the words to that song) and "collected" the state capitol. Florida has a new high rise capitol building, but it is directly behind the old, more traditional building.
Just east of Pensacola, we headed south to drive along the Gulf Shore. As usual, we saw a lot of new construction and some unique architecture. With the time change, we managed to arrive in Pensacola Beach around 4:00 CST. That gave us the opportunity to take a walk on the beach before we even checked in. Although it was overcast and windy, it was not really cold. It was not the first time we had seen the Gulf (see previous post about Key West) however it was the first time we had a chance to walk on an uncrowded beach. We have yet to dip our toes in the Gulf waters, though. After checking in at the hotel we headed out to dinner at a place called Peg Leg Pete's Oyster Bar. With a name like that you know what I had!
Tomorrow is a short drive to New Orleans. We hope to meander our way over there seeing sights along the way. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast, so it may not be such a great trip. I'll try to update tomorrow night.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
On the Road Again
OK. So I was going to post each day as we go along our new adventure, but it didn't happen, so here is a catch up on where we have been, where we are and where we are going.
This is to be our South East tour of '08. We left home on Thursday, November 15 and headed south on I-95 for the Florida Keys. We stayed at Richmond Hills, GA (just South of Savannah) that night. RH is a standard stop for us when south bound to Florida. We stay at the same Hampton Inn each time and know the neighborhood pretty well. We always look for new dining adventures, though. This time we found an Scottish "Pub" near by that was really great. It has a nice homey feel with good food, friendly people and Guinness (yeah, I know that's not Scottish). They also have a darts area and the wall behind the bar is lined with single malt (mostly) Scotches. They had a complete list of them like a wine list. We passed on the Scotch and stuck with Guinness.
The next morning we got ready to set off and noticed the "wheel falling off" light (or is that the low tire pressure???) was lit. We couldn't tell which was the offending tire and none of them seemed to be leaking. We decided to give the local Lexus dealer a call and headed over there. It turned out it was the spare was just a bit low (how does that happen?), but it took us a couple hours between going back up to Savannah and waiting for the car. Fortunately, our second leg was not too long.
Next stop was Hallandale Beach just south of Ft. Lauderdale and about 10 miles north of Miami. We did end up having to go through Lauderdale during rush hour, but we made it. We ran over to a very nice Cuban restaurant and grabbed a couple of Cubano sandwiches and Dos Equis (XX) to go.
Next morning, we headed down the A1A (Coast) highway through Miami Beach and South Miami Beach. That was really a fun drive. We saw lots of interesting buildings and the renowned art deco architecture in South Beach. From there we picked up US 1 and headed south and west. It is about 123 miles from the Florida mainland to Key West (our destination) and that took us the better part of 3 hours. It was a very nice drive. The highway is called the Overseas Highway, and it lives up to its name. It just goes from island to island with frequent long causeways and bridges connecting them. One of those bridges is Seven Mile Bridge that was featured in the movie True Lies. Of course we stopped in Key Largo and took pictures of the inn where the great old Humphrey Bogart movie was shot.
We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Key West. It was very nice and our room had a veranda off of it that overlooked the street. Unfortunately, that street was US 1. Actually, it wasn't that bad as traffic dwindled to nothing by the time we would sit out there in the evening.
We spent Saturday evening through Tuesday morning in Key West. We walked everywhere. One of the main evening activities amongst the 20 and 30 somethings (and several folks who never out grew that) is to stroll Duval Ave with drink in hand stopping in at the nearest bar when said drink was gone for a refill. We did the stroll Saturday night, but without the drinks. Sunday we walked over to the Southernmost Point in the US and wandered back down town. Then we took a tour (the Conch Train) to see all the sights and get filled in on the architecture of the old town area. Sunday night we went on a sunset dinner cruise on a schooner that was fantastic. We actually saw a better sunset on Saturday night, but the cruise experience was awesome.
Monday we visited the Hemingway House and met several 6-toed cats that were descended from Earnest Hemingway's Snowball. It was very interesting to see his house and here some of the stories that went with it. Our tour guide was a character.
We also visited the Mel Fisher Museum*. It was very interesting to see all those artifacts from a couple of wrecks he found. One was the Nuestro Senora de Atoches which sank in the 1600s and was carrying a large amount of gold and silver. Some of the stuff in the collection was phenomenal.
From there we went on and did more wandering about. Grabbed a lunch of salad at an open air restaurant (among the chickens), got a couple of tats and headed back to our room at the B&B to rest before dinner. Before dinner, we walked over to the Old Town cemetery and wandered around a bit in there. The cemetery is about 2 square blocks and almost all the internments are above ground. It was quite an interesting place with many old graves from the mid 1800s. It was also interesting to see the mix of cultures and the different ways the inscriptions were done. For dinner, we went to a small restaurant in the Cuban section that was recommended by the woman at the B&B. It was a fairly small place in the middle of the neighborhood and didn't really look like much. The food was great! We got there a little early, but by the time we left the place was packed with tourists and locals. We had so much food we had to take at least half of it (except for the key lime pie) with us.
Tuesday, we reluctantly packed up and headed out. Our time in Key West was great. The weather was beautiful the whole time (we did have some sprinkles briefly on Sunday) with highs around 80 and lows around 70. We headed back up US 1 to the Florida Turnpike to Orlando and on over to DeBary to our usual Hampton where we stay when visiting Vikky and her family. That is where we are now.
