Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Rob & Vicki 0 Comments

Day 57 – Start of Week Nine. Wow, where does the time go?! This morning we didn’t have to leave until 10 a.m. We watched crewing/rowing practice on the canal as they went by, back and forth, the lead boat yelling commands to the others. Caught the shuttle to the French Quarter waterfront and had a little time to kill before being at the loading zone for the planned Steamboat Natchez tour. On the way in, we’d seen the line outside Cafe du Monde was long and we knew we couldn’t get beignets there in time, so we went to Cafe Beignet, the competition, where the line was much shorter. We got beignets and coffee as a comparison and they were good, but not nearly as good as Cafe du Monde.

LSU crew boats practiced in the Industrial Canal every morning, Pontchartrain Landing, New Orleans, LA
Cafe Beignet, Decatur St, NOLA


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Monday, April 10, 2017

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Day 56 – We had booked the 9 a.m. “Super City Tour” and had to be at the French Quarter waterfront to get our tickets by 8:30, so we got up early. The first Park shuttle leaves at 10 a.m. so we knew we had to find another way into the City. We’d looked into driving in ourselves but secure parking is $18 every 3 hours and we were going to be there all day. A one-way taxi ride is $22 not counting tipping. Uber was much cheaper than these alternatives so we decided to try Uber for the first time. We called, allowing plenty of time for them to get to the Park, and 5 minutes later a nice gentleman arrived to pick us up. Our driver had been an extra in the HBO series “Treme’” and claimed to know quite well a major star from the show (whose name has escaped me at this moment). Our driver’s name was Michael Charles and he’s writing a first-hand, “real story of Hurricane Katrina and the Treme’”. We got $10 off our first Uber trip so our ride cost us one dollar and change. Way to go!

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Sunday, April 9, 2017

Rob & Vicki 2 Comments

Day 55 – Up early, it’s Quarterfest day. The shuttle departs at 10 a.m. We decided to go to the Hurricane Katrina movie at 9:00 and after that, hop on the shuttle. The movie was “Hurricane on the Bayou”, narrated by Meryl Streep, and it was shown in the special events room across from the restaurant. The movie was created for showing in IMAX theatres and was the winner of 4 Giant Screen Cinema Association Achievement Awards. It was very good, informative, and told from the standpoint of regular people who were there. It also emphasized the impact that climate change and Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands have had on natural hurricane protection.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017

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Day 52 – Clear, breezy, 60 degrees this morning 7:30 a.m., gorgeous out, high humidity gone. YAAAA! Rob quickly headed down to the beach to check out the birds at the high point of their morning feeding. Not being a morning person, I stumbled around for awhile in the RV to wake up. It was low tide & the ocean was calm. What a difference between the high tide, rough seas from the storm and the low tide, calm ocean pictures.

Gulf of Mexico, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
Calm after the storm 04/06/17, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA

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Monday, April 3, 2017

Rob & Vicki 5 Comments

Day 49 – We were awakened at 5:30 a.m. by heavy rain, wind, and lots of lightening (76 degrees). We had a tornado watch, not warning, and it wasn’t “imminent” like the last one. It rained on & off thru the morning, then the clouds were gone along with the humidity. Lovely day. We wanted to go to the beach but the path nearest to us was flooded so we drove to the fishing pier which goes out into the Gulf. SO many birds! Rob is having a field day with the camera. There’s an observation tower, too, so in addition to all the birds, we have pictures of the surrounding area. Also, spent some time at the display reading about the history of Grand Isle. I did some research later & yes, those are probably remnants of the BP oil spill on the beach. The oil spill was 42 miles off the Louisiana coast, not far east of here. A local fisherman said in a blog post that fishing in these local waters had resumed Dec. 2014, four years after the spill but his shrimp catch was down by 50%. Considering that fishing (and oil) are obviously what support the people in Southern Louisiana, four years is a really long time to be without your only known way of making money.

Gulf Fishing Pier, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
Gulf coast, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
View of Grand Isle, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
Campground from observation tower, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA
Fishing boat, Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA

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Sunday, April 2, 2017

Rob & Vicki 0 Comments

Day 48 – We got up at 7 a.m. figuring we’d be hanging around here for awhile because check in time at our next campground wasn’t until 2 p.m. 68 degrees, humid & cloudy. But the sky was getting darker and it was looking more stormy by the minute; we checked the weather situation and decided we should go ahead and move on out. We need to travel 2 to 3 hours south of the New Orleans area.

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