Is it thursday already?

Gosh darn! another day flew past me and I didn't even see it go! How's that for sneaky...must be those voodoo dolls someone is sticking pins into.

Though the sun shone glorious first thing this morning, it has since turned to porridge. Well, at least there isn't any rain ...yet! Keeping fingers crossed that precipitation of ANY kind doesn't follow the high winds.
It is rather amusing to note the industry around us this morning, just when the wind is blowing 20knots...well, gusting, at least. People hanging out of flybridge windows (plastic) at strange angles, drills in hand making holes, fitting GPS mushrooms to the top, others cleaning (huh? in this wind the dust will all be back with a vengeance) changing oil, etc etc. This has not happened on windless days. Does the wind invigorate?

We need to clean too (but wont)...Waz just told me the wind is blowing 25 knots at the entrance to the Mississippi River. The Canal out front is choppy and the current running swiftly.

We helped a 40ft Yacht come into the poles last evening, just down the dock. They have come from Galveston, TX, and not had a great experience with Locks et al. It seems that the lock operators are just not that cooperative. Our experience also.
These folks were so glad to be on land finally...it is a loooooooooong trip, though they went inland into Houma and stayed at the town dock, same as we did. There are all kinds of ways to get inland from the Gulf of Mexico if in need of shelter or rest.

They are out washing down their yacht this morning, carefully staying upwind of the hose spray:)

So, what happened in the meantime??
Tuesday night was something of a 'gathering' night at our place. I had all the ingredients for a Portuguese Bean Soup, BUT..when I went to cook the Chorizo, I didnt have my glasses on..reading ones, that is, and just put them in the pan. I thought they didnt look quite right, but you dont expect such things...really...Waz came down and said "Those dont look right!":) really??? Something was burning, though I kept turning the sausage. So, putting my reading glasses on (coz the good ones...trifocal, blended's...went into the drink...remember?) I discovered that I was supposed to take the casing off before cooking. Oh well...however, after taking the casings off..huh? the contents just all fell apart! It ended up cooking like hamburger meat in one big blob.
I had already sweated the onion and celery, emptied the red beans, chick peas, corn and tomato odds and sods in and the pot was on a slow boil. The sausage blob was added to the mix and quickly dispersed, but gave a new flavor...so, who cares if you cant find the sausage??
I was sure we had some spicy sausage somewhere else on the boat, so Waz went digging into the Freezer down in the Lazarette (under the cockpit deck). He came up with some of our Delcambre Sugar syrup sausage, which is very cajun! They were frozen, of course, but never mind, no time for thawing...they went into the soup mix all together. This was probably the best thing I could have done. Having put the soup on to boil (rumble) at around 10.30am, I took the sausage (cajun) out at around 1pm..all cooked and having spread it's lovely flavor throughout.
I added a tablespoon of brown sugar and a tiny bottle of Tabasco (sample size from the factory) to the whole thing and left it to simmer for another couple of hours. The sausage got chopped into slices and readmitted to the soup.
I turned it all off around 3pm to sit and rest.
Meantime, Tim next door  told us that CT (or TC...top chef, as I call him) had appeared with two good sized fillets of Red Fish, for dinner. Fantastic. Tim was already invited for soup./stew, so one more was no biggy.

Along the way, we had been having a jawbone with Marty, the captain on the big Sportfisher, Solitaire, and invited him over for a meal too.

The soup went back on to boil around 5.30pm..along with some small whole grain baguettes that were frozen (another search for frozen food had ensued with the growing numbers)that went into the convection oven.
CT always  cuts his fish off the bone (no gutting) leaving the skin, scales and all..no head though. He put the fish on the B-b-q flesh side down (to caramelize, he said) first, then turned it over onto the scale side and put the lid down. The result was delicious and moist. A little bit of salt and pepper and it was fantastic!
So, we all sat down, all 5 of us, and ate freshly caught/cooked Redfish and Louisiana Sugar Sausage Bean Soup/stew (new designation, note!) with baguettes, VERY civilized:)
Of course there were some drinks to go along with it all and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the food. Marty kept us thoroughly entertained with Sea Captain stories, some of his youth in the Cayman Islands (I didnt ask how old he was then, but the shenanigans sound typical of mid twenties single male), captaining 120ft Crew/equipment boats for Oil companies into the Gulf of Mexico (sometimes hundreds of miles out), the roughnecks (official designation) who man the oil rigs, and the crew he had to be in charge of.
It is significant to note, and in his own words, that Marty is a skinny white guy you could snap like a twig! His stories of being in charge of some of the 'scum of the earth' on these vessels, make the hair curl.
Anyway...we laughed till our jaws were sore and couldn't laugh anymore.
CT had to depart early in the piece to go home for dinner (he did justice to both the fish and soup while here!) with his family, and Tim always departs early (by 8.30pm) so we were left with Marty and his funny stories.

