Young Snowbirds » united states

New Orleans Garden District

Darlene — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:38:44 +0000

Day 93 in New Orleans, we got a late start on this day and hopped on the 3:45 pm shuttle bus to the French Quarter. Once there we found the St. Charles streetcar and headed right to the Garden District. I’m not sure what Rob was expecting it to be like but he said later it wasn’t what he thought. I think he was imagining a big park or something like Central Park in NYC.

The Garden District of New Orleans is a neighborhood located a short distance from the French Quarter. The area was first developed between 1832 to 1900 by wealthy plantation and business owners of the day, who did not want to live in the Quarter with the Creoles. It may be one of the best preserved collections of historic southern mansions in the United States. Originally there were only one or two houses per block, each surrounded by a large garden, thus giving the area its name.

In the late 1800′s many of the lots were subdivided which has produced a pattern of each block having a couple large southern style mansions, and being surrounded by Victorian style houses on the rest of the block. So this area is now known for architecture more so than gardens.

Victorian home - garden district

Here are several of my many photographs of New Orleans Garden District. You can still see evidence of beads and decorations from Mardis Gras on many of the streets and houses.

Chickens in the city, New Orleans

Rob was thrilled to see people keeping chickens in the city. He wants to get some. They had a little coop to go in and everything. He says he’ll write more about the chickens separately, but for now – here they are!

This was in one of the gardens, I snuck a photo in between the fence bars

Looks like a great place to sip a Mint Julep

There was a photography crew just leaving this house as we walked by and we learned it is being featured in a magazine for the restorations this owner has done on the home. I keep running into photography shoots everywhere.

"Colonel Short's Villa" or the "Banks House" in the historic Garden District

Doesn't this house just scream "Gone with the Wind" to you?

"Colonel Short's Villa" or the "Banks House" in the historic Garden District

Interesting - things to tie your horse to!

Face of New Orleans Saints on a tree - Who Dat!

Garden district streetcar

New Orleans streetcar - Canal Street

After a day taking photographs of the Garden District all day, we were looking forward to spending St Patrick’s day in New Orleans. Our evening plans were to be in the heart of the French Quarter off Bourbon Street and more than likely finding a parade. Pat O’Brians would be a good place to start Rob figures… with their signature drink, the Hurricane.

Day 92, New Orleans French Quarter

Darlene — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:21:13 +0000

After a morning exploring other parts of the French Quarter, enjoying coffee at Café du Monde and then the French Market, we spent the rest of the day and evening completely immersed in Jackson Square and its history. Street musicians, artists and landmark buildings like the nearly 150 year old St Louis Cathedral and the incredibly cool Pirate’s Alley filled our time, while jazz in Preservation Hall and Pat O’Brien’s Hurricanes filled our senses. New Orleans Jackson Square in the French Quarter; the heart of the Crescent City.

Outside a shop, loved the light and the bottles in the window

And inside the same shop, had to see what it looked like from the other side

Interesting shop we found. They had antiques, junk and a suit of armor. Rob bought a wrought iron Fleurs de Lis.

Evidence of the New Orleans Saints big Superbowl win were everywhere!

"Who Dat?" is the slogan for the Saints, this one is suggesting that they ARE dat!

Pirate’s Alley New Orleans

Rob was pretty insistent that he wanted to try absinthe so we found the original absinthe bar, Pirate’s Alley Cafe and Olde Absinth House, and he ordered one while I watched. It’s quite a process, I’ll let him tell you about it. I just liked the old bar and the fact it used to be a jailhouse for pirates back in the old days. Pirate’s Alley itself is really interesting and on a weekend you’ll find artists around the fence in behind the cathedral.

Pirate's Alley Cafe and Olde Absinthe House

Absinthe

Inside Pirate's Alley Cafe and Absinthe House

I just loved the light and shapes happening here

Jackson Square in New Orleans French Quarter

Finally we stopped to rest in Jackson Square, which is THE place to hang out in the French Quarter. You’ll usually find street musicians, artists, skateboarders, fortune tellers, magicians, people dancing, buskers and all sorts of interesting things going on at any given time. The square was originally called Plaza de Armas, and was renamed Jackson Square after the Battle of New Orleans in honor of General Andrew Jackson. It was also declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. In the middle of the square is a statue of the general on a horse dating back to 1856.

Statue of General Jackson and the St. Louis Cathedral

Jackson Square Landmark Buildings

Jackson Square has many landmark buildings around it as well, and the history in the area is astounding. The finalization of the Louisiana Purchase was done nearby in the Cabildo (old city hall) and opposite that building is The Presbytere which was used for both commercial purposes and even housed the Louisiana Supreme Court. Both buildings were built in the 1790s and are registered National Historic Landmarks.

Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans French Quarter

The St. Louis Cathedral is one of New Orleans’ most notable landmarks, standing tall with it’s triple steeples that look down on Jackson Square and the statue of General Jackson. The landmark building was completed in 1727 and has gone through many disasters, both natural and “man made” in the years since. We noticed that a pope had presided over mass in the St Louis Cathedral recently, but for the life of me, can’t find the details about it. We remember seeing it though.

St Louis Cathedral

Inside St Louis Cathedral

Jackson Square, the Cabildo building

artist in Jackson Square

Jazz band in the square

These guys were really good

This guy gave me the finger and I had it in the frame and I didn't take the photo. I wish I had, it was classic. He looked right at me and flipped me the bird.

