Canal Street, New Orleans, La.

Sent in 1944.  The postcard says on the back-

Canal Street and the ever-growing skyline of the South's Greatest City.  This 171 foot wide thoroughfare has been termed America's most beautiful business street.  It has terrazzo paving lined with pink borders.

Skyline, New Orleans, LA

 Sent from New Orleans in 1948 to Orleans Indiana.

"New Orleans covers 200 square miles; is the fourth largest US City in the area; greatest wholesale and financial center of the south.  Here is the hum and throb of industry, natural scenic beauty, the antique and picturesque contrast of old and new civilization."

State Line Ave. Texarkana, Arkansas-Texas

This undated but older postcard shows-

 "State Line Avenue, Texarkana, the famed street which divides Arkansas from Texas in this thriving hub of a prosperous tri-state (Ark.-La.-Tex.) trading area.  Texarkana is also the home of the great Red River Arsenal."

Harbor View, America's Largest Seaport, New Orleans, LA

Postmarked 1947, the back of this postcard notes:

Many and varied are the harbor scenes replete with interest for the visitors of New Orleans. This view shows part of the great white banana fleet of the United Fruit Company at a wharf that is typical of nine miles of New Orleans river frontage. These boats do much to make New Orleans the world's greatest banana port, with an annual importation of approximately 20,000,000 bunches.

Natchitoches Louisiana

I did want to take a brief moment to mention our stop in Natchitoches Louisiana.

This is a great little town that is just sweet.  Lots of historic stuff to do in and around the area.  We toured one of the plantations now ran by the National Park service.  They filmed a John Wayne movie there!

Also the movie "Man in the Moon" with Reese Witherspoon, was filmed near by.  The area's other theatrical claim to fame involves "Steel Magnolias."


We talked to some very sweet people at the visitor center who gave us directions and more info on other sites.

There is a great Main Street area with a ton of great little shops and restaurants.

Anyway, Natchitoches is a great midway stop between several other larger towns.  Check it out next time you are on the road in Louisiana!

Tabasco Factory- Avery Island, Louisiana

After leaving New Orleans, we drove a bit out of our way to visit the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.

I have to say that I am a huge fan of Tabasco.  I have bought other hot sauces before, but there is no reason to.  Tabasco has the perfect amount of heat and flavor.

We got to Avery Island about 10 minutes until 9 to visit the factory, as the place opened at 9.  There is an entry area for the island, and we were told that we needed to wait until 9 to actually go in to Avery Island.  Its a dollar to go to Avery Island.

After waiting we went back and were permitted to enter.  It is a bit of an awkward process to be honest.

The factory tour was actually pretty brief and simple.  Compared to some of the other factory tours we have done this one was a bit basic.  But thats OK, we had fun!


Still, if you are expecting an over the top, 90 minute tour (I am thinking about some of the extensive bourbon tours we take here in Kentucky) you will be disappointed.

You go in and watch a couple of short films about the company, what products they make, how the peppers are picked, etc.  You are able to look in to the bottling process at the factory, and that is pretty cool.  There are a couple of small museum display type rooms.  They do give you some small sample bottles of Tabasco sauce.

The entire thing takes maybe half an hour.  But you can walk around the place and explore the gift shop.  We probably spent an hour in the gift shop!

You can also sample all of the various sauces and other products they make!  There is Tabasco cola and ice cream!

Canal Street at Night, New Orleans, LA

Canal Street, so named because in olden days a big drainage canal ran down its center, recently rebuilt at a cost of $3,500,000 is 170 feet wide, one of the widest central business thoroughfares in the world has sidewalks of terazzo marble and neutral grounds.  It marks the upper limits of the old city.

The above was noted on the back of this postcard, sent in 1939.

The Cottage, Baton Rouge, LA

"The Cottage" was built in 1824 by the great-great grandfather of the present occupants.  Adjoining the 20 room house is the 1000 acre plantation.  The house, with many original furnishings, is now open to the public.  To reach house, go south from Baton Rouge to Louisiana State University.  Take road from stadium to Mississippi River levee, turn left and follow levee 4 1/2 miles.

Road Trip to New Orleans... Part 3

I kind of felt like there was a little more to say about our road trip.  I love hitting the road, and just going.  I enjoy getting in a car, plugging in the Ipod, and driving somewhere new.....

