Having the car today means we can do what we planned last week...go to a Friends of the Library Book Sale on St Charles Street. Apparently there aren't too many libraries in New Orleans, at the moment. We found on in Lakewood on Friday, but they were closed. Who closes a Library on a weekday???
Today dawned lovely and clear and sunny. I was up at 5.45am, but decided to let Waz sleep another couple of hours.
The sunrise was quite spectacular, as you can see. We are moored up the Industrial Canal, and this is certainly evident right across the canal...this is what we see!
This boat is a fishing/duck hunting boat that is for sale, at the marina. I had to take a photo of the Gator Tail motor. These are amazingly noisy things, which to me negates the whole duck hunting thang....note the reeds in the boat. They take the boats into the marshes, and this helps camouflage them, of course.
On our way into town this morning we were stuck in heavy traffic. Couldn't think what the reason was...the Voodoo Music festival came to mind...duh!
We thought we should take some photos while we had the opportunity. This is the Mercedes Benz Superdome (think American Football stadium)
Traffic at a standstill on the lower bridges of spaghetti junction, NOLA
A good sign!! Building!!!
Here is it..superdome!
...and thank goodness we arrived in one piece. The traffic here is reminiscent of NZ in the aggression of the drivers, the speed and the uncompromising attitudes on display in vehicles...and, don't get me started...in boats!
We always love walking the streets in central New Orleans...the Victorians are hard to go past, especially on a lovely morning with gorgeous light.
We parked not far from the library (over the road, actually) and because we had to wait ten mins or so for them to open, we decided on a walk of the immediate neighborhood.
Halloween still very much in evidence.
This flower pot arrangement on the side of the road is worth copying!
Love the details...and the colors!
ghouls and ghastlies hanging from all kinds of stunning homes.
Halloween is no laughing matter in NOLA
:)
Apparently this home was purchased some 5 yrs ago for just over 1 million dollars. I guess this was post Katrina. The man who lives in his own lovely Victorian, who was out gardening, roadside, told us it is now going for sale for just over $3million. When I asked it is was original, he said, NO! the upstairs pillars have been added with the renovations. The original owner kept his mother living downstairs while he had an apartment upstairs. The new owners have now combined the two and added some embellishments. He didn't think much of them!:) It is still a very eye-catching home.
Here we are at the Library. This is a former stately home...we went inside the main building where the overwhelming smell of new paint and varnish didn't encourage us to stay. Poor staff...it would have given anyone a headache! However, we are very gratified to know that these lovely homes are being done up and restored with public monies and very generous private donations.
We came away from the book sale with some twenty odd books...they are sitting in bags on the bunk beds up forw'd, and will probably stay there...nowhere else to put them. If we are here on Wednesday, we will catch a trolley down to the sale again and take the books I have read back to them to resell.
This one??
How lovely is this...Yes, I could curl up on this lanai with a good book, in the afternoon sun.
the decoration is worth noting, I feel.
After the library, we kept going all the way to the end of St Charles Street (just because) and found a parking space to get some lunch.
After a few 'round the block' tours, we found a space across the main rail line..with a train coming:)
It was still some way away when we crossed over the lines, on foot, so no problems there.
Across the road on the corner of Carrollton and St Charles St. is a cafe/bakery called La Madeleine.
Of course we thought we were going in the Cafe door, but we came in through the bakery door and lo! french patisserie!!!yes!
The decision was made (easily, I might add) to have dessert for lunch:)...well, why not?
We chose a lemon tart(remember, these are very small pastries), a fruit tart, a sacher mousse in a tapered cup (delish), and chocolate tart and a pecan pie. All this with a cafe au lait.
Just enough food to take the edge off our hunger, but we thought we might just have room for something else later.
Walking is always the best way to get around when parking is at a premium and weekend traffic was busy.
We walked down Carrollton and found a Baskin Robbins. Waz has never had a Baskin Robbins ice-cream, so we made the decision to complete the dessert lunch with a 2 scoop ice-cream sundae. Strawberry Very Berry and pistachio Almond ice-cream with pineapple topping. Hmmmm... not sure the pineapple was the best choice, but we were avoiding chocolate for some reason.
Sorry..no photos!:)
We decided to see how far Carrollton street went, and lo! what did we find, but the latest and greatest thing to hit NOLA...a COSTCO!!! oh blessed day:)
Yes, we found the Costco. This new building is the first one in NOLA and has been open only 1 month. Of course I didnt have my membership card in my handbag, so we went to Customer service for a temporary one.
First stop...computers! Waz had some money burning a hole in his pocket, so we chose another computer like the one we had bought for me a couple of months ago. His is touch screen, mine isn't.
The challenge with these is the Windows 8 operating system. Never mind, we will learn this too.
I'm still using the old computer to type this:)
We found a number of items we needed and went to check out. Ooooppppsss....forgot they dont take VISA! shoot! We had to leave all our goodies in the cart (it had taken us 45 mins to collect them all) and go back to the boat to get the VISA DEBIT card, and the membership card to pay for the purchases.
It only took us 30 mins return, but someone had already put all our things back. We had to do the shopping all over again. You know how that goes, dont you?? You always forget the most important items on the list! and we did!
Never mind...another day.
Waz spent the balance of the day back at the boat installing software and getting the computer up and running.
We had bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco, for dinner($4.99), so we heated that and made a large salad which we ate sitting up on the fly deck. The wind is cold now, so we had all the curtains down and it was lovely and cosy. The sun heats it up beautifully during the day so it is nice and warm by the time we want to eat up there.
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