Nothing like a stimulating evening with fun people, lots of good food and laughter, to keep you 'up'.

Ed, who lives on a houseboat around the corner in the more sheltered part of the Marina(with his good wife whom we have never seen) , has organized a get together of all the liveaboards this friday (weather permitting..I think he is optimistic!) with hotdogs and share. We will all take some food and our choice of meat, I guess. We are looking forward to this, having gotten to know most of the folks here over the past month.

Oh yes, we have enjoyed not moving on, I have to say, and having time to sit and read, which we have done in spades.
Today we need to go to the library if we can find one with a book sale, or sit tight until saturday when the Friends of the Library on St Charles street have a book sale. We might have to do that, in fact, when we rent a car for the weekend, again. We will go with the smallest car available, me thinx at $9.99 per day, and 100miles limit per day. We arent going far this weekend....esp. if we have to make good on our plans to leave on monday-wednesday.
Speaking of cars...I need to call and book one.
So, off to make some cookies to share for friday, and perhaps I will be inspired to do something Halloween-ish??? dont have any orange coloring...hmmmmmmmmm
Ciao for now.

Change of Plans

The worst things to have on a boat are an agenda and a timetable. The weather/sea conditons are our guide.

We were out of bed at 6am this morning and checking the weather forecast. Waz waited till he had showered (6.30am) before making a decision on moving on or not.
The forecast is for changing weather around noon with increasing cold and winds. By the time we would have been trying to cross Mobile Bay, Alabama (tomorrow), the winds would be in the vicinity of 16-19 knots, so we have made the executive decision to stay put. Mobile Bay is shallow, so the waves whip into a frenzy we have been told. It is a bit like Lake Ponchartrain which is about 20 feet deep at the deepest...she can whip into white caps and short sharp chop in the flash of an eye.

We have heard so many accounts of Bridge Opening staff who refuse to let small craft go under the bridge..therefore dont open it for them to go through because of the state of the Lake.

 People here are happy we arent going anywhere with this weather system approaching. Apart from our suspicion that neightbor Tim is sticking pins in his weather doll (just joking, Tim!) we are glad to sit tight until all is well again..lets hope it doesnt go past next wednesday when our months' rent expires! It gets expensive when paying by the day. We paid $350 for a month vs $50 per day to sit on the poles. Cheap rent after 7 days.

We like the people here. The management are good folks and the whole family of sons/cousins is involved in the running of the Marina, Dry Stack (Boats stacked inside), Boat yard, Live Bait (shrimp) and Boat maintenance.
We also like the folks who inhabit the liveaboards and partial live aboards.

The dogs that live with Vegas and Trixie are a hoot. I can only ever remember one of their names..and you can see why  'Mayday'!!!Yep, this cutie of indeterminate parentage is called Mayday. I will try to get a photo of her, but she is so 'alive' with energy that she doesnt stand still for a moment. Whenever she passes the boat and we are here, she has to stop for puppy love, and we are active participants, of course:)
Their cats are also amusing..as only cats can be. They refuse all of their owners efforts to leave the boat until THEY are ready..how like cats!! As soon as Mom or Dad leave, turn their backs, the cats are off the boat in a flash:) They also come around for loves...and do we mind???of course not. We actually miss having our animals around us, but dont feel inclined to include them in our lives at this stage. Too much other stuff going on.

We have been told by Marty, the captain of the sportfisher Solitaire, that there is a huge music festival on this weekend, in town. How fortunate:) Silver linings and all that!

Well, it is now 10am, and I have some chores to attend to. Waz has just started his, so I need to look lively.
We will check in with you later or tomorrow!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Yesterday, Sunday presented a dilemma.
We were anticipating checking in at Baton Rouge with my online friend Connie, but she reported in with a stomach bug (no thanks) and too many children to take care of, so we re-thought our day.
I guess the past week's trauma had finally made it's mark, and I was tired and a bit out of sorts as a result, not having slept that well the previous night.

We decided to mess around in the morning..which is easy to do when you have nothing much to do, and go for a tiki-tour in the pm.

We left the boat around 2pm with the idea that we would drive across Lake Ponchartrain (the Causeway) to the North Shore again, but venturing north, instead of south, as we did last time. We wanted to navigate around the top of the lake this time.
Our first port of call was to be Covington. This is where our current neighbor (on Big Fish) Tim lived for 21 yrs when he was married (currently single, if anyone is looking for a nice fella!:) ) and he was happy we were going to see his old stomping ground. He didnt want to come with us!