Ofter, we will plan some stops, over night stays, and then move on to the next place.

There was a lot of time in the car on this trip.

I prepared some play lists for our adventure.  One of my all time favorite bands is Cowboy Mouth, FROM New Orleans.  I had a lot of their songs on my play list for our trip south.  Also from the state is Lucinda Williams.  Her song "Lake Charles" is one of the best, and saddest songs I can think of.  There is something special about listening to music associated with an area while you are there.

Also, I was able to pick up some Zydeco stations as we moved along the roads.  I am now hooked on Rosie Ledet!

Oddly, some unexpected stops on this trip became surprise highlights.  Birmingham Alabama and Hope Arkansas were both a lot nicer than we expected.

Unloading Bananas, From Ship Side New Orleans

Noted on the back of this postcard-

"New Orleans is the worlds greatest banana port, more than 700 ships arrive each year loaded with 25,000 to 50,000 bunches of bananas.  Each individual bunch is carried from the hold of the ship to the door of the refrigerator car on mechanical conveyors."

Old St. Louis Cemetery, New Orleans, LA

Mardi Gras Parade Float, New Orleans, LA

The other side of this New Orleans postcard says-

Shortly after one Mardi Gras season is ended, plans are made for the next.  On wheeled flat cars, about 20 feet long and eight feet wide, the artificers build the new paper-mache creations.  The floats are never used again in New Orleans.  Each new Mardi Gras brings new parade themes, new float creations.

American Horror Story- New Orleans!

While in New Orleans, I snapped a few quick photos at the house where our tour guide told us they were filming for season 3 of American Horror Story!

Canal Street, New Orleans

"The Great White Way of the South.  As many as fifty thousand people gather here within a distance of five blocks during any festivities such as Mardi-Gras and New Year's Eve.  The main retail district of New Orleans."

New Orleans Hard Rock Cafe

There are some chain places that I do love.  The Hard Rock Cafe is one of those.

We always have good luck at HRC.  I love looking at rock memorabilia and I think they have good food.

New Orleans was no exception.  On our trip to the area, stopped by and had fun.

We interacted with some great locals on this trip, and our waiter Norm (THE Norminator) was among the best.


Me and Norm traded stories about seeing Kiss in concert.  He has always seen them with makeup.  I got to brag about seeing them without makeup.

As he took great care of us during our meal, Norm was a great conversationalist.

Like many of the others we met in town, Norm was just a good guy, and he took a seat at our table for probably 45 minutes as he talked about concerts, food, and living in New Orleans.

I know some people pass on HRC, but I still love 'em! 

Road Trip To New Orleans... Part 2

So, what can you say about New Orleans?  We finally made it there and we were able to spend several days exploring the city.

The city is full of sites, food, museums, people, etc., etc.

We parked our car at our hotel immediately and we did not see it again until leaving on our last day in town.

I must give a HUGE endorsement to City Sight Seeing of New Orleans.  We REALLY loved these guys for several reasons.  Go to their site-

http://www.citysightseeingneworleans.com/

I did some research before our trip, and I found that you can do a "hop on hop off" tour bus through them for $29 a day, or $39 for an entire week!  PLUS, if you do the $39 dollar deal, you get a couple of extra guided walking tours too!  If you check out prices on tours in town, you will find out quickly that THIS IS A GREAT VALUE!

I did not buy our tickets in advance though, so when we got to town, I did talk to a tour sales person on the street.  They were obviously working for another tour company and they advised us of other tours (including a single 3 hour tour at $49).  I asked if they had anything comparable to the City Sight Seeing Tour bus and they did not...

We left and found a bus stop for City Sight Seeing and bought our $39 tickets.

We used our bus passes a lot each day, AND we were able to take advantage of 2 of the walking tours offered!

One of our tour guides was the informative and funny Kat (I'm pretty sure thats what she said her name was).  We were actually on her bus a few times and we loved her.  I noticed that when we went by some spots a second time, she always mentioned the very historical spots each time, but she changed things up a bit too. 

We did a tour through the Garden District with Dave and we felt like we were hanging out with an old buddy.  The guy is gold and answered every question and knew a ton.  Getting to see the homes and hear stories about Trent Reznor, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Archie Manning and others was a true highlight of this entire trip.  Oh, and we saw the home where Jefferson Davis died!

