New Orleans

Ahhh, New Orleans. I'm not sure whether it is my history of having read all of Anne Rice's books or just the interesting contrasts of the city that makes New Orleans so attractive. I stayed at the Wyndham Belle Maison resort, and it was the perfect place. It's in an old building about a block and a half off Canal Street. Technically, it's not in the Quarter, which turned out to be a positive. It was nice to have that short walk out of the French Quarter into the relative peace and quiet of Magazine Street.

I walked all over. I walked almost every street in the quarter reliving memories of my time there with Marta some years ago. I saw the antique shops and the historical spots. I took a carriage ride which was wonderful because I got a real grounding in the architecture of the French quarter. I also took the trolley out to the Garden District, which fortunately was not damaged in the hurricane. The houses there exude Southern charm.  I walked all over, and got lots of excercise.  Here are a couple of examples:

 When I had been there several days, Karen arrived. We had some wonderful New Orleans food. We ate one evening on a balcony and I had crawfish étouffée, and she had red beans and rice. We felt like we had arrived, and giggled a bit about the fact that the four guys at the next table were all eating cheeseburgers.

Given Karen's interest in jazz, she had a magazine from the 1940s which was a jazz yearbook. It had the layout for Storyville, which was where all of the jazz clubs were at the time. We decided to see if we could find any of the old buildings.  We went down Rampart Street, and did find a few buildings from that era. Karen was snapping pictures, and fortunately her skills with a camera far outshine mine. Most of that area however has been plowed over and now has huge bank buildings. Since I had been on my horse-drawn carriage ride, I was aware of where jazz is now being played off to the side of the French quarter. So we walked through the quarter and went to that area. It was a little too early for the music, and since we had been up early that day, we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to stay up late enough to go there for the evening. Instead we walked down Bourbon Street and found an outdoor patio with music playing. We listened to Steamboat Willie. While not perhaps a terrific singer, he was an excellent trumpet player and very enthusiastic, with a great sense of showmanship.

Karen and I also had the opportunity to play some golf at a place called Lakewood. It was a really nice course, but different from what we would experience when we got to Alabama for the Robert Trent Jones golf Trail. While we didn't play our best golf, it was nice to start getting loosened up. After Karen had been two days in New Orleans, we left to drive to mobile to meet Kit and Jim.

Houston

From Dallas I went to Houston, and the drive was lovely.  There must've been a lot of rain in the area this year because Texas was green.  In a previous post, I had mentioned that in Colorado it was real clear that spring had not yet arrived. That was not the case in Texas. It was glorious.  it was also warm. I was really tired of the cold weather that I had had in New Mexico.

Bill and Sian and the boys were great.I had several days to spend with them, and Bill, Sian and I had a chance to play some golf. It was somewhat unbelievable that having only played on a golf course twice, Sian was able to hit competent fairway shots and was quite an inspiration. Bill hadn't played in quite a while either and was also hitting really well. We had quite a good time even though it was rather warm that day. I had a chance to talk with David about the possibility of his future as a biologist. He's been very busy running track. James has been playing football. He was a little late getting home several afternoons because of practice. As has been the case in almost everywhere outside of the Bay Area, I was amazed at the real estate prices in the Katy, Texas area. As I am planning on buying a house when I return to Vancouver, I'm real interested in relative prices.Bill and Sian have a beautiful house, which seems the right size for the two of them and two growing boys.

Of course Bill and I had to have our obligatory political discussion, and as completely expected, we didn't agree on everything in spite of the fact that we generally do know how to fix all of the problems of the world. I was a little sorry to leave Katy, and look forward to going back at some point in the near future. Given the recent events with the Gulf oil spill I hope that Houston is not eventually harmed. One bright spot however in moving on, was that I was moving on to New Orleans.

Midland and Dallas

Okay so it's been a while since I wrote.   Sorry about that. When I finished I had been driving from El Paso, Texas to Midland, Texas. I had the opportunity to attend the birthday party for Jamison’s  daughter Alex. While perhaps it shouldn't have been, it was a surprise that Mary Claire and Alan were there. There were also several of Jamison and Sasha’s friends present along with several kids. The party was lots of fun and I ate too much, especially birthday cake.  The birthday girl has been a bit obsessed with princesses. It was also fun meeting Sasha’s Mother, Sandra, who was delightful.

And of course, I can't leave out her little sister, Chloe, who was helping with unwrapping presents, and snuggling with her dad.  

What was quite a surprise was the beauty of the drive across northern Texas. I remember my mother telling me as a child about the work of Lady Byrd Johnson regarding beautifying highways. The wild flowers along the highway were stunning, and I understand this is somewhat unusual. Usually it's somewhat dry in that area even in the springtime. Unfortunately, I don't have a broad enough understanding of Texas wildflowers to be able to know the specific types.