We visited with Lorraine and Wyatt all day (I played a couple of console video games with Wyatt). Then we went out to dinner to celebrate Mary's birthday. Tomorrow, we head over to Erik's folks for a big Thanksgiving dinner.
Friday we are planning on going to Silver Springs. Saturday we will head west along the Gulf Coast getting to New Orleans on Sunday. After two or three days there we will head up to Natchitoches for a day or two, then... Who knows???
* Yes, I know there is some controversy about what he does, etc.
This is to be our South East tour of '08. We left home on Thursday, November 15 and headed south on I-95 for the Florida Keys. We stayed at Richmond Hills, GA (just South of Savannah) that night. RH is a standard stop for us when south bound to Florida. We stay at the same Hampton Inn each time and know the neighborhood pretty well. We always look for new dining adventures, though. This time we found an Scottish "Pub" near by that was really great. It has a nice homey feel with good food, friendly people and Guinness (yeah, I know that's not Scottish). They also have a darts area and the wall behind the bar is lined with single malt (mostly) Scotches. They had a complete list of them like a wine list. We passed on the Scotch and stuck with Guinness.
The next morning we got ready to set off and noticed the "wheel falling off" light (or is that the low tire pressure???) was lit. We couldn't tell which was the offending tire and none of them seemed to be leaking. We decided to give the local Lexus dealer a call and headed over there. It turned out it was the spare was just a bit low (how does that happen?), but it took us a couple hours between going back up to Savannah and waiting for the car. Fortunately, our second leg was not too long.
Next stop was Hallandale Beach just south of Ft. Lauderdale and about 10 miles north of Miami. We did end up having to go through Lauderdale during rush hour, but we made it. We ran over to a very nice Cuban restaurant and grabbed a couple of Cubano sandwiches and Dos Equis (XX) to go.
Next morning, we headed down the A1A (Coast) highway through Miami Beach and South Miami Beach. That was really a fun drive. We saw lots of interesting buildings and the renowned art deco architecture in South Beach. From there we picked up US 1 and headed south and west. It is about 123 miles from the Florida mainland to Key West (our destination) and that took us the better part of 3 hours. It was a very nice drive. The highway is called the Overseas Highway, and it lives up to its name. It just goes from island to island with frequent long causeways and bridges connecting them. One of those bridges is Seven Mile Bridge that was featured in the movie True Lies. Of course we stopped in Key Largo and took pictures of the inn where the great old Humphrey Bogart movie was shot.
We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Key West. It was very nice and our room had a veranda off of it that overlooked the street. Unfortunately, that street was US 1. Actually, it wasn't that bad as traffic dwindled to nothing by the time we would sit out there in the evening.
We spent Saturday evening through Tuesday morning in Key West. We walked everywhere. One of the main evening activities amongst the 20 and 30 somethings (and several folks who never out grew that) is to stroll Duval Ave with drink in hand stopping in at the nearest bar when said drink was gone for a refill. We did the stroll Saturday night, but without the drinks. Sunday we walked over to the Southernmost Point in the US and wandered back down town. Then we took a tour (the Conch Train) to see all the sights and get filled in on the architecture of the old town area. Sunday night we went on a sunset dinner cruise on a schooner that was fantastic. We actually saw a better sunset on Saturday night, but the cruise experience was awesome.
Monday we visited the Hemingway House and met several 6-toed cats that were descended from Earnest Hemingway's Snowball. It was very interesting to see his house and here some of the stories that went with it. Our tour guide was a character.
We also visited the Mel Fisher Museum*. It was very interesting to see all those artifacts from a couple of wrecks he found. One was the Nuestro Senora de Atoches which sank in the 1600s and was carrying a large amount of gold and silver. Some of the stuff in the collection was phenomenal.
From there we went on and did more wandering about. Grabbed a lunch of salad at an open air restaurant (among the chickens), got a couple of tats and headed back to our room at the B&B to rest before dinner. Before dinner, we walked over to the Old Town cemetery and wandered around a bit in there. The cemetery is about 2 square blocks and almost all the internments are above ground. It was quite an interesting place with many old graves from the mid 1800s. It was also interesting to see the mix of cultures and the different ways the inscriptions were done. For dinner, we went to a small restaurant in the Cuban section that was recommended by the woman at the B&B. It was a fairly small place in the middle of the neighborhood and didn't really look like much. The food was great! We got there a little early, but by the time we left the place was packed with tourists and locals. We had so much food we had to take at least half of it (except for the key lime pie) with us.
Tuesday, we reluctantly packed up and headed out. Our time in Key West was great. The weather was beautiful the whole time (we did have some sprinkles briefly on Sunday) with highs around 80 and lows around 70. We headed back up US 1 to the Florida Turnpike to Orlando and on over to DeBary to our usual Hampton where we stay when visiting Vikky and her family. That is where we are now.
We visited with Lorraine and Wyatt all day (I played a couple of console video games with Wyatt). Then we went out to dinner to celebrate Mary's birthday. Tomorrow, we head over to Erik's folks for a big Thanksgiving dinner.
Friday we are planning on going to Silver Springs. Saturday we will head west along the Gulf Coast getting to New Orleans on Sunday. After two or three days there we will head up to Natchitoches for a day or two, then... Who knows???
* Yes, I know there is some controversy about what he does, etc.
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