Month: October 2018

Monday, 8th October 2018 – Colombus Day

For the first time on this trip, we switched on the TV to watch the weather news ……. and wow! Tropical Michael has changed to Hurricane Michael and we are in New Orleans which was hit by Katrina back in 2005. But we are lucky the hurricane is expected to come on land between Tellahassee and Pensacola which we had left yesterday!  Its raining right now but nothing worse than that is expected round New Orleans according the screen shot I took from the TV. I must say, the information provided is so detailed – if I were living in these areas I would certainly follow the instructions the authorities hand out -evacuation is encouraged  and in other places locals are filling up sand bags to protect their homes. The beaches are being cleared of their wooden walkways and beach guard towers and people putting up hurricane shutters on the beach houses.

Well after breakfast we we had an excursion planned to visit one of the plantations – Oak Alley Plantation located on the West Bank of the Mississippi. I called to confirm that the excursion was still taking place and as it was, we walked down to the waterfront where the Grayline coach was to pick us up. I thought of taking our rain ponchos with us ….. and yes as soon as we stepped out of the hotel it started pouring and this turned to torrential rain so we were lucky to have our ponchos.

Our coach chauffeur named Gerald was very informative and he told us that the probability was that as we drove more inland we would get some sunny weather and no rain at all……. that was good news!

it was interesting to see the causeways built across the flatlands of the Mississippi- we do have dykes in Holland but the work done here in Louisiana is also very impressive.

On the way, we came across quite a few sugar cane fields – nowadays all handled with agricultural engineering – quite different to the days when the plantations depended totally on slave labour.

Finally at Oak Alley Plantation – and we had bright sunshine so we could explore the grounds without wearing our rain ponchos…..

This  plantation is one of the Antebellum plantations meaning it was built pre civil war – round 1850 most of the American millionaires lived in the southern parts of the US and actually made their millions from sugar cane and cotton. Oak Alley was built by the Ramon family and had some 220 slaves to work on the land and in the house.

we spent a lovely afternoon although the history we encountered was shocking at times…..

Back in New Orleans, we took some time out to plan our evening. We thought of having a Cajun dinner somewhere with local music and our concierge gave us some good ideas, however by the time we reached our room and I was updating my blog, we decided to just find a place in walking distance.

Weather was dry so I had looked up a restaurant on Bourbon street which is just a block away from our hotel. As we got closer it was all music and most of the bars had open doors and windows and the (American) football game between the Saints and White Sox was on. People were strolling outdoors and catching bits of the game on the way….. my original idea was to go to Remoulade but then we came across Pier 424 of which I had read some good reviews. So that’s where we ended for our Cajun dinner. Gerry had a pecan coated grilled fish and I had blackened shrimps with fettuccini Alfredo  and a side salad. It was delicious! But then we really spoilt ourselves by sharing a butter pecan pie  – OMG – it was so rich that we decided for a long stroll before turning back to our hotel….. and this was a real eye opener of how people entertain themselves.

Tomorrow we will be having a leisure day in New OrleNs depending on the weather…. good night xx

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday 7th October 2018

This morning we were wakened by a bright sunny day and after having a good breakfast we packed all our stuff into our car and drove down to down town Pensacola as we still wanted to explore the historical district.

Pensacola is one of the oldest towns in the US as the Spaniards had their first settlements back in the mid 1500’s . Downtown Pensacola encompasses old Spanish brickwork, colonial French balconies and verandahs as well as Victorian mansions.  The waterfront is sheltered by the island of Santa Rosa  so it provides good boating facilities. We decided to stop for a refreshment at Jaco’s on the waterfront before we started our long drive to New Orleans.

By 13.00 we were once again on the road – on the Interstate 10 taking us to New Orleans , our next stop over. Traffic wasn’t bad at all being a Sunday and we had a good drive going through 4 states:

At 13.30 we crossed the Florida state line to Alabama – interesting bill board: welcome to sweet home Alabama

At 14:15 we were welcomed to the state of Mississippi and then we had a drizzle of rain!

At 15:15 we crossed into Louisiana and weather was somewhat better – we could see stretches of blue skies and the sun started shining again.

And at 15:50, we were finally at our hotel, Maison  Dupuy located on Toulouse in the French Quarters of New Orleans. We had landed ourselves in the midst of all the fun, music and Colonial French architecture. As we had driven some 200 miles in nearly 3 hours, we decided to relax a while before going out again. We had booked a dinner cruise on one of the paddle steamers, cruising down the Mississippi and we needed to get on board by 6.30 pm. So a quick shower and then a nice stroll along the water front to our “Creole Queen”.

Back to the hotel – and our walk seemed somewhat longer than earlier on – but that wasn’t too bad as the streets were full of people……. tomorrow we’re off to visit a plantation and see how life was pre the civil war when slavery was still a normal way of life to runa sugar plantation……

Saturday 6th October

today we started our long drive from Tellahassee to Pensacola and we decided not to take the Interstate – 10 as was suggested in our itenarary – we wanted to get some relax time and also be able to look around us while driving instead of constantly observing what other (truck) drivers were doing. And we really did enjoy the drive – instead of watching big bill boards of food courts along the highway, we now had the rather flat and green countryside occasionally lined with some tiny town or some motor homes campsites to watch.

