A 3 hour tour.....

We took a walking tour today; I thought it would be longer (at least an hour) but alas, it was only 40 minutes. Our guide took us around La Quartier Francaise (the French Quarter), starting at Jackson Square. She gave us some great information, and I got some good pictures. Here, let me share some tidbits:
1) New Orleans was actually Spanish for about 40 years before the French came
2) The Mississippi River is an Indian word for "snaky river."
3) Louisiana is named from La Salle, who named it for his wife Louisa and Queen Anne
4) Two brothers, Bienville and Iberville went to King Louis and petitioned him for the city to be called La Nouvelle Orleans, which it eventually did in 1718; the king asked released prisoners to populate it
5) Creole comes from the first generation colonizers. Now it means everything, including food and customs.
6) Canal St was supposed to be a canal; it was bought and paid for. They are still waiting for the canal. It is the widest street in the U.S. All the others are avenues and boulevards.
7) St. Charles Avenue is considered the "Grand Jewel" of all the avenues. It is located in the Garden District, aka the American side of New Orleans.
8) The Americans and the Creoles/French did NOT get along with each other for a long time; they only met in the street to conduct business
9) Some pronunciations:  Calliope = CALLeeYOPE.    Tchoupitoulas = ChopiTOOlis.   
    Burgundy = berGUNdee  Chartres = Charters

So I gave you a picture of Jackson Square on another post. This is what it was originally called:

which means Place of Arms. This is where the Spanish did their marching around. After the Battle of New Orleans, won by Andrew Jackson (fought in the War of 1812), a fancy Baroness decided to petition to rename it Jackson Square.

Jean LaFitte, the famous pirate, helped out Jackson during the War of 1812, and in exchange, got amnesty for him and his pirate friends. They stayed in this lovely area called Pirates Alley.

And for my literary friends, William Faulkner wrote his first novel here, too; and on the other side was Tennyson's house where he wrote, A Streetcar Named Desire. 

As you can see, the Place d'Armes Hotel is the site of the First Louisiana School run by the Ursuline nuns. There was a convent here, too. There was a boys and girls' school, but the boys' school closed.

I just thought this was a beautiful picture of contrasts: Can you tell? Is it wrought iron or cast iron? Hmmm... You will have to wait and see till the end of the post~! But many of these were around the houses. If it had posts, it was a gallery. If there were columns, it was a balcony. Interesting.

These are pictures from the 1850 house, as it is called. People typically stayed for a year or two or three, not much more than that. Residents of the French Quarter opened their homes for these transients, kind of like a 19th century AirBnB. Some homes had the entertaining rooms on one side and the sleeping quarters on the other, like in the Beauregard-Keyes house. 

Yes, J.P.T. Beauregard from the Civil War lived in New Orleans. It's a shared house because it fell into disrepair, then Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounced like "wise") bought it and restored it. She also added some apartments in the back. She wrote mysteries (along the vein like Stephen King) in the 1940s-1960s. She was also a senator's wife, so she met a lot of dignitaries. Here are some pictures from her working area.

That's Mrs. Keyes in the middle

spell check, aka the dictionary

 She wrote everything long-hand and had a secretary type it all up. Yeah, these things still exist.

One of her famous books. There is still the restaurant Antoine's here in New Orleans.

So that was our tour of the French Quarter. Some other tidbits include the following:

Paying for parking. There are multiple lots all over the city where you pay to park. You can use cash or your credit card. Be sure to know your license plate! We took a picture of ours and that helped us. Very reasonable rates. 

This is the steamboat Natchez. Just before you board for your cruise, it plays a very LOUD calliope. Be aware that if you walk by the port, plug your ears. Not that it's not tuneful, just loud. They do river cruises for you if you want. We decided to pass because of the weather.

Café Beignet is another place to get chicory coffee and beignets. We chose just the coffee while we were waiting for our tour. I also got the king cake, another scratch off the bucket list of New Orleans. The King Cake is a cinnamon roll with icing and sugar crystals of gold, purple, and green. There is usually a plastic baby inside or on it. Mine was a gold plastic baby on top (so that you wouldn't eat it by mistake and choke). It was very moist and delicious for a pre-made cake. It was 3 slices inside for $6. You have to go outside the city to a bakery for fresh ones, and this is the time of year when they are made. Gold means loyalty, green means faith, and purple means justice.

