Nouvelle-Orléans

After a very strange camping site along the express way because the State Park that we had in mind was FULL, we finally made our way to New Orleans.  Due to the forecasted rainy and cold weather , we looked for a hotel room instead of a camp site.  Susan from the New Orleans Tourist office found us a pearl of a hotel, l'hotel Provincial on Chartres street, in the French Quarter of course. http://www.hotelprovincial.com/

On that weekend there was a football game and all rooms were booked except this wonderful 2 story suite ..where we were happy to "nest" for a while. As soon as we put our luggage in the room, we went in one of the several courtyards to enjoy cold beers and plan our New Orleans stay.

It was Susanne's first visit to Louisiana and New Orleans.  Our first evening in town was wonderful because the weather was balmy and there was still enough of a crowd to enliven the atmosphere!

Our hotel was very close to Jackson Square with the St Louis cathedrale and the lively square animated by locals playing Louis Armstrong's tunes or fortune teller and tarot card readers.

 We enjoyed visiting the mansions of the Garden District, the "American district" of the city...a totally different experience from the French Quarter.  We took the Charles street trolley from Canal street stop and, once in the district, walked on, following the Travel guide.  http://www.tourneworleans.com/garden_set.html











There are truths about New Orleans and one of them is that in that city, people don't eat to live but live to eat! We had to taste their delicious beignets with cafe au lait, and taste their jambalaya and gumbo as well as their boudin. It did not matter where we ate, the food was always delicious. Le Cafe Beignets made these great pastries on demand and the trio filled the stomach for the day. There are several locations of this Cafe  in New Orleans: we particularly enjoyed the one in the courtyard at the Musical Legends Park of the French Quarter. http://www.cafebeignet.com/whatsnew2/mlp.html

We ended our very nice holiday with Susanne at the Gumbo Shop an St.Peter street! Susanne was very curious to try a blackened fish! She loved it! Heiner had a jambalaya and Marleyne enjoyed a combo of jambalaya, crawfish etouffee and creole shrimps! Thanks Susanne for the food and the nice evening and your enjoyable company!

 Viewing plantations belong to the Louisiana experience. One of the most breathtaking plantation experience is the Oak Valley plantation, especially because of the nature enveloping the site.

The live oaks - which must have been smaller at the time of the building of the plantation house (1837-1839)-make quite an impression on the viewer.

Originally named Bon Sejour, Oak Alley was built in 1837-39 by George Swainey for Jacques Telesphore Roman, brother of Andre Roman who was twice governor of Louisiana.

Laura Plantation is a restored historic Louisiana  Creole Plantation on the west bank of the Mississipi River near Vacherie, just a few miles away from Oak Alley.  The Duparc Plantation (Duparc was the name of the Frenchman whom this land was granted by Thomas Jefferson for his loyalty to the US during the American Revolution) was located on unusually high ground near the River. He built his manor house during 1804-1805 in the middle of the large Colapissa Indian village that had been located at the site for over a hundred years.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation

Louisianna...quite a different experience from Texas. A different mentality, different styles of managing landscapes and town (parishes): bayous, cajun music and cuisine! Upon leaving Galveston Texas, we took a ferry to Bolivar island, Texas and drove through Beaumont Texas and then along a flat and boring landscape dotted by oil wells pumps. Entering Louisiana does not change that very much....the southern part of the state is really oriented towards oil industry BUT once in a while, we drive through small town like Franklin that have retained their beautiful live oaks bordered streets and charming houses.  And of course, the dykes retaining the mighty Mississipi...

Oil rigs museum

One afternoon in Galveston, we had to make a decision: who is going to go the Public Library and update the blog???????????? Marleyne auf course...she loves libraries!  Heiner and Suzanne opted for a visit to the oil rigs Museum of Galveston;  The Ocean Star Oil Rig Museum is located on the ocean in Galveston.
Both found the visit fascinating...and entrance for seniors was cheap..Ja ja, Suzanne hat her first senior discount ever!!!

 

And so, after mountains, hills and prairies, here we are again close to the sea, the Gulf of Mexico.  Our encampment is at the Galveston Island State Park and we hike, in the marshlands, on the beach and in galveston itself, a quiet little place. we found a great spot for seafood and enjoy the very warm weather!!!!

We almost left the area without tasting the famous BBQ of Lockhart...so on our way to Galveston, we made a detour of 20 miles to this BBQ capital and chose an assortiment of sausages, briskets and ribs for our late breakfast...