We had the 'girlfriend' with us, of course (GPS) but didnt quite know where in Covington to go..as in ...what is your destination??...
We turned a little too soon into a Starbucks (yes, there is that name again!) where we enjoyed a hot drink (it was cool and a bit drizzly).

I have to interrupt here for a moment and tell you that the weather is getting colder. It is a bit tricky to know whether to wear Jeans or shorts. or take both...usually a good idea, no?

Wwe enjoyed sitting outside with our drinks before taking a walk around the shopping complex, which really was a Restaurant complex, in truth. Another ZEA restaurant was there, and we were a bit bummed it wasnt either lunch or dinner...we might have gone there for either, we enjoyed our previous meal there so much.
Goodness, it sounds like we eat out all the time...but believe me, I cooks more than we eat out...ask Tim! he is the guest a lot:) even if it is just for dessert:)

So, we ventured forth again..it was after 3pm, by this time, so yes, we could justify the stop for coffee!
This time Waz set the GPS for the 'center' of town in Covington. We nearly fell over laughing (we were seated fortunately) because the center of town was literally the DEAD CENTER...the Cemetery!!! how fortunate for us. We like those things, as you might know by now. Except that it was raining large drops, which meant we were confined to the vehicle.
We did happen upon a Pumkiniere...well, ok, a church yard full of pumpkins.

When we pulled up to photograph them (Waz took pic), there was a pile of roten pumpkin which looked like someone had parked ON them:)

 

There really was nothing else to take photos of...you have seen all the victorian homes, so a few more would have you yawning, I fear...yes, lots of overgrown vegetation made more drab by the weather..lots of old homes needing repaint and repair jobs..this was the Historic part of town, by the way.

 

We took at least two wrong turns in our quest for the 'right' highways to get back to the city, and I think we didnt anticipate that it would take us so long to get home or that the highways we were driving on were in fact bridges, though the natives tell us 'those arent bridges!!'

Waz had a bit of a challenging time taking pics to illustrate this blog, so bear with us and the slightly blurred photos. We were ding the speed limit of 70mph, so that forgives us, somewhat.

I didnt feel that safe driving that fast, in the damp, mainly because you have to really pay attention to the road and the traffic, despite it being a sunday. This, like any other large city never sleeps.

Something else we had to contend with as we got closer to the city...there had been a major football game on in the Mercedes Benz superdome...the New Orlean Saints playing the Buffalos (from???). They are rapid Saints fans down here..I guess that much should be obvious, as any city in the USA is rooting for it's home team.

Back to the highways...

They are really a bit confounding. You are driving along Hwy 55, the trees and tangled mess of vines etc lines the road, and every now and then, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, there is a long road going off to the side, either left or right into a subdivison. Weird! There isnt even a 'town' per se within spitting distance. Covington had the usual Strip malls along the highway, but the Historic part of town was cute and old and fussy.

 

As we joined 55 to Interstate 10, we found ourselves on a raised highway above the swamp and marsh beyond. This roadway (highway) was rather mind-boggling to be perfectly honest. It was two raised (like bridges) all in concrete, about 20 feet above the water, with traffic going east and the other west (like us) back to the city.

It is the Manchac Swamp Bridge at 36.69 kms long. One of the longest bridges over water, in the world. It opened in 1979, it's piles were driven 250ft beneath the swamp, at a cost of $7 million per mile...(this is 1979 prices!)

 

This was taken at the beginning of the divided highway just as it left terra firma on the Nth Shore.

 

Our view of things.Lots of RV's...Sunday is the day they change locations, it seems.

 

This is TRUE Louisiana Swamp! It was a bit cool for Aligators we think, as we didnt see a one!

 

All those tire marks apparently get made by inattentive drivers...mostly trucks, apparently. It snakes its way over the top of Lake Ponchartrain and below Lake Manchac..between the two, I guess.

It got VERY tiresome, especially as the road was a clackety clack road...the surface was broken up (summer heat expansion joints) and makes for rather unpleasant riding.

 

Coming towards the open lake

...and the pylons that go right across it

...the rail bridge that ran parallel to the highway for most of the way.

Homes were literally built in the middle of the Marsh on no readily discernable solid land...I guess it must have been there!

The smoke in the distance is from a refinery.

 

By about here, I was in overload. The speed of the vehicles, the super fast idiots who wove in and out of traffic, and the fact that we were yet a good half hour or more from home meant no more photos! Sorry!:(

 

We thought NZers were bad drivers. They have nothing on the idiots in New Orleans. This was especially apparent on sunday after the big game. We can only surmise that they were fuelled with beer and the fact that 'their' team won. Yes, the Saints won decisively...yay!

