Monthly Archives: April 2016

New Orleans – Audubon Park via the St. Charles Streetcar

True confessions, this isn’t the streetcar I rode out to Audubon park on.

I’m here in New Orleans at a convention but Monday morning is mainly convention business meetings so I got up and had me a parfait from Starbucks cuz I’m trying to be healthy at least for a few hours and then I walked up Poydras Street from the hotel to St. Charles and caught the streetcar from there to Audubon Park.

I have been to New Orleans several times now but have never set foot on a street car because I was unsure how one paid and where they went and so on and kind of worried about the safety of it all especially since former New Orleans Saint football player Will Smith was murdered in the Garden District just a day or so ago and Audubon Park is in the Garden District.

My first New Orleans geocache in several years. Boy did I take heat on facebook for this. Everybody is going “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Hey, you take care of you, and I’ll take care of me! Deal.!?

I checked the world wide interwebs and it was kind of strange. People said that despite the New Orleans being the murder capital of the USA, they didn’t feel nervous about putting their garbage out late at night. Whoa, it had never occurred to me to worry about taking the garbage out anywhere I have lived. Should I startt?

Well, I was very brave. I headed out on the streetcar without a weapon, not even a knife or even pepper spray.

Well guess what, Audubon Park is pretty mellow, people walking their dogs, coeds from Loyola and Tulane jogging (how come lots more young women run than men???) old folks walking their dogs. It was a very chill scene (did I say that right? I’m an old guy and I know that I risk making a fool of myself when I pretend that I’m hip.) (Although at this point, I’m beyond caring what people think.)

Anyways I didn’t go to the Zoo. I walked the two miles around the golf course and it was nice. Huge old oak trees.

Lots of them, and I took lots of pics of them. The trees are alive!!

This looks like a former street to me. Trees and lights on both sides. What’s up.

They have paved trails with politically correct divisions between bikers and runners and dirt trails also.

And some dinosaur looking birds which I think are cormorants but I’ve come to find out that there are a gazillion different types of cormorants as well.

So I walked a little over two miles, took a trip out and a trip back on the Streetcar and started the convention in a very chill mood which I have maintained through the whole day.

And so I was able to visit the L.A. Turbines Voodoo Chapel and get rid of some bad ju ju and reinfore good ju ju. I love a vendor owned by a Belgian, don’t you? Especially one who is generous with Belgian Beer.

Our World – New Orleans

I am in New Orleans for a convention this week. This is the third time that I have come here for this event and I love it.

I would love it even more if Heather were here but alas not to be. Last time she came with me was years ago, the spring before Katrina hit the city. We had a wonderful meal at KPauls. It was on our own dime. The convention had a banquet featuring the Oakwood Boys. We opted out of the banquet mystery meat and spent more than we could afford. And it was worth it.

New Orleans is a beautiful city. It has a charm to it. It has all the cheesy tourist shops sure but it also has some beautiful balconies above the shops. It is kind of mysterious. It kind of reminds me a little bit of the way Santa Fe was when I was just a little kid. The cheap tourist places but glimpses of courtyards behind wrought iron gates captivated me.

The street buskers of New Orleans are the best I have ever seen. Everybody gets in the act. The little boy above felt moved to join in. Nobody seemed to mind.

The city is always in transition. Nice areas breaking out in not so nice neighborhoods and other areas seemingly in decline.

I just love it here. It is unlike any place I have ever been. Even other places in Louisiana.

So I’ll be here until Wednesday at noon when I fly out. I’ll be trying to take in as much of the convention and the city as I can.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Logan in Footloose

Logan’s school put on another musical this year, Footloose about a small town in Oklahoma that bans dancing in the city limits and the kids fight city hall and win. It is based on actual events in Elmore City, Oklahoma in 1980. Read about it here.

Logan as a parishoner during a sermon. The beige and beige on beige look was what I had in the 80’s until I met Heather and she introduced me to color.

Logan had a small part but he worked hard at it. So did his mother from shopping at Goodwill for 1980’s era clothes (why didn’t she check my closet?) to being at almost all the rehearsals and all the performances.

He is a town council member here. He “forgot” to tuck his shirt in before going onstage. I thought Heather was going to have a coronary. She texted him to tuck his pants in before he came back out. Yeah for cell phones. Of course playing on it may have caused the problem in the first place.

The teacher that directs the kids is very demanding but has a big heart. The kids really respond. This production had kids down to sixth grade participating.

Logan had a small part and he made the most of it and gave it is all.

Those of us who are parents know what it is like when you see your kid doing something and enjoying it.

This is his air guitar technique. We hadn’t seen that before.

This is his last high school production so we’ll see what the future holds for Logan. Will he be in any more productions? If he wants to hard enough he will.

But I will worry about that later, right now I’m enjoying his joy on the stage.

It was fun!

Turkey Mountain Rainbow

Last week I was running the trails in an on again/off again rain on Turkey Mountain with a few people including one who like me just has to stop to take a photo every now and then. She noticed this rainbow off to the east and I used my cell phone to take a pic but the colors were not as bright in the image as what I could see right in front of me. So I’ve used Topaz Glow to pull out the color some to make it more like what that evening.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Springtime Tulips at Tulsa Botanic Garden

I have been incognito lately on the good ole interwebs and I am sorry about that. I hadn’t return visited any commenters or checked on my friends or any of that good stuff.

Our internet service went on the blink for a few days. I finally got it going again Sunday. It took lots of magical incantations from our tech lady and muttering and such for about an hour but by gum she got it fixed.

Plus Logan is fixing to graduate and has a lot going on plus we are doing a little house updating. I wish magical incantations would update the house. So far it is taking cash, the cold hard kind.

So anyway, I don’t know if anybody missed me or not but I’m back for now.

Plus Logan has a small role in a musical that his school is doing. They are doing Footloose and I’m looking forward to seeing it. Of course I’m also signed up to hush the kids back stage one night and I get to usher the adults one night, and tell them to hush also.

And so anyway I did a get a few hours free Saturday to go to the Tulsa Botanic Garden and take some pictures of their tulips. They were all over the place. I know all the technical names for the tulips. For example the those above are yellow tulips and down below we have purple and red tulips. Pretty impressive huh?

They are beautiful and just kind of speak for themselves I think.

There were not that many people there. The garden is located out in the middle of nowhere way out of town and they are new but they are growing and filling in and it will get more and more popular.

It is a must see for those who live in or visit Tulsa. Check their website for directions and hours.

YogisDen.us

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