New Orleans! Part 1 Continued: Images...

Out and about in NOLA! (That's the acronym they use for New Orleans LA, it's printed on just about everything!) The French Quarter is a photographer's dream. If you like people shots, there is every kind from cute to crazy. If you like architecture, they have the gambit from the very very old to the new, from falling down to the refurbished and all the color & decoration you can imagine! If you like art, they have it everywhere, on the streets, along sidewalks, next to buildings, under, over & on top of just about anything they can find to attach it to! If you like landscape & flowers, they tuck plants and flowers where ever they can...and the magnolia trees are just about everywhere, and were starting to bloom! See? A paradise, so you can imagine how I felt, carrying my wonderful new red camera around, snapping away. It took us forever to get from one block to the next as I would yell to Jack to "stop! Just look at that door!" (or "balcony" or "building" or...you get the idea).

It looked as if they had a couple of "themes" going as well, but couldn't quite get them going. One was small painted coffins (I thought that was a bit weird myself, but I guess they thought they would play up their reputation, and it's a "bigger canvas") of which we only saw a couple. The other were these funny looking dogs, again, we only saw a couple. "Sponsor" info or "message" info wasn't prevalent, so hard to say what either of them were all about...but of course, I took pictures of them!

Here's a sampling...if you want to indulge, there's lots & lots more on my Flickr account!













































































































...kicking back in Louisiana, Marie

New Orleans Part 1 Continued: Food, Southern Style!

One of the things you have to embrace when you come to Louisiana, is the food; there's nothing else like it anywhere else! New Orleans is known for their wonderfully warm, smothered in powdered sugar Beignets, Crawfish cooked every which way, spicy Gumbo, and the traditional New Orleans sandwich, the Muffaletta.

Everywhere you turn the smells joined the sounds coming from every cafe & restaurant along every street in and out of the Quarter. I couldn't get enough. Even Jack, who is the pickiest eater ever, found wonderful dishes to savour. So, when we found a brochure for a cooking class, I nabbed it and read on. Seems that lots of us would love to learn "how they do it" enough to at least make a dish or two after we leave this wonderful city. The New Orleans School of Cooking offers morning and afternoon demonstration classes every day of the week, and...you get to eat what is made! Yum, count me in!

My class was on Corn & Crab Bisque; Chicken Etouffee (means to "smother"); and Pralines. All dishes that I knew Jack would eat (no crawfish for that boy!). The school and General Store (all the spices and supplies you will want to add for your new found skills) are located in a renovated molasses warehouse built in the early 1800s in the heart of the French Quarter. Chef Michael was a delight, entertaining, educating (did you know that if your dish got a little to spicy or to salty, you could just add cream sherry to counter it? I didn't) and a great chef! All the dishes prepared were outstanding, full of flavor without being to "hot" or spicy, easily explained and with just enough history and comic additions to make it really fun. Since I'm "known" for my soups, and will definitely add this one to my menu, let me share it with you.

CHEF MICHAEL'S CORN AND CRAB BISQUE

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Flour
1/2 lb Butter
1 Quart heavy cream
Enough stock to cover corn (and a little extra)
1 lb Crab meat (claw)
1/2 Cup Chopped garlic
1 Cup Chopped green onion
2 lb Whole Corn Frozen
1 Cup chopped parsley (for garnish)
Joe's seasoning to taste (this is their Seasoning Mix - you can use any special mix that you like, or go on line and order from their store)
Shrimp and Crab Boil to taste (this is also a product they sell, but you might be able to find it in specialty stores. It's a mild hot sauce)

PROCEDURE:
Put corn in pot and cover with stock. Bring to a boil and add garlic, Joe's stuff, and 1/4 Cup of the green onions. Reduce to simmer for about 30 min. Cut corn from cobs. (you can use already cut corn, he just felt it was more flavorful this way)

Make a roux with equal parts of butter and flour to desired color (his note on site: it will smell like cooked dough); add in your simmering pot. Adjust thickness with stock. Add cream and heat to almost a boil. Add Crab and cook about 5 min. Add crab boil to taste.

