More New Orleans

One of the places we went to eat at was Arnaud's.  According to a book I've got on being in New Orleans, it says Arnaud's was opened in 1918 and has expanded over the years into 11 buildings.  I can well believe that since we walked and walked to get to our table (we had a nice view of passersby on the street).  We all agreed the food was YUMMY!  But be prepared with either a fresh credit card or lots of cash.  It is not the $1 menu at McDonald's after all.

For dessert I had some delicious praline glace.  My older sister and BIL decided to have Bananas Foster.  Here's Ashley doing the honors.

The couple at the next table got something that also required a flambe process.  I don't recall the name, but it appeared to be a dessert-style coffee.  All in all, we had a good 10 minutes of food/drink being set on fire, deliberately.

Seguing (awkwardly) to the topic of streetcars, here's a photo taken from the inside.  I do love the color of the wood of the seats.

Another place that we saw a lot of, but I didn't go to was the Civil War Museum.  From descriptions from my sister and BIL, they have a lot of personal items from Southern combatants.  I will admit, the style of architecture is not my favorite.  Much too red.  Much, much too heavy feeling.

There were a lot of street performers in New Orleans.  My younger sister and I laughed at some unintentional irony when we were in Jackson Square.  There were some musicians putting on an impromptu performance near the cathedral and very near to a sign reading 'Quiet, church zone'.  (Or something similar.)

On Thursday the 26th, I was wandering through the French Quarter.  I heard something that sounded like 'patter'.  It turned out to be a street juggler.  He had a fun sense of humor and was enjoyable to watch.  Here he is on what used to be called a 'Bongo Board' when I was a kid.  He's also juggling with knives.  (In front of a store that sells swords)

Needless to say, I left a nice tip in his tip jar.

Papillon

More fun times in New Orleans

Here are more photos from my family's Christmas trip to New Orleans.

One thing we did was ride the streetcars, a lot.  It was a fun way to get around town and doesn't cost much ($3) for an all-day pass.

We even got to see them flip the seat backs for the ride back. 

Keep in mind, if you want to go through the Garden District, you need to catch one of the green streetcars.  Also, part of the Garden District route is undergoing repairs so there's a bus shuttle in that section.

One nice thing, the streetcars have a leisurely pace so it's comparatively easy to take photos.  Here's a darling cottage in the Garden District.

One problem with photographing in the Garden District - trees.  So very many have large lovely trees planted smack dab in front of the houses.

At one point, the four of us were in the area of Tulane/Loyola Universities.  We took a very pleasant walk through a portion of Audobon Park.  Lots of people strolling and others who were getting their jog in to help offset the Christmas calories.  I love the live oaks (I think they were live oaks) with their branches stretching out and resting on the ground.

Our hotel (The Saint on Canal St) had some lovely Xmas decorations, but didn't go ALL out.

The trees in the lobby were lovely, but I really didn't realize how understated things were until I went to the Roosevelt Hotel to get a late lunch.  (Their Grown Up Grilled Cheese sandwich had 3 cheeses and tomatoes.  Yummy.  (Sound effect:  my jaw hitting the floor as I walked in.)

Oh. My. Word.  They really do it BIG.

Papillon

Xmas in New Orleans

After my mom died in April of last year (2012), my sisters and I decided to do non-traditional Christmas celebrations for the next few years.  Last year we went to Colonial Williamsburg.  This year we decided to go to New Orleans.

My older sister did yeoman's work and found us a very nice hotel on the edge of the French Quarter at a really terrific rate.  We all (me, two sisters and BIL) flew in on Sunday, December 22nd and were greeted by a thunderstorm.  After landing, my plane got to sit on the tarmac for about 30 minutes because the ramp people at the airport gate didn't want to operate the ramp during repeated occurrences of lightning.  I can't say that I blame them at all.

We found a very nice man named Kevin who had a large van (not minivan) and a valid livery license and made the soggy ride to the hotel as pleasant as possible in the circumstances.  (Considering that NM has been in drought conditions for several years now, it may be heresy to admit that I was so over the rain in a short period of time.)

The hotel we stayed at was The Saint on Canal Street.  Here's a photo of the nighttime view from my hotel room.

And here's the daytime view.

 

The next day (Monday the 23rd) my older sister and her husband went to the WWII museum.  My younger sister and I decided to take the Hop On, Hop Off tour of the downtown area.  Here's one of the gorgeous houses in the Garden District.

 

We also went by Mardi Gras World where they've been making stuff for the floats in the assorted parades.