 

We got home around 6pm as the light was pretty dim...as you can see in the photos. Coming back into the city on a ten lane wide interstate at dusk was not much fun. Due to heavy traffic from the center of town we opted to get off the interstate early, after we recognized the roads we could travel to get home 'the long way'. In fact, it turned out to be a rather nice drive through suburban streets. there was also virtually no traffic around and the speed limit was 40mph, thankfully.

 

We slept like the proverbial, fortunately, and today dawned bright and clear.

Monday

 

Knowing this was our last day for preparation, I went to the supermarket around 10am, and came back just in time to spend time with Dwight, the Marina owner when he came to pore over the charts with us. We had to have the rental car back at noon, but we were finished with Dwight by 11.30am

 

Dwight had come by the boat to show us (on the charts) where to go and where not to. He had just returned from Florida on the reverse trip, but he has also made the trip we are about to embark on, about 6 times. He is semi-retired, but loves being a Captain for Hire, and does many boat transfers per year. He was able to give us insider knowledge and tell us what and where to avoid, and what his choices are here there and everywhere. Very valuable insights too. Nothing like BTDT (been there done that).

With the car returned, we had nothing much left to do but eat lunch and take a break prior to our appointment at the fuel dock around 2.30pm. We took some time out to read and do some necessaries and then slipped the ropes for refuelling. The wind was out of the SthEast, so we approached the dock from the Starb'd side this time. Plenty of help when you need it, too. Tim gave us a hand both places. We also pumped out the smellies, while on the fuel dock.

 

We decided not to spend the night on the fuel dock, but return to our poles. This proved harder than we thought at first. It quickly proved that there were two currents running in the canal..one outside the poles and one inside, because every time Waz got close to the poles on the starb'd side, which was our guide in this wind (about 7 knots) he would be pushed starb'd instead of port which is the way the wind was pushing the front of the boat.

A minor challenge which he overcame after a few false starts. All retied, we retired for a cup of tea. As you do:)

 

I decided to do a final load of washing around 4.3pm, and put it in the drier. I also took some additional time out on the cockpit sofa to read..and Waz joined me there for a bit and a coffee.

I finished my book, so I can start another on the next leg of the journey.

Waz has seen to all the necessary in prep. for tomorrow's early getaway at daybreak.

 

Dinner tonight and boiling some eggs for salad and sandwiches. I had bought a loaf of brown bread at the supermarket, so we can have sangers for the next few lunches. I also bought some turkey breast from the deli, so we have a little variety. Because they are going to be long days, the need for simplicity is evident.

 

You may not hear from us for a few days, but I will be sure to use the voice recorder where and when I can to remind me what to write when we have internet capabilities again.

So, here I am signing off until we get to our anchorage tomorrow night, or the following night after we cross Mobile Bay, Alabama.

 

Time to relax and have an early night. Ciao for now.

 

 

Halloween in Voodoo city! NOLA

The debate was WHEN to go into the city to park the rental car, and then WHERE to park it so that we could get away reasonably well without getting stuck in traffic. We had no idea what to expect in terms of crowds, so we thought we would go well prepared.
We have our backpack almost permanently packed with glasses, cameras, sweaters etc, so it was just a matter of making sure we had enough water, a book to read while waiting, and the necessary cash to buy tickets and food etc.

In the morning we had gone into Lakewood/Metaire to the West Marine store to buy an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indication Radio Beacon) for the boat, or for our persons. We have had this debate about EPIRB for boat, which is then removed when there is an emergency (Hopefully you remember to take it with you)..but it is a large thing. Then there are the personal ones which can fit inside a pocket of the offshore lifevests we have.
We find it necessary to have one of these as we are going offshore into the Gulf of Mexico when we motor from Carabelle, on the top coast of Florida next to Alabama, across the water to Tarpon Springs, just north of Tampa, 180 statute miles.
We will have other open waters crossings in our future next year.
So,  in the end, we opted for the personal locator beacons, with the reasoning that they will already be on our persons and in case we are ever separated while in the water, we each have the ability to be found. This is always called an Insurance Policy:)

So, having purchased the floating variety of personal EPIRB, we left to go back to the boat.
On arrival, we found that one of them was floating, the other wasnt. One was old stock and one was new, and one was $20 cheaper than the other. They were hard to differentiate from just looking at the boxes, but the store clerk should have checked...as should we, before leaving the store. We should know this by now!
So...After lunch, we had to return to the store (having already called ahead to ascertain they had another floating one in stock) and to pick it up.
We had also already ascertained that there was a really nice looking Starbucks opposite (here we go again:) ). We had packed our current reading material to go, so we got our frappucino and found a nice sofa outside in the afternoon sun and read for an hour and half while waiting to go into the Garden District to park the car.
We arrived on St Charles Ave, near third Street, around 5pm and parked against the curb outside a lovely old home. Well, they are all lovely old homes around there:)
There was a security guard parked just behind us, so Waz exited the car to find out if we were ok to park there. Yes, no problem:)
We decided to park there because it is just a hundred feet or so to the  next Street Car stop where we could get on and off easily. This car goes the length of St Charles Ave, stopping just before Canal Street, where the Parade would be passing.