Television and Movies Filmed in Jackson Square

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, disobedient slaves were executed in Jackson Square. More recently it has been featured in many a TV show and movie including: Angel Heart, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the HBO TV series Tremé (which we managed to walk through a set of, more on that later) and even an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

As we stood on the corner of the square, we overheard a tour guide telling his clients that part of a scene from Interview With a Vampire was filmed inside and the building was used for the fire scene as they burned the French Quarter and left by boat for Paris.

Anyway, after watching a band play in Jackson Square for a while, Rob went to go find somewhere to sit and have a cold drink while I wandered around some more and took photographs. I also popped into a gallery near the cathedral that featured some great local photography.

There are many different tours available in the French Quarter, one of them being by mule or horse buggy. While we didn’t do one this time, I did on my last trip to the city and it was well worth it. Comfort of sitting, a local guide and you can pick which places you can stop and get out at like one of the cemeteries.

Mule buggy tour leader

He told the mule she was naughty because she head butted a lady that was walking by. So he told her she had to kiss him to make up and this is what happened. Too cute!

Street Musicians

You can practically find musicians on almost every street corner in the French Quarter at almost any time of day or night. If you stop to listen please support them by tossing in a few dollars, this is how they make their living. In fact, Rob suggests everyone have a wad of single dollar bills for just this purpose. Stop, listen, and leave a tip.

Street musicians are everywhere in the Quarter much to everyone's pleasure

Iconic Places You MUST SEE in the French Quarter

The French Quarter is a place of history. There are some things you simply MUST do when you’re here. These are are top “things to do in the French Quarter”

Pat O'Briens, home of the original Hurricane drink

Pat O’Brien’s

When I was in New Orleans in 2005 Pat O’Brien’s was on our Must See list and we were told to have the Pat O’Brien’s world famous Hurricane drink. Little did I know then in that 8oz drink was 4oz of rum! Three Hurricanes later and finding the bathroom become an issue (you have to climb a winding spiral staircase to get to the bathroom). My advice: drink slowly, make sure you have a DD or someone to watch over your drunk ass after having a few, and be aware of your drink count. They are very tasty and go down way to fast like Koolaid – don’t say I didn’t warn you. They also have some other great specialty drinks like the Cyclone and they sell the Hurricane drink mix in powder and liquid form to make at home. We bought some and had a Hurricane party for friends which was a big hit. Their piano bar is usually hoppin’ too and one night we witnessed a marriage proposal and engagement of a young couple.

Preservation Hall, home of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band - and simply a MUST DO

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall, home of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band – this is a definite MUST DO! Blink and you’ll miss it as Preservation Hall is a very unassuming, hole in the wall place and if it wasn’t right next to Pat O’Brien’s it would be almost impossible to find. No flashing lights. No billboard. Just an old sign that notifies you that you’re there. Oh that, and the line up will give it away any time after 6pm too. Preservation Hall is all about the music and nothing else. There’s no food or drinks and not even bathrooms. It’s a small $12 cover fee to get in and you can stay for one or all three sets if you get in to the 8pm show. Inside there’s about 6 wooden benches, pillows in the floor and the rest is standing room only. Get there early to line up, usually by 6pm and if you get in for the 8pm show you can choose how long you stay, then it’s all done by 11pm. Buy a CD too! I didn’t the first time and regretted it the whole five years until I was back this time. The music is old-time jazz at it’s finest – just go!

[Rob's note: I requested they play Happy Birthday for Darlene. We went there on her birthday]

Pirate’s Alley

I’ve already mentioned it once but it’s worth another. Pirate’s Alley is located right beside and behind the cathedral. Pirate’s alley is a treasure trove of neat little places to discover. On weekends artists often display their work around the fence behind the cathedral. You can pop into the Faulkner Book shop which was the home of Nobel prize winner writer William Faulkner. It’s crammed with books of all kinds literally from floor to ceiling and is almost overflowing. Upstairs is still a private residence and I’d loved to have had a peak up there, but that was not in the cards this day.

Central Grocery

Central Grocery is home of the original Muffuletta, a sandwich of mammoth proportions made out of a whole ciabatta bread. Although we didn’t have one here on this trip, I did partake of the grocery’s sandwich last time. It’s a big sandwich so either bring a big appetite, only get 1/2 or 1/4 or one, or share with friends like I did. It’s full of Italian meats and cheese and a wonderful olive spread that’s to die for! They have a little eating counter at the back – grab a drink and take a load off for a while.

Coop's Place

Coop’s Place

So after cruising around on my own for a while I went and found Rob and we headed to Coop’s Place for a really fast dinner. We wanted to catch the last shuttle back to the RV park and had less than an hour by the time we got to the restaurant and got a table. It’s a dark tiny little place and we picked the dishes that would be delivered to us the quickest so it wasn’t the best opportunity to sample their wares. It is recommended highly by most locals and is another of the little hide-aways that make this city so unique. We vowed to come back and give it a full chance to impress us. What we did have was very good but too rushed to enjoy it. We’ll be back! Besides, we had to eat here – Coop is Rob’s nickname from his days at Peak Potentials.

