Vaca 2020 - Day 4 - Swamp Boat Tour

So... I'm a big, fat sissy. I do not like things like this. If I am to see a gator, I prefer it to be on a screen or behind hurricane rated glass. I'm not interested in "the real thing".  

Why?  Because the real thing is likely to lunge at me, rip a vein out of my neck and kill me and that is strictly on my list of "ways NOT TO GO!".  

But of course, these critters do not seem very clever and so I'm pretty sure that they do not care about my mortality (or lack thereof) list.

So as this day began, I was watching the weather and HOPING BY THE GRACE OF GOD that we would have thunderstorms and the good company would return our money and we would drive back East into New Orleans "disappointed" but "exuberant" about our next adventure (lunch).  

Thankfully, it didn't work out that way.

Let's get to the story.

Upon arrival, they had a real, live Yeti that would pose with for pics. Pretty sweet!  But please note, this was Clarence, not Darrell.

I challenged Clarence's bad self.  He won, but not by much!

This was the albino gator that they had inside the ticket shack.  He had pretty good roaming room.  I'm not sure what kind of survival stats the albino has. Honestly, I have no clue now that I think of it in greater detail.  Perhaps I have a take-a-way?

One of those floating death traps is ours...  We just don't know which one we'll die on yet.

OMG YES!!!!  Thunderstorms are rolling in!!  Perhaps we'll get refunded yet!?!?

Sweet, sweet rain with the occasional lightning. Nearly perfect.

Welp, that didn't work.  After a roughly hour-long delay, we boarded our wet-arse-death-traps to go be fed to hungry gators who have been cooped up and p!$$ed off about the quarantine.  It's obvious to ME that they will be extra hungry and aggressive due to their loneliness...  I may be the only passenger who realizes this as we head to sea...   *sigh*

SEE!!!!!   This looks like an alley that you wouldn't dare go thru where I grew up and I had a pretty good youth!

Yep... trouble ahead. For God's sake!!

Satan arrives and here we are snapping pictures, excited like a bunch of city folks looking at baby pigs being born at the Iowa State Fair.  It's gross.  It's horrible... but there we all are. year after year. C'mon man...

So Satan's approach wasn't bad enough that the driver of this boat took us down this alley...

Oddly enough, after a short bit, you emerge into an area like this again.

And then again, long alley way' s like this.  You never knew what was coming once the boat turned the next corner.

Yep, we're going into that even though nobody asked Ted if this was okay....

and what does a fella encounter in such alleys?  Trash like this!!  Honestly, I was getting used to them approaching and their rather docile behavior where I was thinking I would not die.

Off we go down a different "alley" when we meet one of the other tour boats.  We saw a few of them but this is the only one that we actually "crossed paths" with. Makes you wonder how extensive these water paths are...

Another "friend" approaching.

Just outside the boat,  and another reminder that I was espescially clever picking the middle seat!!!

Again...

Momma Chaos and a very willing participant, Robert the Honored!!!

Calebber and my big-arsed nose!!!

This kid was excited about this back in Iowa when we were planning a back-up to our Alaskan trip.  This boat tour was right up his alley!!

New Orleans in the distance.

He looks ornery!  

By this point, I was getting pretty comfortable...  and by comfortable, I mean that I'm comfortable with the Southern, toothless dude driving our boat giving the gators a marshmallow or two.  Nothing more!

See!!!  The LOVE of marshmallows...

 

The tour guide spoke of the effect that it has had on the gators.  He talked of the trust they had with the tour boats and after 4 months of shutdowns, the gators aren't very receptive to the boats like they were.  He was clearly sad about his buddy's distress as I think this guy clearly loved his job and the gators he visits!

But for me, being back on terra firma is a goood thing, however, this was a KILLER tour and one of the highlights of our vacation. 

Vaca 2020 - Day 3 - NOLA Jazz Boat Tour

After a walk back down towards where we met for the walking tour,  we boarded our boat for a short cruise down the Mississippi where some gentlemen were playing a bunch of old jazz standards.

Not the most exciting thing that we did by any means, but it was nice to have a couple of beers, relax, let the wind blow thru your hair while listening to live music!   

I talked to the band after they were done playing as it seemed like they were struggling to keep everything in tune due to the heat and humidity.  Turns out they were.  Those things are hard on guitars but I always assumed it was just due to the wood, but nope, the band leader played the trumpet and another dude played a tuba and it's the same for all.  Constant tuning during whatever break in the song you get.

When we first boarded the boat, we didn't know what was going on so we picked the first place where we saw four seats together.  We sat here for a bit before I got up and moved around.  There was a table on the top level by the band that was open, so we moved up there.

Just a wide shot of where we're going to go soon...  that small thing in the foreground is related to the dredging boat that much nearer to us.  What is it?  I have no clue...

That bridge is the Hwy 90 bridge. 

We're off and moving...  at the mercy of the captain of the ship.

I no longer recall what that building is, but lucky for me,  I still recall that that is my wife in the foreground with the aforementioned wind blowing thru her hair.

The very large boat is the Cape Knox with some additional info here if you're curious.

More Knox...  it was quite large!

The jazz trio, awaiting their opportunity to play some more rock n' roll for us weary travelers.

A couple of similar boats to that which we are on.  I think they announced that these were "in storage" for the time being, but I don't recall for sure.

I believe that this had something to do with the military at some point, but is now used for other reasons.

I believe this is the old sugar factory and it's still in use, but you wouldn't guess it from the different views you get while passing by it.

These next several pictures are in the belly of the boat and I'm not 100% sure we were supposed to be down there, but, nobody kicked us out, so we kept going.