Note: Use the other half of your green onions and the parsley for garnish

Makes 6-8 Servings

Bon Appetite!













































...kicking back in Louisiana, Marie

New Orleans! Part 1 (Before the FQ Festival)

Finally! I feel like we've been trying to get here for forever. We found a great place just two blocks from the French Quarter, so we were able to walk back and forth as needed, which is a good thing. First day, once settled in, map in hand, we hit the streets to see what we could see. I hadn't been here in over 20 years, Jack, never. First thing I noticed was the change in the music! 20-30 somethings took over and brought in rock and turned the loud speakers all the way up! Yikes!! How could they do that to Bourbon Street? Rock can be played in every club throughout the US; it should not take over the ONE STREET KNOWN FOR JAZZ!! We found some, but we had to really go looking. We had spent some time with one of the great gals in the Visitor's Center, and she gave us a list of where the Jazz was played - thank goodness!! Sad tho that we would need a map and a list in the one town that used to be ALL ABOUT JAZZ.

We no sooner got back to the rig, when the sky opened up and decided to pour! Lightening, thunder, the whole works! At about 3AM, we decided our shade awning wasn't going to make it, so we threw on some clothes and braved the storm and brought it back in. We were quite a sight, two old f--ts wrestling this big awning in the cold, pouring down rain with the wind whipping it and us in every direction! But, we got it in successfully!!

It was still raining all the next morning, but Jack had reservations for a private tour of the WWII Museum that he had been really looking forward to, and a little rain wasn't going to slow him down! I, on the other hand, chose to hunker down and catch up on some chores and writing. By the late afternoon, the rain was gone, Jack was back and we were able to meet up with dear friends from San Diego for our first night on the town! Dinner at Pat O'Brian's and jazz at Preservation Hall - it doesn't get any more "traditional" than that!!

Our "routine" quickly adjusted to staying up late listening to music then sleeping in the next morning. We'd eat "brunch" in the rig then head into the French Quarter for the rest of the day & night. We quickly found our way around town with several clubs & restaurants becoming our favorites. We found out that it was the week before the French Quarter Festival, a 4-day free music fest that fills the entire FQ area with stages and bands from around the world. Because of this, several musicians come into town early to visit with their friends. They sit in the audience, and sometimes jam with the bands. We ended up meeting a couple of them, and becoming friends with one of them, a tuba player, Keith, from Modesto Ca of all places! Keith brought a group of music students there years ago, made friends with some of the musicians, and comes back (without students) every year at this time to visit and jam with the bands. Great guy, friendly, funny and fun. We kept bumping into him at several clubs we'd visit, I guess because we liked the same kind of music! Another character was an Austrian who played clarinet, and man, could he play! He would sing too, and add scat then add a yodel to it, which was hilarious! We could count on seeing him at Fritzel's, a great European Jazz Pub on Bourbon.

We jammed so much into these two weeks that I'm going to break them down into separate subjects, otherwise, this would become the "great American novel" and I don't think we are ready for that one just yet! ;-)


















































...kicking back in Louisiana, Marie

For the love of Lighthouses...

Like so many others, I love lighthouses. I'm not sure why, or when my fascination for them began, I just know that if there is one within 100 miles of where we are, I want to go see it. It's not so much the inner workings or the "keepers area & cottage" but more the grand stateliness of them. I love looking at them and of course, photographing them. It's always a fun challenge I give myself to see if I can really capture it in a unique or special way.

Because of this, I "encourage" Jack to take us to every town possible that has a lighthouse! One such place was Pensacola Florida. We had "come close" to it en route to Sarasota, when we stayed in Milton, but not close enough to get to the lighthouse. Now that we had more time, I "encouraged" Jack to route us through there, siting that Pensacola also was the home of the Blue Angles, and all that "military stuff". He was wise to me, and just smiled and said he would take me to the lighthouse, we didn't need to go see any of the "other stuff". My hero. One of the things we have to always keep in mind though, is that most lighthouses were built out on a point with a small road leading up to them and getting a large mortorhome to them wasn't part of the street planning, even when "tourists" were part of the equation years later. We made a phone call and inquired about the riggers of getting to & from it and parking and was assured it "was done all the time". Phew! Once there, I thought her remarks were a bit exaggerated, but Jack was able to handle it all, and we had a great time visiting a beautiful old lighthouse...my first "black & white one!












































