Café du Monde

As I described in an earlier post about Café du Monde, this is THE place for coffee in New Orleans. Their café au lait and beignet are New Orleans in a cup and a pastry. Serving the French Quarter for 150 years, everyone and their dog has been into this place. Expect to hear “Don’t line up. There is no line up. Find a seat and sit down.” over and over again as the line up’s begin. There ARE NO LINE UPS. Find a seat. Make a new friend at a table and have a coffee. Highly recommended.

New Orleans French Quarter Restaurants

If you’re looking for suggestions for New Orleans French Quarter Restaurants, we’d easily recommend Coop’s Place, the Central Grocery and without a doubt, hands down, the place to find clean food in New Orleans is Meals From the Heart, just a little down Decatur street in the French Market.

Another restaurant in the French Quarter is Mother’s. Absolutely fantastic place to eat. It’s just on the outside edge of the French Quarter, over near Harrahs Casino

Returning to the RV park we had a chance to see a free show from a Neil Diamond impersonator. Apparently he was traveling by RV also and did the show for the park in exchange for their parking fees – very smart! His 2 year old son came out and did an Elvis impersonation to open the show and Neil himself was very good. Had to remind myself a couple times it wasn’t actually the real singer. We didn’t take any photos of it, we just enjoyed the show.

The French Quarter of New Orleans offers the visitor many restaurants, music, art and landmark buildings like the Saint Louis Cathedral. Of the places you must see in New Orleans, make absolute sure you line up and hear a set or two in Preservation Hall. Get a drink from a walk up bar and then get in line. Just do it! Make sure you check out Pirate’s Alley and if you decide to sit in one of the chairs in the photographs above, know that a scene from Treme was filmed there where you sat. Check out the old bookstore next door too. Jackson Square in the French Quarter is the heart of New Orleans. Imagine hundreds of years of musicians, poets, artists, generals and lovers as you stroll the area.

New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market

Darlene — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:48:26 +0000

Day two in “The Big Easy” (one of New Orleans other names) started off by actually getting on the shuttle bus from the RV park this time relatively early in the morning. I think we got on the 9:30am, first one out. We headed straight for Café du Monde’s famous coffee stand at 800 Decatur Street.

Sidebar anecdote: funny thing, on my first trip here I was expecting to hear French spoken quite commonly. Many of the street have French names and of course there’s the French Quarter. Nope – not even a little bit. In fact, names I’d expect to be pronounced in a more French way were completely murdered, in my opinion. Decatur is one of those. I expected it to sound more like “deck-a-tour” and when I said it that way they looked at me like I had two heads. They said it “dee-katter”. One of the odd things I noticed anyway. So don’t try and use your French here, it’s long gone.

Café au lait and Beignet

Anyway, established some time in 1862 Café du Monde has been serving café au lait and their famous beignet donuts for 150 years. Taken right from their site, here is the history of this coffee stand:

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Dec 25th and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

This is the sight you’ll see as you approach the sidewalk café. What appears to be a long line up gets quickly cleared by an anxious server yelling “No line, no line! Find a table and sit down!” So you do and often it’s to share with another couple, which we did, or join a partly empty table. No space is wasted here and quick turn over is their goal – get you in, get you served, get you out – so they can serve more people I’m guessing and make more tips.

I’m sure I saw the lady in the photo below 5 years ago too, and in the TV show The Treme which we actually stepped into the set of by accident one other day (more on that later). She’s the one that ushered us in hurriedly. I learned later that they take the customer’s order, go to the back to get it, and PAY for it themselves. Then they have to collect from the customer to cover what they paid and hopefully get a tip. I hope they pay less than we would if we walked up to the window, but it makes sense then why they want you in and out so fast. The more served per hour, the more tips they can make.

Cafe Du Monde Beignets

Here we see people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their beignets. I have to admit I did have some, while Rob abstained. But the Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee is out of this world! I love the little girl with powdered sugar all over her face. She was watching me take her photo, but didn’t seem to mind.

In the photos below you can see the staff, busily serving their tables. After they collected a plate of beignets and poured the coffees, they’d go pay the cashier waiting for them at the end of the line. I watched for a while and it’s a steady stream of coffee and donuts coming out. You’ll also notice the staff counting their money, I saw that quite often too. I’m sure they wanna make sure they are making more than they’re paying for the coffee.

Then of course there’s Cafe Du Monde take out, so here are three tips on taking stuff home with you.

order any canned coffee and/or souvenirs from your server when you order your coffee and beignets.
do NOT buy the canned coffee from any of the stores down the street or in the French Market. A can of coffee is $5.45 in the café and you’ll find it as high as $9 a few steps away. We ended up paying about $8 a can just because we didn’t want to get back in the take out line at the café.
go to the Café du Monde gift shop at 813 Decatur Street literally across the street. They have the same prices as the café and can ship stuff if you need that service. See photo of the sign below so you know what to look for.

New Orleans French Market

A short stroll north up Decatur street and you get to the French Market. As the sign below indicates it was here well before the café, and is the oldest city market in America. It has changed quite a bit since my fist visit in January 2005. The junk and tent stalls have been replaced with permanent stalls with secure windows and doors and the vendors have gone from dollar store nick nacks to really nice hand made crafts, food items, art, produce and more. A place locals and tourists alike visit.