We had to ask the other embarking passengers if they had change, as we realized the street car doesnt give change. Our tickets were just $3 each, and we managed to find a kind soul who had the necessary $1 bills in return for my $10.
The St. Car got increasingly full(er) the closer to town we got. It got to be a bit objectionable, the more people they tried to pack onto it.
We had interesting conversations with people around us, and heard their family trials and tribulations..of course! ...or I should say 'I' heard them.:)

We disembarked on St. Charles Ave/Canal and walked to 'The Shops on Canal' looking for some dinner food. The shops are high end, but the third floor 'restaurants' we found were cheap and nasty, and closed. Hmmmmmm where to eat??
We went back to a restaurant called 'St Lawrence', on Nth St Peters Street (parade route) that we had lunched at previously and enjoyed. Remember the Turducken burgers? Well, they were off the menu last night so we opted for the regular burgers. Not the best meal we have ever eaten, but it filled a hole or two.
We crossed the road in front of the restaurant at just after 6.30pm to claim our 'spot' on the roadside. It got dark moments later.
First up were the boys in blue. Police motorcyclists with blue lights flashing and sirens going

These are mostly Waz's photos, this time...I only had my little camera and no glasses to change the settings with, so it was a bit hit and miss as a result.

 

He was having fun with the light and movement to create true Halloween images - i.e. Ghostly!

 

This painterly image is of the crowd along the roadside as it was getting dark. We were just under a street light which was fortunate for me and my camera!

 

Very photogenic, this ghoul!

Only one High School band was on parade. We would have liked to hear them play properly, but no chance with all the other noises around. All African American kids:)

Isnt she a sweetheart?

 

This is a dunebuggy. They are a club and had gone all out to dress their buggies up.

 

The floats all had a bit of sameness to them, but no matter, they were fun. This was the Exorcist.

Wolfman

Cant remember what this one was

Dracula

an onlooker!

 

more buggies

on one of the floats

dune buggy

Devils on horseback

ghouls and ghastlies

More floats. They were manned by clubs who tossed candy, mugs and plastic cups at the crowd. There was so much candy in the drains at the end, and squashed all over the road.

 

We watched the parade pass on Nth St Peters St, then rushed over and  around the corner to Canal Street and saw it all again there.

Different crowds on canal. Where we started out there were lots of families with small children, but adults were present mostly on Canal.

We actually saw more costumed people while waiting for our return St Car, than at the parade.

 

We asked a policeman when the St Cars would be running again after the parade, and were told rather tersely that would happen when the parade route was cleaned up.

 I dont have pics of the cleanup brigade, but it was something to behold!

 

First came the truck with flashing lights to clear the streets...no cars allowed either till this was cleaned up, and NOLA is used to this, so is VERy well organized.

 

Then came the large water tanker truck which sprayed a soapy and perfumed water onto the street.

Then came the War of the Worlds type street sweepers. How to describe them best??

These looked like huge futuristic tractors, with two wheels per normal in front and two wheels in the middle at back..like a trike. There were big orange round sweepers that went left and right on the sides and a red rolling sweeper in the middle, with a vacuum underneath somewhere. These beasts did a ballet of sorts up and down the streets..all three of them. The cabs have left and right side wheels so they can be driven from both sides. Fascinating...we watched for ages..without thinking to take photos..duh!

These were in tandem with the people on the street with rakes who were swishing all the sidewalk trash onto the street. There was also a trash truck filling up with bags on the sidewalk. and...an hour after the parade, the traffic was allowed back onto Canal Street, and no doubt the other streets too. It was all over by 8pm!!

We stood at the St. Car stop on St Charles Ave with a long line of others and waited....and waited...and waited for the st. car to begin running again.

At 9.10pm, I ran across the road and accosted a taxi that was dropping a fare. We had had enough for the day and wanted to get home with no sign of the St. Car.

Our taxi fare was only $7.40 to third street, thankfully, so we were there in a jiffy with a crazy taxi driver, whom I found it better not to watch driving.

We made our way home uneventfully, thankful that we had made the plans we did and for taking the opportunity to see the parade.

We know the night was young for most party goers, but we are old folks now (ha!) and need our sleep. We dont drink, so there was no point in hanging around.

 

One of the best costumes (in our opinion) wasnt just a costume...a very petite young woman in full leather bondage gear was dragging a bevy of six buff and very gay looking young men, by twine around their necks, down Canal Street. I offered to be their new mistress, but they were not amused by the idea..I wonder why??