When getting around town, you have to know your bearings; basically where the lake is (Lake Ponchartrain) and the river (Mississippi River) is. Once you know that, the rest is easy. You are either going riverside, lakeside, upriver, or downriver. 

And apparently you can see the top of the Superdome from the space station.

So to answer your question about wrought iron or cast? It was cast. :-)

Hope you enjoyed our tour. We sure did. We stayed out a little too late for our liking. When we came out of the Beauregard-Keyes house, more of New Orleans was jettisoned on the street (they give you plastic cups so you can drink and walk). One lady was walking her birds, I kid you not! Only in New Orleans does there seem to be something for everyone. Ya'll come back! 😉

Walking in NOLA

Hi All:

Today we decided to explore our new city, New Orleans. We are here for a week. We are staying in a little city called Kennerly, LA at the KOA. It is a very nice KOA. We are across from the laundry facilities :-). The staff is very friendly here. In fact, we got maps of the city, the HOHO (hop on, hop off guide), a book about New Orleans, and a seafood menu for Charles Seafood, where Tuesday and Wednesday you can get a dozen raw oysters for $5.95!

It's a nondescript little building; and there is a man that does nothing but shuck oysters from 10 until 3. But these babies are juicy and plump, and oh, so delicious! You have to have a side of jambalaya grits. Someone took a pot of jambalaya and added grits to it. Ooohwee! So we will be eating good in this neighborhood!

The HOHO bus allows you to go through the city for 2 hours and get your bearings. There is a National WW2 museum. I heard it is very good. There is also a Confederate War museum, too. Might check that out as well. The price of the HOHO allows 2 guided tours free. That's a bonus. There is so much to see and walk around here, too. We went for an hour and a half. I was amazed at just the architecture, never mind the history! It was a Spanish settlement before the French came. I have to check that out, too.

Everything here is just so different. You need to be really careful, too. There are homeless everywhere. But people will stop you on the street for anything. I had a lady ask me for money to stay at the Salvation Army, and another one claim he was a vet and needed money to get his car out of tow; he said he just came from the WW2 museum. Hmmmm. Yeah, use your discretion and keep hold of your wallets.

We will do our riding tour tomorrow to better get our bearings. This really is a lovely town. Enjoy the architectural pictures I took. One is of Bourbon Street. They are doing repairs on it, hopefully in time for Mardi Gras. I am so glad there aren't that many tourists that I am bumping into~! Ya'll come back!😉

The Super Dome, where the Saints play

Staying away from this place Sunday, lol

Jackson Square, named after Andrew Jackson

In case you didn't know, he won the Battle of New Orleans

Bourbon Street getting a makeover

 And everyone in New Orleans knows this: Let the Good Times Roll!

Sunny Days and Manatees

Hi all!

We have started on our Grand Tour of the United States, or as Daniel says, our "World Tour." We left January 9 (a fitting day, as it was my birthday) from Camp Mother Ship and passed through these places on the illustrious I-95.

This is where we are now

 in DeLand, Florida. We are staying here because we couldn't get into Blue Springs State Park. This place is a cute hidey-hole known for its fishing. Apparently there is a resident bear or two and some deer. Haven't seen either one; we are here till Sunday. When we got here Thursday, we went to Blue Springs State Park. It costs $6 for a carload of 2-6 people. We stayed about an hour, but the view was worth it. You park and walk up to the boardwalk. There you will spot the main attraction---manatees. This is their spring run, so they come into this area, where the water is a constant 72 degrees. Nice!

The birds are called cormorants and are very popular here. They seem to be at home, checking out the wildlife all chill and all. I was impressed by how clear the water is; so much so that you can see clear to the bottom! We found out that every morning someone from the park service (state park, so not affected by the shut down) rides out in a canoe and counts the manatees every day. There are about 200 that come here every year. Today's count was 143. Wowie wow wow~!