If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/


...on the road in Florida, Marie

Two Days in Tallahassee

Day 2 - Tallahassee has a lot to see so we had to really hustle today! We started our route by driving along a few of their "Canopy Roads", where century-old, moss-draped live oaks and glossy-leaved sweet gums intertwine to form protective shadows over nine canopied roads. Oh, were these beautiful! Other towns may have "covered bridges" to claim, but these tree-covered streets out did the "wow" factor.





























































Old Church Road took us to a quaint little church, Old Pisgah, dating back to the 1820's (they still hold service there).

















From there we headed downtown to see the Old Capitol Building & the Governor's Mansion. Their Old Capitol Building, built in 1845, sits right in front of their current 22 story Capitol Building. Several years ago Florida took the time and money and restored the Old Capitol Building back to the way it looked in 1905. They did a great job. It was a grand stately building.



































































Then we headed to the lighthouse! Oh boy, what a beautiful one she was too! St. Mark's is right on the Gulf Coast & the lighthouse is part of the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge. We even saw a baby alligator crossing the street as we arrived! The refuge has several observation decks along with benches set around here and there. Very nice and peaceful. A great way to end a very full day...












































If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

...on the road in Florida, Marie

Two Days in Tallahassee

Day 1 - Arriving late in the morning & after setting up at the RV park, not to much time was left in the day, so we decided to go check out the Automobile Museum just down the street. What a surprise that turned out to be!

This gigantic, two floor museum was a privately owned collection by DeVoe Moore, who has amassed hundreds of cars including a 1948 Tucker Torpedo and several "Batmobiles" from the movies. But that's not all, he had rows of Case knives, old cash registers, adding machines, old golf clubs, baseball bats & memorabilia, some rare art decorated Steinways as well as a myriad of other things that caught his fancy. It was like an organized obsessed collector that his wife told him to "get it all out of the house", so he decided to share it with the public. We were glad he did, it was pretty incredible, albeit, unusual.

We then headed downtown to see if we could still catch a little of the area's offerings - but ran into their "Spring Festival" street fair. By the time we found parking and walked over it was closing up. With all the crowd, you couldn't get to the Capitol or take any decent pictures, so it would have to wait for day two. We did, however, find a great Bar-B-Que restaurant...umm mm, the south sure does know how to do it right!




































































































If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

...on the road in Florida, Marie

Side trips...

Part of the fun of doing what we are doing, is taking "side trips"...just because. Being the "navigator" it's my job to read up on all the surrounding areas we could come into along the "direction" of our trip. Doing that, if something sounds especially fun or intriguing, we check on the routing and see if it's doable, then decide (or not) to point the rig in that direction!

One such place was Cedar Key, along the Florida Gulf Coast. Reading up on Cedar Key, it was described in one article as "Key West-60 years ago". It's other claim to fame was that it played a key role in the Civil War and had some historical displays. Well that sounded worth spending time at, so we headed over!

Comparing it to Key West was really stretching it--even "60 years ago". For one thing, it's about 1/10th the size! No kidding, the "business area" was only two short blocks, and that included their restaurants and hotels! The surrounding neighborhoods and parks fit that description, I'd say though, in the very laid back casual kind of way. It certainly had character! It's a true island, so you are crossing a bridge to get to it, then you wander around in very narrow streets. We first went over in the RV then decided that wasn't going to work, so went back across and pulled into an RV Park and just took the truck back over for the day. We had a nice sea-side meal, then spent the rest of the day walking around their tiny town, then cruising the rest of the island to see "how they lived". Interesting, different, artistic, laid back...










































They call this the "honeymoon cottage" and have all kinds of art work showing it! ;-)

















































Some people invest in fancy homes, others in their transportation! This was parked on his front lawn, his "driveway" was his landing strip!












If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/


...on the road in Florida, Marie