This happy guy’s name is Oscar. He makes resin jewelry that is very colorful, just like him. I talked to him for a while and listened to his story of Katrina and how his life has been different since that day. He talked about how hard it was to come back and for him there were no customers, no tourists, so his market had disappeared here. He told me he lived in another city, I can’t remember where now, and started coming back on weekends once the market reopened and finally moved back home. But it was a tough go for him and many other locals.

I talked to two other ladies as we ate lunch and they live in East New Orleans and said many things are still not opened like stores, schools, clinics. They have to travel farther now to find those things. All of the people I talked to were super nice and seemed eager to talk about their experience to someone that was really listening. I feel for the people of New Orleans who, in many ways, have been treated like second class citizens in their country. I bought a couple books on the disaster, one on a group that rescued stranded pets after they had been left behind by their owners. The sad thing was the city told the people to leave them behind, that they’d only be gone a day or two at most. 2-3 weeks later many of those pets were still tied up to leashes, left in homes with 8′ of water, or left to wander the streets to find food. Some were found still treading water as they were tied to something and couldn’t get away. I don’t want to get on a rant, but this was a disaster of mammoth proportions that was utterly and completely preventable and it’s shameful how the government on all levels (municipal, state and federal) responded. (stepping off my soap box now).

Anyhow, continuing on - we had what was probably our best meal in New Orleans at a place in the French Market that I’d found out about on the internet (what a great resource hey?!).

Meals From The Heart

Meals from the Heart advertises low sodium, low fat and no transfat – fabulous! In a city full of rich, heavy foods this was a great find! We totally loved the food and have recommended it to others already, and they loved it too. If you are looking for a nice light, clean meal – this is the place to go. They also do catering and bulk orders – take home a couple dozen crab cakes today!

Rob's grilled salmon, brown rice and veggies

I had the crab cakes with lemon remoulade sauce, and fresh organic greens - yummy!

Chef Averill Lazard who created our fabulous meals at Meals from the Heart

Day 85 – Dolphin Connection dolphin tour

Darlene — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:01:48 +0000

I was searching the internet for dolphin tours in the Portland area, and somehow I came across The Dolphin Connection. A husband and wife team, Irv and Sonya Strong, that have been taking people out to MEET the dolphins for something like 16 years. They know many of them by sight and have named them – and the dolphins know their boat and their sounds too. They are located in Ingleside on the Bay, TX – basically around the corner of the bay from our RV park.

Their blog says they have their business up for sale and this might be the last year for them doing this, so I booked us in. We were supposed to go on the Monday but it was way too windy and in the little boat they use, we’d have been tossed around the waves in an undesirable manner. So we waited a day and headed out Tuesday.

Sonya met as at the dock and right away we were loaded up on the boat and off we went. No formalities, no waivers to sign, no payments first – just hop in and off we went. I opted for a life jacket (with my paranoia of water) while Rob opted for none. It was just us two and them – perfect.

Dolphin Connection - Sonya and Irv

See Dolphins or It’s Free

They talked about the dolphins and that their usual schedule has been a bit “off” lately, so we were sure if we’d see any today or not. They guarantee an encounter with them or you don’t have to pay – hence why no prepayment was done before we boarded the boat – sweet. Personally I’d rather pay and see them, then go out and see nothing for free.

Irv took us around the bay, looking in the spots where the dolphins usually hang out at this time of day. They have patterns and tend to hang out in groups he said, but their pattern wasn’t following the usual routine in the last couple weeks so they were having a hard time predicting where and when to find them. It’s a big ocean – lots of water to cover in a small boat.

We eventually did find one guy, but he wouldn’t come close enough for Sonya to touch him, he was playing coy with us. But Irv did show us a cool trick where he speeds up the boat and the dolphin basically body surfs inside the wake. We watched him do it for a while. Not sure if it’s playing to them, they’re very playful animals, or an easy effortless way for him to get from point A to point B. It’s like a kid putting on roller skates and bumper riding, same concept.

Riding the wake of the boat

We did see a couple more but nothing close enough for us to touch. They just were not in the mood today and we didn’t find the big group Irv was looking for. We still had a great trip though and as was indicated we were not required to pay, but voluntary donations towards gas were welcomed. We left them some money anyway.

Also saw lots of pelicans, of course

Saw quite a few really large cargo ships too.

We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the ride and I took a few photos on the beach before we headed out. I’m really hoping they hang in there for another year so we can go back in 2011 and give it another go with them. Yup, that’s my intention – they will be there and we’ll go again and see the whole herd/tribe/gang – whatever it is you call a group of dolphins.

Texas sunset

Fish bones on the beach, left by the fisherman that cleaned and filleted them here

I thought it was pretty, even with the fish carcass

If you’re in the Corpus Christi or Portland Texas area, I highly recommend doing this dolphin tour. It’s only $25 per person and you get a small personalized tour with people who know and love the dolphins.

Day 82 – Oysterfest in Fulton, Texas

Darlene — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:08:19 +0000

I had planned our entire Texas stay in Portland to make sure we stayed long enough to go to the Fulton Oysterfest, about 30 minutes north east of Sea Breeze RV park. I had no idea what the Oysterfest was all about, but I love raw oysters so I wanted to find out for myself.