We retreated after that to the Starbucks on the corner of the street both for the bathroom stop and a cuppa before getting in line for the St. Car.

 

I am sure I will think of other things to write after I have published this, but that will be tomorrow!

Time to turn in...I will tell you about Sunday when I have time during preparations for our journey onwards, tomorrow.

 

Ciao ciao

A cold wind blowing from the East!

Good morning:)
It is a quarter after 11am, and we are waiting for 11.30 to call the rental car company to come and pick us up at the marina.
We have been for a short walk to the Marina office to see if there is a package for us, but there isnt..so we came back. This is significant for two reasons.
1. I have on trousers, this morning. It is warm in the boat, but coooool outside. Waz has on shorts but a sweater. I have short sleeves on. I asked him if I would need a sweater..to which he replied.."No, you should be ok, you have trousers on". Not sure what one has to do with the other, but I took his advice and went without sweater.
2. I dont have a sweater I can put my fingers on easily.

We went to the office....it is only a couple of hundred yards away, but BRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Cccccooooollld! wind!!
So half way there I was cursing and promised to go looking for the sweater I know is packed somewhere in the bowels of the boat.
On the way back I was cursing more, because now we are walking right into the wind. I couldnt even think, I was so cold. This all came upon us suddenly, I might add. Hot yesterday, cold today..out of the sun, that is.

So, back on the boat, we go forw'd under the guest bed where everything that matters is kept..including two spare propellers.

we found the huge glad bags containing 'other' clothes..namely shoes...I KNEW I had packed my sheekskin slippers:) yayay! and they have rubber soles, so Im safe in the boat!!!
and..we found it...the blue sweatshirt..and the blue down jacket, and Waz's various other warm jackets which we know we will need on the next part of our journey, esp. if we are going into a cold easterly wind or worse, a northerly.
So, Im about to go out with my sweater on:). We will go fod shopping while we are out and then make our way to the garden District for my Dr appmt.
I have to tell you that the assaulted finger nail is now going icky colors both from the top and the bottom. I am thinking I will lose the nail before long, esp. now I am getting the stitches out of the nail. Once it is all loose, I guess anything can happen. I will keep it covered while Im doing boat chores...dont want to risk any problems, esp. as we wont have ready access to medical help while out  'on the road again' as it were.
Well...time to call the car company and get a pick up.
Talk to you later!

Later....

Heavens, how time flies! Here I am writing this on Saturday night!

Lets go back to picking up the car, shall we.
All duly done and we got the same weekend rate of $14.99 per day, which is great, and they gave us a little Jeep Patriot to tool around in  this time. It is kind of cute but a bit gutless on the foot plant!

We went straight to the supermarket, with a distinct timeline in mind, bought lunch there..sushi for mon and Fr. Chix for Waz (he likes the small opportunities he gets to do that!) which we ate in a hurry before heading off to my Dr appointment in the Garden Quarter, opp. Oschner Hospital.

We didnt have to wait as long this time, and I was seen to pretty quickly, all things considered.
They took x-rays ($60) and pronounced it to be healing well. He sat and looked at the finger, talked to me about the 'hardware' in my right wrist which fascinated him..he hadnt seen one like that! and the nurse came in and took the stitches out. Strangely enough the smalles stitches created the greatest discomfort. it was like being stuck with a very thin sharp needle. Small in the scheme of things:)

All that done, we headed home. Of couse we had to negotiate the 4.30pm friday traffic, but we are getting used to that by now. Nobody indicates much before changing lanes and there is one section of the highway where two right lanes join the main flow, and I need to be on the far right lane just past that join...so there is traffic on my right trying to go left in front of me and behind me and all around me, in fact. It can be a bit hair-raising at times. We got home in time to make a cuppa..restorative, always...and to make some leftovers for dinner.

Tim poked his nose in just as we were sitting down to eat, and of course there was enough food for this poor starving man to join us:) He also came back for dessert! lol. I have to feed him the dessert, because he went out and bought the ice-cream!

We didnt have a good night's sleep...it was noisy for some reason and I didnt turn the fan on when we turned out the light...the white noise of the fan over-rides the outside noises, most of the time.

Well, I will continue this in the morning..sunday, as I have lots to tell you about our Halloween experience in the city:)
boo!

Another exciting 'out and about' in NOLA

Another glorious day saw us up and at it before 8am this morning. I have to say, wearing prescription sunglasses inside first thing in the morning  definitely 'colors' your view of things:) I cannot wait to get some alternative to these at a Walgreens or CVS pharmacy, this morning.
We are on our way to catch the shuttle at the Ponchartrain Landing RV park next door..about a 10 min. walk on the grass. to be contd.....