We spent one day in San Antonio, to short for an in detph visit but enough to visit the Alamo, learn about Sam Houston and David Crockett, and enjoy a meal and local brew at one of the restaurants lined along the River Walk.

Our first destination was along the wine route, to Fredricksburg. The place itself was very touristy but had a lively atmosphere; Suzanne and Marleyne did a wine sampling and chose a red Texas Wine (2009 Texas merlot) which matched our tastes (Germans like mellow red wine, Marleyne those with more tannine).  We met a Canadian couple from Winnipeg in the sampling room and they encouraged us to visit Luckenbach, just a few miles away.

 We had read about Luckenbach as a really special little place...and so we went! A couple of old wood buildings, lots of roosters (some of them perching in trees above our tables), and music by locals who seem to just drop by and sing for the fun of it. We spent a couple of hours there, drinking local brews - we particularly liked the Fat Tire brew!!!

After leaving Wichita Falls, we had another great sunny day to travel through Texas with our next destination being the wild area of Guadalupe River State Park.  From there we had several possibility for excursions. The park itself was stunning, with its live oak trees and their hanging spanish moss, cactees, and a long and lazy river (Guadalupe).  The nights were very cool and the sun appeared very late in the morning...so we carried our chairs to the sunny cacteen spots in order to have our first cup of latte.

And finally we had the graduation!  It was a moving but fun experience.

Here is the "family" photo of the event, with our freshly baked pilot in our midst:

Next day is really fun and instructive as we are visiting the airbase and get to touch and experiment plane simulators, climb towers, and watch training planes landing...

Our last stretch from Oklahoma city to Wichita Falls is short, the stretch of plains and flat terrain is beginning...but the weather is very warm and sunny! We are looking forward to our family reunion.

We are welcomed by Niko, his girl friend Nicole and Suzanne at the gate of Sheppard Airfields. They escort us to our home...a very comfortable and pretty two storey house. That evening, we join about 60 other persons (graduates of the program, instructors and their partners) for a supper at the McBride McBride’s Land & Cattle Co. I eat a huge steak which is so tender that I can cut it with the back of my knife! It is a fun evening !

After an uneventful evening in a Springfield (MO) motel, we leave for Oklahoma city. The landscapes are changing, more hills, definitely more cattle and stockyards. We are driving parallel to the Mother Road, Route 66 - originally built in the 1920's - to link Chicago to Los Angeles. The road was 9 feet wide! Some stretches are still showing the "original" pavement...There is almost a cult of Road 66, with a museum, pamphlets on how to drive the original road and its sights (giant cement Bluewhale, old gaz stations, etc...).

We arrive in Oklahoma city around 16h00, and shortly after having booked the room at the Super 8, we jump in a city bus and think that we will get to the well-known stockyards and its restaurant. But the bus brings us downtown instead...another empty and desolated affair. We use the tourist trolley to "discover" the area but we see nothing except the lower part of the high rises. We do the rest on foot...including Bricktown. This area  has a similar style to the Toronto distillery area but is absolutely empty. No offer of happy hour drinks can entice us to go in those empty restaurants and bars...After a picture taking session, we jump back in the bus and head home (!) to the Super 8. We walk to the next Sports Bar and are happy to find a 10 persons crowd in the establishment: sounds fine for supper!

While we watched Sandy's destructive path in the northeastern part of the States on the news, we are enjoying clement weather. Blue skies...still windy and cool, however. We stop for lunch in St.Louis Missouri: VERY quiet downtown area, lots of parking space! We admire the very sleek structure of the arch, Gateway to the West, overlooking the Missisipi river.

 Between Niagara Falls and Indianapolis, only rain and wind..lots of wind. The car shakes! Only upon arriving to Indianapolis, do we see the edge of the front and a bit of sun...temperatures are very low and it is still windy. We stop at Terre-Haute, Indiana for the night. While that name did not evoke anything in particular, we learned that it once was the demarcation between Louisiana and Spain! And later on, we will notice a correctional facility ...and learn that it is here that one of the Oklahoma City terrorists was killed by a lethal injection ....

Running away from Sandy

Sunday is the day...we are happy to leave Kingston and to go west...away from Sandy. Well, not completely because rain and wind accompanying the complex weather system are going to be with us all day long. It is cold, windy, wet but we are in Niagara Falls. Don't we want to see the Falls???? Well, our first idea was to walk from the hotel to the falls. We drove! Much faster and drier. But cold...anyhow, the water of the last day added power to the mighty falls! Marvelous!