Fulton Oysterfest Parade

We dragged our butts out of bed late as usual and headed out to get there for around 11am or so. I had read on the official festival site that there was a parade and free parking at the old Walmart lot, which we just happened to stumble upon a few days ago. So we parked there and got in line with the 200 or so other folks waiting for the free shuttle bus. It came and took about 12 people, and round trip is 15-20 minutes, so we figured we were gonna be in line a while.

When we finally got to the festival site the parade was still going down the street, so I rushed to catch up to it. I do love a good parade – Rob is indifferent to them. As it was coming up to St. Patrick’s Day soon there was lots of green, and locally made floats and school marching bands, and some uniquely Texan things.

Notice it says "adult day care" - what it means is it's a bar! LOL

Love the headline on this one

Only in Texas! Guy in a pick up playing a guitar in a parade

And then we entered the festival grounds!

Let the eating commence! And so we did. Rob started with the BBQ turkey leg – I think I got one bite. Then we each had a dozen raw oysters, then another dozen later. Rob thought we were going to have like 4-5 dozen each. They were fairly cheap at $8 a dozen – and really tasty – but that’s still a bit costly, so we stopped at 2 dozen each.

Rob’s comment: As far as I’m concerned, any “fest” requires large amounts of the “fest” item to be consumed. If it’s a beer fest, one consumes large quantities of beer. If it’s an Oysterfest, the same should be true. That’s my opinion anyway.

First round

We even got filmed by a local TV station and ended up on their blog eating our oysters

This is how the shucking is done

They had a whole row of guys shucking non-stop and still couldn't keep up to the demand

The entertainment was pretty much non-stop too

Eating Oysters On Texas TV

We even got on local TV (of sorts). The Corpus Christi Caller Times, a local paper, had a camera crew out to the fest. She came by while we were eating and video’d us. She must have liked us because she came back 5 minutes later saying that her “white balance” was off and wanted to video us again. Later that night Rob checked the Caller Times website and found the video of us eating oysters.

After satisfying our oyster needs and listening to some country music, we went to browse the other tent with crafts, art and stuff for sale. I actually found cowboy boots on sale for $10, so I had to buy a pair. There was a photographer with some great bird shots from the area, and some great art.

Me trying on boots. Not my best look

Thought about getting this for my brother-in-law but not for $350 - sorry Troy

A typical Texas style outfit, mini-skirt and boots

Oysterfest Oyster Eating Contest

Next we saw a crowd gathering around the stage as the men’s oyster eating contest began. We couldn’t really see that well but Rob got a few photos over the tops of everyone’s heads. I’m not quite tall enough to do that without a ladder. There were about a dozen guys in the contest and it lasted about 5 minutes.

Oyster eating contest - mens

Notice the plastic beer jugs with grey stuff in them? That's the oysters - they're basically drinking them

After the time limit was up, they had to sit and wait another 5 minutes to make sure they kept them all down. Any that come up don’t count, or maybe that guys gets disqualified – not sure. So after the waiting was done they announced the winners. The top oyster eater swallowed down 200 of them in the allotted time! WOW! Impressive. We didn’t get back the next day to see the women’s contest but I’m curious to know the numbers from that one. That is a LOT of oysters.

Texas highway patrol - cool looking hey?

Bikes and boats by the marina

We bought this for the RV

shrimp boats

More shrimp boats

I thought this was a cool shot - this is all I got of him

Lots of birds overhead so I tried to get some good shots of them flying. This one above I thought came out kinda funky with only half a bird. The one below is one of a bunch of them we saw playing sort of leap frog. They all sat on their own post, all in a row. Then when a new bird came in for a landing, he’d almost land on the bird who was last in the row, who in turn would get up and fly up one to land on the next bird and so on until the one at the front got bumped off and had to go find a new spot. We watched them do it again and again – our video camera batteries were dead so didn’t get video. Animals do the funniest things – I’ve said it before but will say it again – if you have animals you don’t need TV!

This is one of the leap frog seagulls

Me with leap frog gulls in the background

Fulton Mansion

So we decided we’d had enough and headed back via shuttle to get our car. On the way out of Fulton we took a detour to drive by Fulton Mansion. It was closed already so we put it on our list to come back and tour next year. The Fulton Mansion was built in 1874 it had features that were highly innovative for that time period including: gas lighting, central heating and indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water. Rob was interested in their water saving and recovery system – we’ll be going back for a closer look when we have more time.

Fulton Mansion

Great porch

All in all we had a great time at the Fulton Oysterfest and plan to do it again next year when we return to Texas.

Day 79 – Taking the RV to the Beach

Darlene — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:32:05 +0000

We wanted a chance to park the RV on the beach and do some beach camping on Padre Island, but since we didn’t take the RV south to Brownsville (and South Padre Island) we decided to drive it over to Port Aransas. Our mission was two fold, to get a photo of our RV on the beach, and to let Rob’s cat experience the ocean. We actually have a magazine article that we wrote being published in Good Sam “Highways” and they may use an image from this shoot so we wanted it to be spectacular.

Taking the RV to Port Aransas by Ferry

Getting to Port Aransas and Padre Island by RV requires taking a ferry or driving all the way through Corpus Christi and around from the south west. Taking Victor (what we’ve named our Winnebago Vectra RV) over on the little ferry was interesting. It only holds about 20 cars and they put us in the middle of two lanes at the front in order to stay balanced. Funny.

