New Orleans and Gene Simmons

As I mentioned in my Halloween post on New Orleans, we spent some time at Pat O'Brien's, a well-known pub that has inhabited the French Quarter for many, many years. Although the main entrance is pretty unassuming, once you step inside you feel the history of the place, especially once you get a gander at the hundreds of beer steins hanging from the ceiling. They have a great courtyard out back for indulging in a hurricane drink -- you MUST have a hurricane drink if you go to New Orleans -- and it was a great place to spend Halloween.

Pat O'Brien's

Some of the Beer Steins at Pat O'Brien's

One of the restaurants where we had dinner was Jacques Imo's, a very popular Cajun and Creole place. You walk through the kitchen to get to your table, and the place is packed. While we were indulging in our tasty meal, the place was swarmed by Gene Simmons and his entourage, busy filming for his reality show. Gene Simmons is a member of the band Kiss, who was in town performing at the VooDoo Fest.

It was interesting to see how these reality shows are filmed. These so-called "reality" shows are not very real at all, since they do multiple takes. It was amusing to see Gene and his gang arrive, greet some of the fellow patrons as you see in the photo below, and then a few minutes later everyone got up and left, and then entered again -- a re-take. There were cameramen and other staff all over the kitchen and blocking the walkways, and as we were leaving, we got a glimpse of the special cupcakes the restaurant had prepared with Gene's likeness in frosting.

Gene Simmons at Jacques Imo's

Another restaurant that provided a tasty meal was Palm Court, which also provided a great jazz band. The food was fantastic in New Orleans, the music plentiful, the architecture beautiful, and the people-watching was soooo very interesting.

Rylie's Notes:

Blackie and I got to pal around outside for quite some time while The Staff was chatting up her friends. I needed some canine contact. The Staff is fine, but she just doesn't get it like dogs do. Humans are a bit dense sometimes.

New Orleans

St. Louis Cathedral

New Orleans is a city filled with music, art, history, and beautiful architecture. It is also a city of survivors and perseverence, and maybe that's why. It has great character and is so very interesting, and maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. I really loved all of the beautiful buildings in the French Quarter and the Garden District. I don't have any photos of the Garden District, but I'm including some from the French Quarter.

The Court of Two Sisters

The Court of Two Sisters is the restaurant where we had a great jazz brunch out in the courtyard.

River's Edge Restaurant on Jackson Square

Former Jax Beer Brewery

Jackson Square

Carriages Along Jackson Square

Just an Interesting Building


The Mississippi River


Street Performers with a Pumpkin for Tips

There are plenty of great street performers all over the French Quarter, and live music everywhere you turn. There is no shortage of entertainment here.

As I was riding around the city I did also see a lot of damage still remaining from Hurricane Katrina in the less affluent areas, but I chose to focus on the beauty and strength of the city on this trip. The damage in the more affluent areas appears to have already been repaired.

I'm not done with New Orleans yet. I still have a few more photos to post. I also plan to stop in New Orleans again on my way to Florida. I barely scratched the surface.

Rylie's Notes:

While The Staff was off whooping it up with her friends, I invited Blackie and Sambo over for a night of fun. Normally I don't include cats, since they are on the other team, but Sambo is more like a dog. First I suggested that we chase the nine stray cats and the opossum that had taken up residence at the RV park, but Sambo wasn't very interested in that idea. We finally settled on raiding the fridge and cupboards and tearing around the motorhome to fling as much dog and cat hair as we could around the premises. Our work was done.

Halloween

Fire Fountain at Pat O'Briens

I met up with some friends from all over the country in New Orleans and spent four days, including Halloween. I can't imagine a more fun and crazy place to be for Halloween. It was like Mardi Gras. They even had a parade, beads, and the streets of the French Quarter were packed with people in costume, especially on Bourbon Street. We just stood on a corner on Bourbon Street for awhile and watched the people go by. I have tons of photos, although not always of the best quality. Most of the photos were taken of people as they walked by, although quite a few stopped to pose for photo ops. Remember that you can double click on the photos to see them better.