We arrived in Pensacola round about 2.30 in the afternoon after a bright and sunny drive. We decided to find the beach which we did by crossing over a really long bridge to Pensacola Beach on Santa Rosa Island. This strip of an island acts as a barrier reef for the inner bay and here the sand is pure silver white colour and very fine……. however our first attempt to get to the beach was between private homes who all have their own beach and jetty. Anyway we drove back to our hotel to check in and refresh before we went out again to explore this beautifully pristine sea shore.

At the hotel we were given a more detailed map so our second attempt to get to beach was much easier – at the end of the bridge we had to go right instead of left as we had done the first time we crossed over.  But then we had to drive over onto another bridge to Fairpoint Peninsula – and this was really amazing. A long strip of land facing the Gulf of Mexico with beaches on both sides and obviously the tourist industry has discover this paradise so unfortunately there are some high rises built but mostly it’s wooden houses on stilts and low rise apartments. There is enough public beach to be reached by wooden walk ways over the low dunes. I just marveled at the fine silver white sand – it felt so good between my toes…….

After spending some time exploring the islands and enjoying the views, it was time to watch the sunset while having dinner.  I had googled seafood restaurants and to me, I think I made the right choice to go to Shaggy’s. Their speciality is grilled fish sandwiches and baskets of shrimps and the atmosphere is so relaxing especially as we had a (tall) table outside on the verandah overlooking the harbour and of course a perfect place to watch the sunset. Once again we tried the oysters – first Gerry asked for one to taste and although it did not have that salty sea taste, it was less bland than the ones we had yesterday so we ordered half a dozen between us together with seared tuna with wasabi sauce and seaweed followed by two baskets of  grilled shrimps and fish – oh yes as I am not doing any driving, I enjoyed my frozen strawberry margherita.

 

It was certainly a beautiful day and back at the hotel (Comfort Innj we had a good night’s sleep as they really have fantastic beds and pillows!

Tomorrow driving to New Orleans……

Friday, 5th October 2018

This morning we woke up to a bright sunny day and we took our leisurely time to get packed and ready for our long drive which brought us to the outskirts of Tellahassee – the capital of the state of Florida.

I really have to get used to using the imperial system of calculating the distance – no metric system here and even our GPS lady keeps on giving us the calculated distance in Miles and Feet…… I haven’t used the imperial system since my schooldays…..anyway between the two of us, we’ve managed to drive and arrive at our destination.

Mind you the driving here is terrible – the left lane meant to be the fast lane is used for slow traffic AND also by lorries overtaking other vehicles – we finally got the hang of it and we were overtaking on the right hand side – something that is not allowed in the Netherlands.

We had a couple of stops on the way to break away from the monotous drive  – after all it was a trip of 272 miles  which is some 438km. Our first stop was for breakfast/ lunch at the Waffle House – this is where we had our brunch yesterday and we had enjoyed our food so we didn’t want to waste any time exploring other venues – although we were spoilt for choice…..

Later on we stopped again at Walmart to get some fruit and water as well as some snacks. This is a strange country – so abundant in fruit and yet we cannot even get fresh fruit juice . And then finally our last stop was at Mc Donald’s to enjoy a cold and refreshing milkshake and use their WI-FI ( just like we did in OZ) The temperature was well over 94 degrees Fahrenheit being  34.5 degrees celsius……

By the time we reached Tellahassee, we were quite worn out – our hotel was way out of the city centre but after relaxing for a bit in our spacious room, we decided to hit the town and I looked up some restaurants. Tellahassee is not far from the Gulf of Mexico and hence seafood is abundant. I chose a good oyster shack and based on all the visitors’ reviews, they are supposed to have the best oysters……..

it was really busy with locals and young people – especially as this shack is situated in the campus area. We ordered our drinks and chose our menu: a dozen raw oysters, fried onion rings, French fries and coke slaw salad. the oysters looked really great – big and juicy – but when I dug into the first one I was somewhat  annoyed – this oyster did not taste anything like any other oysters we’ve had in different parts of the world – it did not have the salty sea taste but it was rather bland …… Gerry said that these oysters must have been farmed in sweet water – but I am sure that was not possible – so anyway with Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper and lemon juice we could eat our dozen – good job I didn’t order 2 dozens……. when I asked why the oysters tasted this way, the owner was quite surprised with this question but he did say that they had a lot of rain in the Gulf of Mexico so that would have watered down the salty taste…….

well we got back to our Comfort Inn where we enjoyed a good glass of Pinot Grigio in our room and not much later we were dead tired and just made it to bed……

Tomorrow we will be driving some 188 miles or 303km

Wednesday, 3rd October 2018 / Thursday 4th October

I have always wanted to visit the southern states of the US – ever since I had read the book “Gone with the Wind” (and watched the film a few times over the years)  but also my interest in the early days of exploration and colonisation of North America by Spain, France and England and the cultural influences by each country which still can be seen in this region.

Finally, Gerry and I planned a road trip to include Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee  and North Carolina. On this trip we would also be meeting up with a few of my old friends.

Getting up on Thursday morning, we decided to go and explore down town Orlando. Others would have gone to visit one of the many theme parks around here – enough of Disney World, Magic Kingdom, Sea World and many more.

Downtown Orlando is a walkable liveable city with old architecture complimenting the new buildings. There are a great many construction works going on – however the old has been preserved really well and in these areas there are many restaurants, bars and pubs and art galleries. we enjoyed a very pleasant walk around Eola Lake with its restaurants along the shoreline as well as statues.

And to close off the day, we met up with Sarah, my best friend’s daughter who happened to be in town for a conference – it was just great to catch up over drinks and a meal.