Parking the RV on the Beach

We got to Padre Island and found a solid packed spot on the sand for us to park our RV on the beach. With memories of the other RVer getting stuck in the mud back in San Antonio, we didn’t want to risk it. Rob felt it was important that the cats got to experience the beach and the ocean. He took Pumpkin out near the water in the sand and I brought Boo out a few minutes later. They were none too happy about it and I wish I had video of Pumpkin backing up increasingly faster and faster as the water came towards her. (Rob here, um, we DO have video of that Dar) Then she almost left with a nice lady that stopped to pet her.

Cats On The Beach

Rob placed Boo in the ocean in about 1/2″ of water. She just sat there, motionless as the water came up to about 2″ and Rob had to go rescue her. And NO it’s not animal cruelty or cat torture – they are THE biggest chick cats ever and so far their RVing experience has helped them to be more daring and relaxed when things change. Now they will actually venture outside on their own, and not run and hide under the couch at even the sight of another person. So they have grown and this was indeed another experience for them. After the cats on the beach adventure, we got down to the business of getting the photos we came for.

HDR of 3-4 images combined, then us added

The RV on the beach shots accomplished, we tried to find a spot near a marina to get some boats in the photo with the RV. It was hard to find the right angle, decent lighting and access with a 34′ vehicle. Not to mention by parking it in front of the boats – guess what – I can’t even see the boats, so it kinda defeats the purpose.

RV at the Marina

Rob texting while I shoot - or he's playing a game on MY iPhone

Around the corner from there we found some pelicans flying around and Rob even saw a dolphin out in front of a big freighter that was coming in. We love pelicans – find them fascinating birds. They’re so large but graceful and how they can fly just inches off the water is amazing.

Brown pelican possibly with dinner?

brown pelican

Look at the huge wing span of these guys!

I could watch them all day

With the sun setting we headed for Virginia’s (the place with the piles of oyster shells out back that I didn’t get to eat last time cause we found it too late) for dinner. Rob parked in the biggest lot we could find nearby and put a note in the window so people would know we were not planning on camping overnight there. Rob found an online RV Journal that discusses RV unfriendly towns and made note of a few of them. Apparently some towns are not RV friendly at all and in Flagstaff, AZ they may ask you to leave even if you just stop and park to eat dinner. So now I understand why he left the note.

Beach Camping

While the idea was originally to do some beach camping on Padre Island and then go to Mexico for the day (which we did do), we weren’t actually able to pull that one off this time around. We’d both love the opportunity for beach camping, to let go of the tethers, unhook from the sewage line and do what they call dry camping. To back away from the computer, put out the awning and read instead of type so much would be a wonderful experience. Because of our schedule and events as they unfolded, beach camping was simply not going to occur.

Parking the RV on the beach on Padre Island was not only a safe experience, it was great for the cats as well. Dinner was good with a great view of the sunset over the water. A great day in paradise.

Cats On the Beach

Rob — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:37:35 +0000

Ever since we left Edmonton and set out on our 12,000 mile trip through the US and Canada by RV, I’ve wanted my cats to experience the ocean. They’re 16 and 15 years old and rarely ever left the house until recently. I’ve wanted them to experience as many things as possible while remaining relatively safe at the same time. If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that our first few days in the RV resulted in so much of Dar’s clothing and our bedding covered in cat pee, so we didn’t know what to expect from their time on the beach.

Pumpkin and Boo on the beach of Padre Island Texas

Pumpkin is the orange cat and Boo is the black one. They’re my Halloween kitties, but born in October and named respectively. Boo is about 16 while Pump is 15.

How did this all come about you might ask?

We took our RV to Padre Island near Port Aransas so we could get shots of our rv on the beach for Good Sam Highways magazine. We wanted good shots to accompany a recent article entry we submitted to them, so on day 80 we packed up and left Seabreeze RV Park for the day.

How Did The Cats Handle It?

Another good question. I’ve had some people tell me that they’ve never seen a cat on the beach, nor pictures of cats on the beach and neither had I. I had to walk them out to the ocean as they wouldn’t leave the rv on their own, but that’s not new. Even with the door wide open, they rarely leave the RV to venture outside.

I walked Boo down to the water and put her in about an inch of water. She didn’t move. Her paws sunk about a 1/4 inch into the wet sand. A wave came in and got her underbelly wet. She still didn’t move. I’ve been told recently that what they experienced was this:

They saw water on one side and beach on the other. They dont know what the water was and just saw it as “moving earth” and couldn’t comprehend it. They thought of the beach as a giant version of cat litter and weren’t too happy about walking in it so much.

I do have video of Pumpkin experiencing a wave coming in. She saw it coming and began to back up, but couldnt keep up, so kept accelerating in reverse as it rolled in . I’ll post it when I have time to edit it (seriously lacking time to travel, experience the US first hand AND process images and blog about it).

It was a long way between the water and the RV, so the only thing of familiarity around them was me. They huddled up around my legs. Boo hunkered down and crept her way back to the motorhome. Dar eventually picked her up and she just looked out at various things before we took them back home to safety.

For the record, I love my cats more than anything. I’ll even swear on their life to Darlene if she thinks I’m fooling around about something. That way she knows I’m serious.