 

The item hanging up on the left-hand side is some sort of large fish.

Then we got to see the mighty Mississippi river.  A LOT more water than I've seen since I came back from Colonial Williamsburg.

For a long time in early U.S. history, Louisiana was the only place where women could own property.  One of those owners was Micaela Almonester Pontalba who built some of the oldest apartments near/on Jackson Square.  She helped to bring some design ideas from France such as ornate balconies and first-floor breezeways.

The ironwork contains the Baroness' monogram (A/P).

That's all for this blog entry.  There's more to come.

Papillon

 

Snow - really

Yesterday I posted about the tiny bit of snow we'd gotten.  Mother Nature laughed and dumped about one inch of snow on us.  I think it fell sometime after 5:00 AM because the newspaper had snow on top and bare ground underneath.

It looks like the local 'critters' were out and about in spite of the snow.  There were some bunny prints but they must have been out and about while it was still snowing because their prints had been partially obscured.  On the other hands, the local bird population obviously waited until the snow had stopped.

The snow looked rather picturesque caught in the needles of the pine tree in the front yard.

I do love digital photography.  Instant gratification and all that.

Papillon

Snow - sort of

Today is the first day of this season that I got snow at my (current) house.  Granted it was about 1/64 of an inch and most of it melted when it hit the ground.

Here's a small amount sitting on my car.

I also drove through some brief snow showers during the late morning. 

The whooping and hollering you hear is from all the area skiers.  Taos got 18 inches.  Skis are being waxed even as you read this.

My new house is coming along.  The paint is complete.  The laminate floor is almost down.  I was hoping it would be finished yesterday but no luck there.  It now looks like it'll get done on Tuesday. 

I'm going to have it deep cleaned by the local Molly Maid folks.  So far, it looks like I'll be spending the Thanksgiving weekend moving the small stuff.  It'll help work off the calories from Thanksgiving day!

Papillon

Weird commute, pretty color

There was a major accident on westbound I-40 during yesterday's evening commute.  Because of that, lots of people bailed off onto surface roads.  Which means my normal route home was CONGESTED and it took LOTS longer to get home.

While sitting in slow moving traffic, I took this picture of some of the autumn's color.

And a bit later, this one.

Gotta love those colors.

Papillon

New house - decisions, decisions

I've lived in my current house since 1992.  It's a small house on a large lot.  When I bought it, I contemplated doing lots of DIY on an admitted fixer-upper.

Over the years, I've discovered that I thoroughly dislike doing DIY.  I'd much rather pay someone to do the work for me.  I've also discovered that I have WAY, WAY, WAY more yard than I will ever utilize. 

In May of this year, I decided I wanted to reverse my situation with a bigger (not HUGE) house on a significantly smaller lot.  I called the realtor (Patricia) that I'd used to buy my current house.  She was a real sport and took me around to see a ton of houses.  There were a couple of houses that came close, but had factors that made me turn them down.  One backed up to commercial real estate space that hasn't been developed yet.  I decided I didn't want to buy the house only to have a McDonalds put in at a later date.

Finally, in late August I found a nice house that is spacious but is not a McMansion (keeping the McDonalds theme going).  It's on a much smaller lot, although I do have a 3-hole putting green in the backyard.

Now that I've closed, I've got lots of things to get done.  Utilities are on and in my name.  I do have to call a plumber.  When the gas company tech tried to start the water heater, the pilot light igniter didn't (ignite the pilot).  The tech said it's probably a problem with the wires and I'll probably need to have that small unit replaced.  No hurry so waiting for a Friday off to call the plumber.

One of the nice things is - I don't have to HURRY.  My current house is paid off and so I don't have to move NOW.  That said, I've decided to redo the flooring and paint before moving.  Much easier to do with an empty house.

I've called and met with folks to get estimates to me.  Waiting to get all the results back.  I plan on removing the wall-to-wall carpet (which I loathe) and put in laminate instead (much easier to clean up pet messes on laminate).  I spent some time at Lowe's yesterday and really like something called 'Galveston Oak' - brown with lots of blonde notes.

As to paint, I had been thinking a nice green (not emerald, more subdued).  Then I thought I might do a nice neutral brown.  The problem there happened when I noticed all the browns that I liked had a distinct pink undertone.  That could get really 'precious' very quickly.  Instead, I'm back to green.  It looked really good up against the 'Galveston Oak' (the brown looked blah).  I'm leaning toward 'Pale Pasture' - color for the walls but not TOO much.

It's the one on the left.

It'll be nice to get this all done so I can start moving stuff over.

Papillon