We waited a few mins for the shuttle bus to arrive, along with a crowd. The bus was full this morning. We had an agenda for the first part of the day, but the rest would be played by ear.
As per usual, we were let off on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter.

 

You certainly see some interesting sights ..well, anywhere, actually! Some might say we are included in that! ha!

 

 

No, we havnt been reduced to skeletons! But arent they fun?:)

This fella was enjoying the sun this morning. Very dapper!

Somehow this is very Parisienne, sans the yellow marks on the pavement, of course.

and yes, they are real! I guess they would have no trouble finding each other in a crowd...and yes, we did say "OMG (Oh MY GOD!)!!!! and titter behind our hands!

This Ferrari drew more than a few admiring stares..including ours, but the young women following us up the road where particularly interested:). I would advise them NOT to look for the fella (yes, we saw HIM) driving, as he would obviously think more of his car than of his female partner!

I think this might not be quite in the Fine Art League, but we thought it was very sweet. Waz has a quick eye for such things:) Puss was enjoying the warmth in the window.

 

We were determined to get reading and long distance glasses, and had an idea where we might find them. Sure enough, a Walgreens provided us with the necessary, though finding the right combination of lens's on the rack took some time. I ended up with 1.25's for long distance, and 3.25's for reading. This was the best we could do, and it will be a bit frustrating until we can get me some more blended lenses (prescription) in Florida. We also purchased some cheap hard cases to keep them in.

Next on the agenda was Radio Shack for a new computer Mouse. The old one had been slow and made things go backwards...not much fun.
This store is on Canal Street which is really the 'Main Drag' as it were....and lo! right across from Radio Shack, there is a Starbucks.:)
Anyone would think we are shareholders in the company..but it is so hard to find a good NZ-style Latte anywhere, that we head for a Starbucks when we can find one...which isnt too often, I might add.
We exited Starbucks after a sit down in one of the more 'original' company venues we have come across...

Dont you like this light fixture?

 

Just outside the Starbucks is a Street Car stop. We found out that we can get a whole day pass for just $3ea. We got chatting to the other two couples waiting there, and they were off to a restaurant at the end of the trolley line called Boucherie...for Creole and Cajun food. We had planned, as I think I said yesterday, to go to Sushi Brothers for lunch. Cajun sounded good, so we decided to follow. These folks were from Minnesota! Our neighbor Tim says that should have been the first clue...dont trust anyone north of the border, when it comes to their opinion of southern food, lol.

The Street Cars are an institution here...so we decided to go as far as we could...get off, find food, walk food off and get the St. Car back to Canal Street.

Im sitting at the very back of the St, Car..actually in the driver's seat when they go back the other way...looking out the window at the St.Car following us.

See the Yellow sign...that's where you can catch the St. Car!

 

Lunch!...We decided not to follow the Minnesotans and went instead to a Seafood Restaurant where we sat inside on the terrace(covered in) with fine linen napkins...and ordered...Waz had a Pulled Pork Po'Boy with pommes Frites (this was a very up market restaurant..kinda), below...but he didnt finish it..the pork had little to no taste, and the pickeld red cabbage and pickled cucumber was not too appetizing.

Mine, on the other hand...Crab cake sandwich (I didnt eat the bread at all) with avo, lettuce and tomato and Pommes Frites...in paper... and a huge  gravy boat full of tomato ketchup(each)..see what I mean about upmarket??lol

Plenty of crab in the cake fortunately, and the sauce was spicy, but not enough of it...anyway...I enjoyed the food, though the pommes frites were a bit too cold. Waz had to wait for his PF's to arrive after they brought the po'boy.

It was pleasant enough but I am beginning to object to tipping for everything, especially when the wait staff only come around when you look around for them.

 

We set off to walk some of lunch out of our systems, down St Charles Avenue. This is the lovely tree lined street (HUGE trees) with gorgeous Victorian homes.

We also saw something like this...that cracked us up...how incongruous! The modern symbol with the old.

 

This Synagogue is huge....and beautiful. Founded in 1828. Here is the rest of the story. I love all the bronze plaques everywhere...very informative and quite astonishing sometimes.

The main door knobs

Way above the front doors..below.

 

New Orleans is such a 'funky' place. Seriously, surprises around every corner...and on every street:)

  :)

  :)

This Art Deco  ornamentation on an awning is on the NO Supreme Court building.

The shadows on this building begged to be photographed.

We had gone back looking for this shop...we saw it last week and determined to go back..as I think I have said previously. I wanted to get me some needlework. Well, if you want to pay $100+ for even the smallest ones, good luck. They did let me take a photo inside the entry to the store though:)

Full of the most gorgeous yarns and hand painted linens to embroider. The linens do come complete with thread or yarn, so  I guess the prices arent too bad, but they wanted $245 for the piece I favored. Dont have that kind of money. I will have to make my own design I think.