We were very pleased with the value of this pass, I can't stress this enough.  AND I am glad that I did a little research before getting to town and I KNEW which tour company to go with.  Oh, and those double decker busses are the best. You can get some great photos riding on top!

Back to New Orleans in general.  There was a part of me that wanted to visit all of the museums, the minor league baseball park, and the aquarium, but we agreed that this was an area to explore for what it was.

I think most people know about New Orleans and what it is about, so I won't go in to the areas history or reputation.  I will try to be honest about my own personal observations.

AND let me start off with a bit of personal disclosure.  I am the opposite of what this town is about.  I like to get up early and get to bed at a respectable hour.  I like to sip coffee slowly and read at coffee shops.  I will take Mayberry over Vegas any day of the week.

So, I was a bit out of place here.  This is not my kind of town, but it was absolutely a town on my "to visit at some point" list.

And we enjoyed this town a lot.

About the food.  We loved it all.  I can't say anything bad about it, and everything we had was big and delicious.  Some of the more notable things we had were a catfish po boy at the River's Edge and we enjoyed a a couple of nice meals at Hyatt French Quarter restaurant called "Powdered Sugar."

I know, bragging about a meal from the hotel restaurant might sound unimpressive, but we really liked this place.

Its funny, we were talking to someone we met right after coming home.  He had also went to New Orleans AND stayed at the Hyatt.  He also felt a bit overwhelmed by the city, but he enjoyed his stay at the Hyatt, and he also spent a lot of time at Powdered Sugar.  I forget his exact words, but he said he felt normal again once he returned to this hotel for the evening.

We were at Powdered Sugar each night- they had great coffee and a great staff.  Cynthia (It may have just been Cindy) was there each evening and she was a lot of fun.  We chatted with her each night about the city and her experiences there.  She remembered our orders from the previous nights, and she was just a lot of fun.

They might want to think about starting up some more Powdered Sugar restaurants.  A pro staff, and having room for people to come in and have a nice meal or just a cup of coffee creates a nice environment.

We did stop by the US Mint in town and we had a great chat with National Park Ranger Lee McDowell.  It was kind of funny, Lee was a ranger out at Devil's Tower around the time that we were there!  I am sure our path's crossed before!

A lot of the National Park Rangers we meet are simply gold, and Lee was no exception.  We talked about everything from my dad trapping skunks to the jazz sites in New Orleans.

We really didn't encounter any problems while out and about, and we felt safe.  A couple of times when we asked locals for directions though, they made it very clear that we should not walk to where we were thinking about going.  At one point we asked a local about walking 5-6 blocks to the cemetery.  The person asked us how we were getting there.  When we said we were planning to walk, the local told us we couldn't.  In fact, he made us promise not to walk there.

We ended up just going there on the tour bus.  Still, even with the sites and excitement, there is a real concern about safety in some areas.  And we did get that feeling of concern from talking to several people.

Still, we had fun.

We passed on several tours, notably the ghost tours.  I usually like to do this sort of thing, especially in an area like New Orleans, but we weren't feeling it.  AND, at $25 a person (that seemed to be the going rate) we weren't motivated.

We did take our own tour that we sort of put together ourselves.

The thing that really stuck out to us about the trip to New Orleans was the people.  We had some very sweet and somewhat personal conversations with the people we came across- and this is the thing I really loved about the town- there is a certain REALNESS to the locals.  After spending time with some of the very sweet people around, we almost felt like we were old friends.  Kat, Dave, Cynthia, Lee, Norm (at the Hard Rock Cafe) love what they do, and they clearly love interacting with the travelers they come in to contact with.  There was a real sadness we felt when we left each of these individuals.

Road trip to New Orleans... Part 1

OK, I just got back from a nice road trip through 8 states, going down to New Orleans and back up to Kentucky.  We saw a lot in every state, though New Orleans was our main stop.

To be honest, we made this road trip in an effort to hit some states we had not been to before.  We are trying to visit all 50, and driving through this area allowed us to go to Louisiana and Arkansas, states we had never been to at all.  We changed planes once in Texas, so we had never REALLY been to Texas and we were able to hit Texarkana on this trip.  Mississippi and Alabama were states we have passed through before briefly.

So, in a lot of ways, we were going through some areas just to go through them.  Sure, New Orleans is one of those areas you want to go through at some point in a life time, but otherwise, we were going places just to go there.  And, after this trip, we are up to 37 states that we have visited!