At no time were they in danger and I kept them safe next to me at all times. The worst it got for Boo was about 2 inches of water that touched her belly as a wave came in. That was it.

The “cats on the beach” experience was all part of the day we took our rv to the beach, make sure you check it out.

Day 74 – A Fish Fry and Willie Nelson

Darlene — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:16:45 +0000

When I photographed Dora and Otto’s corvettes the day before, she invited us to a “fish-fry” at their ranch on Friday. We already had tickets to go see Willie Nelson (I found them online for $20 each) but said we’d love to go. I wasn’t even sure what all was involved in a fish fry, and as neither of us had ever been we were eager to find out.

So Friday afternoon came and we headed out north towards Goliad, where I had taken photos of the Spanish mission earlier in the month, using the directions Dora had given us. Several others from the Seabreeze RV park were invited too, so we made a sort of convoy the 30 miles out into the back country of Texas.

Their ranch house is like a weekend or getaway place for them, as they live right in Portland. It’s a ranch-style house with one level, a porch and screened in patio. Otto has turned the garage into a workshop and 1 bedroom guest house. We immediately noticed and set out counting the stars that adorned almost every vertical surface. He was so engrossed in his counting that Rob completely overlooked the pistol that was just sitting on the counter. Just like any other household item, keys, a hat, etc. Texans sure do like guns – yes sirree!

Porch on their house

Doesn't it just LOOK like Texas? You have wagon wheels on your porch too right?

Front door and one of the many stars around the ranch

Yet more stars!

I found us a bit segregated as the men hung out in the garage, while George fried the fish (using his secret recipe that he wouldn’t divulge), and the women sat on the enclosed patio. Otto offered us a ride out into the pasture to see his cows, so we jumped at that opportunity. Brought me right back to my childhood and my uncles dairy cows out on the farm. These however are beef cattle, not dairy.

Texas Grass Fed Cows

Another lady sat up front in the “Gator” with Otto, and we had lawn chairs set up in the back for us to “set” on. He’s quite proud of his cows and seemingly everything he does is something he’s very passionate about. Not a bad way to be at all. He told us about how he was gonna do this and that and move some trees around a pond. When Rob asked him why, Otto said he likes to keep busy – no kidding!

Otto driving the Gator

We watched as the cows ate real grass and the calves fed on their mother’s milk – as it should be! However, we were disheartened to learn that even most grass-fed cows are sent to the big mass production feed lots and fed corn to fatten them up, and turn their fat from yellow to white (better for marketing supposedly). So apparently to be able to advertise “grass fed beef” the cows only have to eat grass for a certain percentage of their lives. In the end, they all end up in the same feed lots, and being handled poorly as they had to slaughter houses. We were not very happy to learn this.

THIS is what cows are supposed to eat!

See, she likes it!

Baby cows drink milk!

The Fish Fry

Back to dinner – the fish was catfish and tilapia (a white fish), coated with George’s special cornmeal and spice mix and fried. I particularly liked the catfish. As I mentioned, Rob asked but George would not give him the recipe. There were also leftovers from potluck the night before, so there was lots to eat. Good food, good company.

The signs says "RIP here lays the last SOB that didn't close the gate"

Yup, deep in the heart!

Willie Nelson Concert

The timing worked out for us to stay for the whole dinner, and after a quick stop at the RV back at Seabreeze, we headed off to the Old Concrete Street Amphitheater for the Willie Nelson outdoor concert. We got to the area and sort of just follow the traffic to find our $10 parking spot blocks away. It is in a warehouse area, and they had a free shuttle going back and forth to take people up to the main gate – a nice service!

The venue is a bit odd to say the least. It has two sections of pre-reserved seating with actual chairs placed in rows. The rest was just general seating where you could stand or sit if you could find a spot. It’s basically a flat area so seeing from the back – good luck. Or, they’d be happy to rent you a chair for $5 each if you could find somewhere to put it and actually see the stage. Bringing in your own chairs was forbidden. Of course – they couldn’t make the $5 then!

We also waited in line for about 30 minutes just to get through security at the main gate. They use actual metal detectors and everyone got patted down before being allowed to enter. It IS Texas after all – you did read about the pistol earlier right? LOL.

Yes it was Texas and Yes we wore winter clothes

We found a spot on a grassy hill area and put down our tarps – which we were allowed to bring. It was NOT that warm that evening, maybe 5c or 6c and I had on gloves and long underwear and 3 shirts. That didn’t seem to deter the girls that paraded around in Daisy Duke like outfits with teeny tiny short, cowboy boots, and midi tops. Made me wonder where Hazard County really is anyways – must be close!

The concert itself was just okay. The sound wasn’t great in this venue and Willie seemed to be mumbling a lot. But HEY – we saw Willie Nelson in concert IN Texas – how cool is that?!

Classic Corvettes On The Beach

Rob — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:23:30 +0000

A little over a week ago, the owners of Seabreeze RV Park in Portland invited us to a private showing of their classic corvette collection. Today, WE invited them to bring their favorite corvettes to Seabreeze so we could do a photo shoot of corvettes on the beach. Classic cars, classic corvettes, the beach and a sunset, what could be better?