So far the Sunshine State is living up to its name. It is nice to have two days in a row of this niceness. I will leave you with some pics of the drive to our fish camp hideaway. Ya'll come back! 😉

Down at the Beach

Hi all!
We've moved down to the beach after spending some time at Camp Mother Ship. We are here

It is located about 20 minutes south of Myrtle Beach, SC, tucked away off of Hiway 17 in a lovely little town called

Can't argue with that! We are here for the weekend meeting up with G's school-day friends to reminisce and say hello. There is a Walmart and other big name stores nearby too, along with good seafood places. We ate at this place for lunch today.

Didn't know what to have, since we were newbies; our waitress, Aubrey, recommended the fish and chips, which was spot on. And of course, you can't go wrong with a Blue Moon to wash it down. We ate outside on the patio, which we thought would be weird since it was raining. But it was enclosed and quite well done. Kudos to The Claw House. We will be back!

Bought a Blu-Ray player and spent the afternoon watching a movie. Hadn't done that since August. Cool! The only thing missing was the surround sound; but the picture is awesome on our TV, so it was a win-win. 

This is our homestead, high and dry as far as leveling goes. It will rain for the next 24 hours, but should be nice for the rest of the weekend. We will be back at Camp Mother Ship for Christmas. There are trails that run to the beach at different campsites; there is no WiFi and very few TV channels, but who cares?! We will check out the causeway and the local wildlife. Thank goodness the gators are hibernating! Ya'll come back! 😉

Pickens, Coyotes, and Waterfalls

We are here at Devil's Fork State Park

and apparently Sasquatch has been playing hide and seek here. So much so that they advertise it.

I asked the Camp Ranger if they've had any sightings. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "You never know." Hmm? We'll see. G might do his yells in the evening. Maybe, maybe not. If he does tree knocks and gets an answer back, I may just be a believer!

We are in another "gated community" (they lock the gates at 6PM and open them at 7AM. There is a code to get in if you are out past that time, you know, running the roads and eating "boyled peanuts."
They don't allow alcoholic beverages in the park, so you best do your drinking elsewhere.

Here's our campsite. We sit on the hill and look down.

Behind us is a trail that leads around the lake area. The name of the lake is Lake Jocassee (pronounced JoeCassie). It's a popular place in the spring and summer; apparently they have tours around the lake too. It's really pretty right now. Because the leaves are off of the trees, we can see the lake from our dining room.

This house at one time was the only house on the lake. Now that this place is so popular, there are many more houses on the lake. Notice the other ones around it now.

On the way to the waterfall, we got this spectacular view of the lake.

 

We had to go into The Big Town (Pickens) and do some business (it's the closest town with a WalMart). They also have Coyote Coffee. We found out that is their version of Starbucks. It's actually very good, and cheaper, too. G and I got a White Chocolate Mocha and a White Raspberry Mocha, grande, for $8. Woo Hoo (howling, just like the sign).

Then we took the waterfall hike. We wanted to take one; but we ran into some hikers who told us about another one. So we got two for the price of one! The first one is Spoonauger Falls. The trail is half a mile total, only about 20 minutes to Spoonauger Proper. The trail to the bottom of the falls is wide and easy. Then you take a switchback and go further up. You have to love stepping over tree roots and limbs, etc. LH, where are you and your boots??

lower falls

Spoonauger Falls proper

The next falls trail was really around the corner from the first one. The trail was easily marked. But again, you gotta love tree roots, etc. These falls are Kings Creek Falls. This trail was more narrow and you had to hold onto some trees and be careful with your footing. G calls it "reading the trail." It was supposed to be half a mile; but according to MapMyWalk, it was actually 3/4 mile. G had to take the pictures for Kings Creek Falls. I was done stepping over trees and limbs and inconspicuous tree roots. Besides, this was in my way, too. Again, LH, where are you and your boots???

In case you can't tell, this is a downed tree with a notch in it. You put your foot in the notch and step over it to get to the next part of the path. No way! I was done at this point. Besides, the path was narrower on the other side to see the falls. I let G take the pictures by then. I took a breather.

Kings Creek Falls

Picked up some yummy nuts of goodness again today at the local Picket Post Produce at the corner (boyled peanuts). Redneck heaven for G. Ya'll come back! 😉