Jazz at the Rex

With our boat put away for the winter, and Marleyne saying a "bye bye" for now, we are ready for some other travels.

As members of the Opera Guild here in Kingston, we, subsequently, enjoyed 2 operas in Toronto.  We are also using these events to stay over night in order to get our share of visits to galleries, to museums and to eat something exotic.

One nice surprise was our discovery of the Rex Jazz Bar on Queen's Street. What a cool place! How come we only now discovered this jazz and blues bar? Today we got to hear the Laura Hubert Band, a pretty amazing gang of 5 playing great jazz. We also enjoyed a couple of "Mill Street Ales".  In all:  a perfect late afternoon on a cold and windy day.

Next, we will be driving down to Texas to celebrate with Niko his pilot graduation.  We look forward to seeing him.  He has a neat blog ... http://niko-2011.blogspot.com/ and is looking forward to his next assignment - flying the Eurofighter!

Season End - 2012

After the first week of September, the season changes dramatically.  It can be sunny and warm, or very rainy and cold and wet.  You take your pick.

The weather sounded promising for our last sail of the season.  In fact, it was not that great at the beginning.  But we wanted to see the 1000 Islands again for a last look at the leaves.  In the evenings, we huddled inside taking shelter from the rain, lightening our kerosene lamps.  Time for cooking, reading books, and having a last swimm in the Lake Ontario waters (That's H!).

Nevertheless, we enjoyed this end-of-the year sail!

Heading home we stopped again at Cape Vincent - a lovely village - had a nice walk and relaxed under the warming sky at night (a sign that another cold front is approaching).

Back home, we begun to empty the boat and get her ready for haul-out.  On one hand, we feel saddened about this process, on the other hand, we have many more travel plans in the coming weeks (by car and tent!).

We also said our private good-byes to a good friend of mine who had died recently.  He was full of dreams to sail the North Sea and the Baltic Sea with is boat next year.  He had also wanted to come sailing with us here on Lake Ontario.  We had plans for him, destinations, anchorages ... Manfred,  when will we meet again?  We lifted a glass of rum in memory of his presence.  I will miss you.  We will miss you.

Cruising the 1000 islands eastwards

Having time and fair winds pushed La Buena Vida eastwards in the 1000 Islands region.

There are differents routes one can sail and we chose the Canadian side of the river, sailed  through the narrow channel between Wallace and Ash islands (which does pack a fair current make things exciting for sailboats) and then past the 1000 Island Bridge into smooother waters!

Within the Thousand Island area the narrowest point in the St Lawrence River is in the Thousand Islands Bridge area where the Canadian and American shores are a scant 4 miles apart. However pretty this area can be, the steel bridge is very noisy and we chose a neat little spot about 2 miles past the bridge, just in front of Tar Island, to spend the night.  Although Tar island is very close to Rockport, which is an international touristic hub for the 1000 Islands, the continously running tourist boats past well west of us.



Next morning, we motorsailed towards Alexandria Bay.  We picked Cherry Island to anchor and took the dinghy over to Heart Island to check in.  We had first tried to dock there with the big boat, but the water level was too low to do so.   On Heart Island stands the (in-) famous "Boldt Castle", which thousands of tourists come to see each year.  But the history of this castle has a rather "hollywoodian" character!

In 1900, millionaire George C. Boldt—proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City—set out to build a full-sized Rhineland-style castle on Heart Island for his beloved wife Louise. This was to be a rather imposing six-story structure with 120 rooms, complete with a drawbridge and Italian gardens, boathouses, gardens, the "real" thing!.  Then in 1904 tragedy struck. Boldt telegrammed the island and commanded the workers to “stop all construction.” His wife had died unexpectedly. Boldt never returned to the island, and teh construction crews left materials and tool behind - where they fell.  A big blow to the local community. The castle remained vacant for 73 years. Since 1977, millions of dollars have been invested in the restoration of the Heart Island structures and the Yacht House on Wellesley Island (of which the local communities benefit once more).  We figured that we would be happy with the Yacht House alone, large enough for our sailboat to fit, with its mast on!!!!

It was fun taking the dinghy around Bold Castle and through the surrounding islands ... but then we had enough of sight seeing and negotiating the never ending stream of tourist boats, and moved on to our beloved Picton Island anchorage a few miles west.

Time to go home and to install windows - 6 in total, before we opt for another trip!  The weather is getting unsettled, a sign that our summer is coming to an end.