Our first night on the road was spent in Chattanooga Tennessee.  If you have read this blog before, you know that I love Tennessee almost as much as I love Kentucky AND Chattanooga is at the top of my list.  We got an early start on the road after work and headed south!

We only had enough time in town to catch a Lookouts game.  I love minor league baseball, and this team and park are very special to me.  The season is over now, but make sure you go by the stadium next time you are in downtown.  Its walking distance and it is amazing.  We were able to watch a true Volunteer state game as the Chattanooga Lookouts hosted one of my other favorite teams, the Tennessee Smokies.

The next day we drove to Birmingham for more minor league baseball (counting the AA Barons current park which just opened this year, there are THREE historic ballparks in town!).  We did go to a Barons game at their new stadium, Regions Field, which is perfect.  It offers a great view of downtown (I love a stadium with a nice skyline view).  AND you can see Vulcan from the park!  In a game that could only ever occur in Alabama, the Barons hosted the Montgomery Biscuits.

Back to Vulcan......  Are you familiar with Vulcan?  I wasn't until recently, when a pal from Birmingham told me about it before our trip.  Vulcan was definitely one of the coolest things we saw on this trip.  MUCH more on Vulcan later, but this is a very under appreciated tourist stop.

We left Birmingham and went to the Vicksburg Mississippi area.  This is another one of those places you do want to hit at some point in a lifetime, but we were sort of expecting something similar to Gettysburg.  We enjoyed the National Park at Vicksburg, but the town is not Gettysburg.  Oh, and the USS Cairo was very cool, that alone was worth the trip to the area!  Where else can you see a somewhat reconstructed shipwreck from the Civil War?

We walked the streets checking the area out and we just didn't have the same experience we had in Gettysburg.  We saw a cola museum that looked cool from the outside.  After going in and spending a few minutes, we realized that the "museum" was not cool (it was small).  We left Vicksburg.

The next day we drove to Louisiana.  I must say that I had large expectations. 

Our first stop once we crossed in to the state was at the welcome center right off of 55.  The place looked great.  I love welcome centers.  I always pick up brochures of places we are going to, and places I might want to catch on another visit.

We walked up to the center and noticed a sign that said "free smiles and free coffee."  Both sounded good right about then.  We walked to the door and it was locked.  We looked in and saw people sweeping.  Then I realized that the sign said they opened at 8:30.  According to my cell phone, it was 8:28.  It was obvious that the casual sweepers inside knew we were out there, but they were not going to open up a minute early.

I thought about the friendly staff I always encounter at the visitor centers in West Virginia (I almost feel like some of those guys are old friends).  I also thought of the time we stopped at the Hallmark visitor Center in Kansas City.  We were there 15 minutes early and the very sweet person running the center came out and excitedly let us in early.  That obviously would not be happening here.  Not cool Louisiana.  We left before they could open the door.  We would not be taking advantage of their free smiles.

Moonlight on the Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, LA

Sent through the mail in 1942, the back of this postcard says

The Mississippi River, "Father of Waters," 2459 miles long, and the longest river in the world, 4200 miles, when taking the Missouri as the trunk stream, 250 tributaries drain 41% of the US Width 1400 to 7000 feet. Bordered here and there by rugged bluffs of sandstone and limestone, which, in the St. Louis region, from veritable palisades. Its lower course winds between flat shores forming bayous and lakes. It pours 2,300,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico during high water.

New Orleans at Night

The top postcard was sent in the 1930s. On the back, it reads-

One of the most attractive courtyards in the romantic Vieux Catre is located at 520 Royal Street. It was formerly the town home of the Brulatour family. Many artists have sketched this famous courtyard.

The bottom card reads-

Canal Street, so named because in olden days a big drainage canal ran down its center, recently rebuilt at a cost of $3,500,000, is 170 feet wide, one of the widest central business thoroughfares in the world, has sidewalks of terrazzo marble and neutral grounds. It marks the upper limits of the old city.

Pirates Alley, New Orleans, La.

"Pirate's Alley extends for one block from Royal Street to Chartres Street. Through this alleyway pirates were taken to the Cabildo Jail. It is also known as Old Orleans Alley and separates the Cabildo from Old St. Louis Cathedral."