The chain and the caution pylon tell me that maybe peeps are allowed in here.

Here's the lads blowing their horns and pickin' the banjo!

The Hwy 90 bridge again... this was our turn-around point.

 So there we have it.  Another day of vacation and another day of New Orleans is in the books.

SEP for the Win!

I took a picture of the scoreboard after the boy's first score of the season!  Yes it's the 3rd game, but it's their first score and they were amped.  I don't recall the final score but I think it was 14 - 7 as we scored a 2nd touchdown but missed the 2 point conversion.  Our field goal kicking is a bit shaky, but it worked out.

I took this pic for just the sun and the way it is hidden in the haze of smoke from the West Coast wild fires.  Pictures of the actual game are not that exciting but weather pictures RULE!!  It was weird how the sun just suddenly disappeared without any notice to us humanoids.

 

Vaca 2020 - Day 3 - NOLA Walking Tour

On the 3rd day of vacation, we woke up and walked to The Cafe DuMonde for some authentic Beignets, which were good, very good (not too mention the coffee!) but both boys were not happy that there was no bacon, sausage or eggs.  Not gonna lie, a pastry is ok as a side dish, but NOTHING more!  We also ordered WAY TOO many of these and I ended up carrying a leftovers bag on our walking tour.

Caleb was MOST unhappy about the Beignets and wondered how a cafe that only served those (they don't, but it was a limited menu due to Corona20-1) could stay in business.  When we told him that the restaurant was in business for nearly 40 years,  he was kind of, pardon the phrase, pissy.  LOL!! 

A few blocks later, we were crossing the street to get to where we were to meet our tour guide.  The Market Cafe happened to be on this little corner and Caleb wanted eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage!  We ordered just one while Rob complained about nearly everything.  We had the most wonderful waitress there too.  Caleb ate his breakfast and was now perfectly happy and ready to go walking!

Let's go for a quick walk.

 

This was just on our walk down to the place where we meet the guy who takes us on our walk...  Just a side street not far from our hotel where it seemed like a good place to be mugged and killed.

Here we are looking across Jackson square at the St. Louis Cathedral.  It looked like a beautiful park but as you can see by the white paper signs, it was closed.  Apparently, you're allowed to do all of the nefarious stuff that people were doing when we "arroved" around 7:30 on a Saturday night, but you can't go in THERE!  I'll bet they have the virus trapped inside the fence...   ahem.   This is the church who, against the rules of their religion, reluctantly rang the church bells around midnight on March 21st, 1788 when the great fire raged in New Orleans.

This is while sitting at the Market Cafe waiting for Caleb to consume his happiness in the form of breakfast.  The building on the left side of the photo is where we are to meet our tour guide...  he was late.  Lucky for him, he was very good at what he does and explained in great details, the history of the areas where we were walking.  The other family with us barely ever talked so he and I had some good conversation!

Same exact spot as above, but this time looking South.  The Market Cafe is the building on the right side of the pic.

This is a little "alley" between the St. Louis Cathedral and a museum called The Calbildo.  This alley is literally called Pirates Alley and he had some good stories for that.  Apparently, there was a lot of money that changed hands in this alley for various reasons and if you focus on the doorway just on the dudes left arm,  that was the exit door to the prison where legend has it, Jean Lafitte's brother, Pierre, was imprisoned until apparently being released in a trade with Jean, for British intelligence. There's a LOT of information our there and I wish that I were able to recall more of the guides talk as he reconstructed a ton of local lore into his stories and saying why certain things could simply not be true.

I took this for no other reason other than my sister Doris.  I didn't even know what it was/is, but apparently it's a place to spend a LOT of money on food.  Burger for $18.  Lamb Chops for $50 and so on...  

The court house.  As the tour guide asked, can you tell where they ran out of money??  LOL.  About halfway up is the answer where the building begins using a much cheaper type of stone.

Nothing in particular, just New Orleans streets.  However, after looking at Google.maps roadside view, I'm very glad that we were here during the Coronavirus22-3 as the streets are always crazy busy in those photographs and you can see how busy they are for us!

Antoine's Restaurant, which is the oldest "foodery" in New Orleans, was closed due to restorations during the Coronavirus11+8.  The guide says it is one heckuva place to catch a lunch for not all that much $$$ but I cannot confirm nor deny his claim as they are still closed and you cannot access their menu online.

This classy looking joint was called Hand Grenades.  Their sign reads "Drinks and Beer To Go", which the guide also told us about how all of that got started!  I think it was after prohibition where a clever fella came up with an idea of how to drum up more business and that was to have a "drink window" where peeps on the streets could just walk up, order a drink and be on their way.  It seems to have caught on!

Nothing but graffiti that I thought was interesting. 

This little pirates cove is called LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar.  Here is where he told us how the ever-so-honorable Jean LaFitte would buy slaves, take the ones he wanted and declare the rest to be defective due to disease and such, returning them for money.  And then, when they went back to auction as defective, one of his cohorts would go buy them at greatly discounted prices.  Soooooo...  pretty cool to have a place named after a man like that?  Or,   something...   wow. 

That was the end of our tour.  We went to a local joint where the fella said they had excellent icy drinks (and he wasn't lying!) and some fine po'boys before heading back to the hotel before our next little adventure.

Hatching Advocados, Pt. Deux.

The top of the plant is looking pretty good and if we follow directions, we'll likely prune this fella soon!

The root system is also looking purdy good!  I have a suspicion that since we're in Iowa, we'll not have not success with any produce ever... uh...  producing, but we'll have fun growing it in the meantime!

 

Buddies!

 

I'm so happy that Steve and Juno get along.  They snuggle too!