Eventually we got a little thirsty, and decided to go to Pat O'Brien's, an old, famous bar in the Quarter, for a hurricane drink. They were having a costume contest there, and we were lucky enough to get a primo table in the courtyard right by the fountain, which is where everyone stopped to pose for photos. I had sooooo much fun!



Rylie's Notes:

All I want to know is, what happened to the trick-or-treat bag?

Galveston

Galveston

Before I was able to start working in Beaumont, I decided to make the hour and a half journey to check out Galveston. For those of you who haven't been there, Galveston is right on the Gulf of Mexico, not far from Houston. It has a nifty historic district called The Strand, that is filled with shops and restaurants. I had a tasty lunch, browsed through some of the shops, and checked out the art fair that was going on in the streets. Then I took a drive over to the Gulf to check that out.

Although I have been told that there was a lot of hurricane damage in Galveston, I only saw a small amount of it. Maybe I wasn't in the right part of town, or maybe they have already repaired a lot of the damage. At any rate, I really liked Galveston, and could spend more time there.

Gulf of Mexico

My latest stop was New Orleans, where I came to meet friends for Halloween. Can you think of a better place to be for Halloween than New Orleans??? Stay tuned, I got some great photos.

Rylie's Notes:

Hey! Why didn't I get to go to the beach? I love the beach. There are tons of stinky things to roll around in on the beach. Once I even found a seal flipper to roll on, and boy was it ripe. The Staff was REALLY mad at me for that one.

Up, Up and Away

Beaumont from the Air

Usually when I get to an area to do my Air Photo work, the photographer, pilot, and helicopter are long gone. But because of some weather and other delays, they didn't start shooting until after I got to Beaumont. One good thing that came out of it was that I got to meet Michael and Bill, one of the photographer and pilot teams, and I also got to go for a helicopter ride.

As you will see from the photo below, the helicopter is really tiny. It barely fits two people. These guys spend all day in this small space together, so I sure hope they like each other. We flew with my door off, which was cool. You really feel like you're flying that way. That's the closest I've felt to being Superman. Bill idled the engine, so we were falling at 1,500 feet per minute. It was fun!

Michael and Bill

Beaumont is pretty flat, and the airport is not exactly SFO. You can see how small it is below.

Rylie's Notes:

All I want to know is, did they serve a meal during the flight?

Beaumont

I have some time off while I'm waiting for the photographer to shoot the Beaumont area, so I've been doing a little exploring, and I have also been catching up on some things around home. I hung some prints that I've been carrying around for awhile, and below is one of my favorites that my Mom gave to me. You'll have to double click on the image to read it.


Rylie's Notes:

That's not art. The photo of the structure below, now that's a work of art! Beautiful, and functional.

Playing in the Mud

I arrived in Beaumont, Texas after a short journey from Baton Rouge, and got settled into my campsite smack dab in the middle of a big mud puddle. They have been getting a bunch of rain here lately, and it was very hot and humid when I arrived. Still, I was happy to be out of the snow and cold of Iowa. I'm not complaining!

Rylie and I couldn't get into the motorhome without walking through mud, and there was about two inches of standing water on the grass. I moved the motorhome slightly the next day so that the door was in front of a smaller mud puddle, and parked my car in a different spot so that I could avoid walking through the worst of the mud. It was getting pretty dirty inside, despite my best efforts to keep my feet and Rylie's feet clean.

After I got us settled into our new spot, I located a place to buy Rylie's dog food. I feed him a brand, Chicken Soup, that is hard to find, plus it's the lite formula, so that makes it even more difficult to find. His food was almost gone, so I figured I better get some soon, and drove to a feed store, who said they had one bag. The next day I went to Petco, and got him stocked up on deposit bags and treats. Man that dog is spoiled! I can't believe the trouble and expense I go to for that little bugger. How did he manage to get me so wrapped around his finger? I know what it is. It's that happy little face and wagging tail, every time I come home. It doesn't matter if I've been gone five minutes or all day, he is always so happy to see me. Every morning he greets me with kisses, and an unfettered exuberance for the day. You can't help but be happy around that little bugger.

During our morning walks, Rylie has taken to running through the mud puddles. I can't blame him. He is probably trying to cool off.

Rylie's Notes:

I'm not trying to cool off. It's the only way I can get a good foot massage with the towel when we get back home.