After leaving Midland, I went to Dallas, and spent a few days. I had a chance to have dinner with Joslyn and another dinner with cousin Sally. It was really fun to catch up on family gossip and especially to spend some time with them, given that I've seen each of them so little over the years.

Carlsbad Caverns

I took off from El Paso early in the morning so I could get to Carlsbad Caverns.  There was quite a tailwind, a leftover from the previous day's windstorm.  I made good time, and the road was almost deserted.  The morning light was gorgeous:

I had tried to buy a ticket online to go on the King's Palace tour, but there was no availability.  When I arrived in the morning at the ticket counter however, they did have tickets, so I got one.  The only problem was that I wanted to go down through the natural entrance rather than the elevator, and the ranger there told me I'd need to "haul" in order to get there in time for the tour.  I like a challenge, so I took off.  Going down through the natural entrance is simply so impressive, that it sets the stage for the rest of the magical tour.  I made it down in plenty of time.

I'm going to publish two pictures here that I didn't take.  I took some, but in that kind of lighting, it takes someone with more skill and different equipment than I have.  They were taken by NPS photographer Peter Jones:

NPS Photo by Peter Jones

If you've never been to the caverns, it is truly a wonder.  The creation of the cavern takes into account the story of the geology I learned when I was in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon.  Here, the interesting thing was how the material in the sandstone interacted with water to create some sulphuric acid, which ate out large amounts of the cave, and created the cottage cheese effect of many of the decorations on the walls.  Then once the cave was there, and the water level declined, ongoing leakage of water picked up calcite and deposited it, creating the stalactites and stalagmites.  It also created a crust of calcite on the floor.  I learned more about the bats in the exhibit area, but since I was there in the morning, I didn't see any.

In addition to the natural entrance down to the main level, I did the King's tour and then the Big Room.  It's hard to describe the beauty of these formations.  I was entranced, and after my initial rapid descent from the natural entrance, when in the Big Room I took a very leisurely approach.  I wanted to absorb some of the history and imagine the extremely slow creation of these amazing formations. After almost 4 hours of walking around, my legs were getting a little rubbery.  I finally left and got some lunch.  I also got a bat puppet at the gift shop for Chloe, since I already had something for Alex for her birthday and a DVD of Carlsbad for both of them.  I left the National Park still with a sense of amazement at what nature can create.

On to Tucson and Sierra Vista

Before I left Las Cruces I decided to take Mary's advice and try the restaurant in Mesilla just south my hotel.  It's called La Posta, and it's just my kind of place.  A little funky, with macaws and tucans in the lobby, cheap furnishings, and wonderful food and service.  It's just off the plaza in old Messila.

I then took off for Tucson in the morning to see Jennie.  Once again, I was surprised at the amount of green in the desert.  There were mountains in the distance, but fairly flat plains leading up to them.  The scrub was green and surrounded by a blanket of yellow flowers.  There were many types of yucca, tall and short, but blooming and pretty.

It's always fun with Jennie. We talked for hours, ate her special suffed green chile casserole (excellent), and compared notes about the family history.  She lives in the hills above Tucson in a lovely house with an old weimaraner named Heidi.  For some reason Heidi and I hit it off.  I miss dogs.  With 2's allergies, I haven't had pets for years.  Heidi is very feeble, but knew I liked her.  Jennie and I have now analyzed all of you, and decided we loved you anyway.  If we had blank spots in our analysis, we just made stuff up.  She's lots of fun, and I can't wait to see her again.  It's spring in Tucson, and the blooming of flowers is exciting. See the pics of the flowering cacti. 

The next morning I took off for Sierra Vista to see Mei.  On the way I saw the sign for Tombstone, so took a little detour there for about an hour.  It's mostly a tourist trap, but, hey, I'm a tourist!  I wandered around town thinking of something to get for little Alex's birthday party (Jameson and Sasha's daughter).  When I got to Mei's, she and I did find something for her in Sierra Vista.  We had a nice Korean dinner and she showed me around the base where she works.  She's teaching and in school, and we had a really nice time.  She has a nice house, friends, and likes Sierra Vista.  It's a little isolated for my taste, but seems like a friendly town with a high proportion of military and students.  

When I left the next morning to travel to El Paso, for the night, I hit a dust storm for the last 75 miles.  I could see ok, and only had to slow down once for about 1/4 mile, but it was impressive to see areas all around where there were high concentrations of blowing dust.  When I arrived in El Paso (so I'd have a direct shot to Carlsbad the next day), it was still really windy.  Most of the evening the wind was gusting to about 40-50 miles per hour, shaking the windows.  I was glad to take off the next morning for Carlsbad, thinking that if it was going to be really windy, I might as well be 800 feet below ground.