They brought three Corvettes. How do two people drive three Corvettes? Regardless, we brought them down to the very edge of the RV park onto the beach that disappears into Nueces Bay and began positioning them. When all was said and done, we were late for potluck supper, but this is what Dar got:

The blue corvette you see here is a vintage 61 placed on top of a brand new 2007 corvette drive train. Ottos says that it’s 400 pounds lighter but with the same horsepower.

We found out later that they would NEVER have taken the cars onto the beach. Dora said something like “Not for 1 in a thousand people would we ever do that.” Well, we’re glad to be the ones they trusted enough to get the shots right.

Whooping Crane Birding Tour in Rockport

Rob — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:54:40 +0000

Whooping cranes summer in Alberta Canada, just north of where we live, so while we were wintering in Texas in our RV, we thought it appropriate to see where they winter too. We found a Whooping Crane Birding tour in Rockport Texas, so decided to go after our last event in the Seabreeze RV Park Olympic games.

Sandhill cranes in flight

There were so many of them, It was practically a Sandhill crane tour too. These are some sandhill cranes we saw while heading out into the Gulf.

The Wharf Cat

The Wharf Cat and it’s sister ship, the Scat Cat are two very large catamaran boats that operate out of Fishermans Wharf in Port Aransas Texas. They offer day long fishing trips, sunset dolphin tours and from November through March, take birding tours to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to visit the winter nesting ground of the Whooping Crane.

The whole area of Rockport, Corpus Christi and Portland Texas are great birding tour areas. In port alone we saw seagulls (of course) and many egrets.

Fishermans Wharf

Darlene and I first stumbled upon Fishermans Wharf on our first trip to Port Aransas. As we toured the dock area there, we saw a fishing trip that has just come back. They hooked up and displayed all the fish from the fishing trip aboard the Wharf Cat in front of their sign.

After seeing its sheer size, we knew Dar would feel safe enough to go on a tour. It’s a two level boat, air conditioned, with two heads and a beverage bar inside.

Whooping Crane Tour

We found out that there are two types of tours. One that starts from their location here in Port Aransas, two days a week and the other Whooping Crane tour in Rockport, which leaves three days a week. Basically, the boat has to sail up past the Rockport to get to the Wildlife Refuge, so can begin at either location. We choose the tour in Rockport simply because it would give us less travel time on the boat, and focus squarely on the whooping cranes.

Whooping Cranes

We saw a bunch of different types of seagulls, blue herons, terns, egrets, cormorants, roseate spoonbills, brown and white pelicans, sandhill cranes, dolphins and of course whooping cranes. As I mentioned earlier, it was as much a sandhill crane tour as it was any other bird.

Blue heron in port

... and a moment later, heron in flight

Growing up in small town Saskatchewan, my father was a hunter and taught firearm safety. He did so for over 25 years and I came to appreciate the whooping crane in a whole different way. I recall him having a patch sewn to his coat that displayed “Save the whooping crane” because of its place on the endangered species list. There are said to be only 250 of them left in the wild.

Dar here: from what I remember there are only 3 wild flocks left with this one being the only MIGRATING flock anywhere in the world. So they take good care of these birds to try and ensure their survival. We saw evidence of conservation efforts but unfortunately for the birds, this year was a bad year for their food (the blue crab) so they were having a hard time finding food. That doesn’t bode well for the poor whoopers. Made me not want to eat blue crab ever again.

A pair of whooping cranes in flight as they passed in front of our boat

Imagine our amazement as we neared Matagorda Island and saw two “whooping cranes in flight”, as our birding tour narrator Ray called out on the Wharf Cat’s speaker system. The two cranes flew across the channel in front of our boat and landed in the marsh area about 100 feet from our location. Simply amazing!

The magestic Whooping Crane

Ray our Birding Tour Expert

As a special little treat, and part of our Whooping Crane tour, the Wharf Cat staff provide the services of a professional birder who gives the riders some insight into the birds we’re seeing. Ray was easily in his 70′s and an excellent source of information. We enjoyed Ray’s narration and explanations of what we were seeing or could possibly see. He cracked the odd joke and simply kept us very interested and entertained with our birding tour.

As we headed back to Rockport, we enjoyed the sea breeze and kept our eyes peeled for dolphins. We eventually saw some.

Dar here: Ray also explained how to tell the difference between the sandhill and whooping cranes, as the sandhills are often mistaken for whoopers. The Sandhills do not have the distinctive red patch on their head that the whoopers do, and the whoopers feathers are much whiter as are they larger than the sandhills.

Arriving safely back in Rockport, we chose to drive around the area a bit more stopping in Fulton to see the Fulton Mansion which was closed, and then just to drive along the shoreline. We saw, more birds, of course, pelicans this time. They were off the pier across from the Waters Edge RV Park in Fulton, which we had originally looked at as a possible RV park on the Gulf of Mexico. From what we saw, it looks like a good location and has its own private fishing pier complete with pelicans.

A whooping crane birding tour was not something I had ever thought I’d be doing. The birds were something I grew up knowing about but had never seen. As the cranes migrated from my home province of Alberta, all the way down here to Texas, I thought it fitting that I should take the opportunity for the birding tour. It was a day well spent. We would easily recommend the Wharf Cat tour operators as they were professional, educated and had a good operation going. If you’re in the area and looking for a whooping crane tour, Look them up www.WharfCat.com