 

 

St Louie Cathedral, NOLA. This square is where some of the musicians were last time, and then again today. The Museum buildings flank the catherdral, which is interesting..so the building on this side of the spires is Museum, and the same for the one on the other side.

 

 

I love these euphoniums...or Tuba..are they the same thing?? Not looking it up right this instant! They could have done with a good clean..would be even more photogenic if they were! These fellas need a marketing manager!! well, they dont actually, me thinx they do just fine without!

 

This skinny Asian chick could umpah!

Just another sign that Halloween is around the corner..almost literally, lol.

Waiting for the shuttle to take us home we decided to walk another block...and found these guys. The one standing up was playing the washboard very efficiently...

They close the streets off for these streetside performances. I am guessing bands have to book their space?? not sure, but it looks a bit like that, for the most part. I will remember to ask today (finishing this friday morning) if I get a moment when they arent playing

I thought this cocktail was very decorative, so of course took a photo!  We didnt drink that particular on, but we did go into the Original Oyster Factory while waiting for the shuttle, with half an hour to spare, and ordered a much talked about New Orleans original..'Hurricane'. $12 thanks! So for economic reasons, among many other, we shared! We also got the barman to make a lemon Lime and Bitters, which he seemed to remember being asked for previously by Canadian punters.

Here she is..ok..this is how to make one, so listen up, all you who like your cocktails! The barman was happy to share his recipe!:)

 

One part light sweet Rum

half a glass each of Pinapple juice and Orange juice...over ice, of course.

Topped off with a jigger of Grenadine and a Jamaica Rum for good measure.

Garnish with a fat orange slice and a cherry!

Here comes the MOST IMPORTANT PART...

DRINK SLOWLY!!!!

These things will taste like candy and then WHUMP! blow your brains out the minute you walk out the door...well, for some of us, anyway.I felt pretty nauseus on the way home in the shuttle..but then it was hot and jam packed! I did need some food when we got home to the boat, too..so part of that might have been hunger:)

 

Walking down the driveway (we got the driver (and tipped too, I might add) to drop us off at the Marina again) back to the boat, we saw some fellas who looked like they were doing drills in these things...they are the rescue pods from the Oil Platforms. They are being renovated and painted in the Marina yard. We looked inside the other day..didnt have camera on me, bummer....they can seat 50-60 people..hard benches with over-shoulder, as in airline pilot, seatbelts. I imagine you would need to be well buckled in to survive the impact of hitting the water, let alone bobbing around in the ocean.

 

One point to this is...if an oil well blows, as it did in the Gulf a couple of yrs ago..remember the BP platform they couldnt cap??...I believe the workers didnt have time to get into these things, and just jumped into the sea! I doubt you would have time or thought to get into one of these things. They look very claustraphobic!

 The purple Pampas Grass at the beginning of the driveway at the marina is stunning in the late afternoon sun.

 

This is looking back down the Industrial Canal towards two bridges. We have driven along the bottom one to get home, after our tiki-tour across the causeway to the North Shore. That is an Oyster boat on the left.

This is looking UP the canal..which is now obscured by boats on poles. Ours is in there somewhere!You can see the top of the dinghy if you look closely, midway between the tall masts and between two poles on the left.

 

 

A cuppa and biscuit were consumed post NOLA visit, and we flunked out for an hour or so before I started Dinner.

Our neighbor Tim came by to say hello and offer to get anything we wanted at the grocery store (isnt he a sweetheart?), so we gave him a short list that included Ice-cream! This is a first for us as there is finally room in the freezer for a pint.

Tim was, of course, invited for dinner. I made a shrimp and papardelle pasta primavera, using the last of most veg. I had in the fridge. The cupbaord is almost bare, which is a good thing! We even have room for the round cake pan containing the  Bananas Foster upside-down cake which I made the night before..and Tim participated in the eating of..good on you Tim!!! less on our hips!:)ha!

but not sure that it isnt going up to the drinks fridge when we go food shopping today (friday).

 

We are picking up the car again today for my Dr appointment in the Garden District, to get the stitches out. Good thing too, as they are pulling and I want to get back to using this thing...albeit slowly!

We are also going to take Tim into the French 1/4 for Halloween. I need TWO bodyguards for that exercise. Even though he has lived here a long time, he says he hasnt been to Halloween yet! First time for everything, me thinks.

Still waiting to hear from Connie in Baton Rouge about visiting her on the weekend, so will give her a rev today.

Ok..Im outa here to get the car, and perhaps today we will go shopping first and get sushi at the supermarket, for lunch.

 

Ciao for now xx