I needed an additional day off of vacation to shake some the old joints loose. One thing for certain, I am more aware of physical activity or in my case the lack of. I’m also starting the MyFitnessPal monitoring program again so my diet intake should be improving.
I quit smoking close to a year ago and since that time I have gained at least 15 pounds. I was already overweight and it just made things worse. My wifey and I decided we are going to get healthy together which means for us a healthier diet and adding daily workout activities like walking or running. Whatever is needed to burn calories and not just sit.
We spent a week watching our daughter using her FitBit Charge HR and became inspired to do the same. I for one need data to see the benefits of working out. The “walking is good for you!” isn’t enough. I need to know how far and fast I need to walk to make any contribution to my weight loss and healthier lifestyle.
We both entered the fitness tracking world. I’m using the Garmin VivoActive HR and wifey is using the FitBit Charge HR. Both are very popular in the fitness tracking community.
It’s going to take a while for me to get used to idea of wearing a digital watch again. I’m an Apple product supporter and I didn’t purchase the Apple watch since it had no appeal to me. When I was researching the various watch trackers I tried very hard to have the iWatch as my choice but the lack of standalone built in GPS and the poor battery life didn’t work for me.
The size of the Garmin VivoActive HR is noticeable but the weight is nothing. Since I wear glasses I have to use a clock faces that allow me to read the vitals easily. I’m still going over what is available.
One thing that from the start that I had to get used to was the brightness of the display.
What can I say, we are back in California 🙁
Sometimes it’s just nice to kickback and relax. That’s what we did today watching our grandson.
During our stay I wanted to go by the 9th Ward District to see if there were any changes since the last time we had gone. That was in 2007 over nine years ago. The landscape has improved but there are homes that never got rebuilt and 9 years of foliage growth has taken over the lot.
I originally planned on taking a photos of the abandoned homes but the GPS coordinates took us to the “Living Museum” a home that was converted to a museum with the support of the local community leaders and the city of New Orleans.
The home was a typical “shotgun” style house layout so it worked out being to display and educate the public. While going through the photos and captions I ran across Ted Ellis. He’s an original resident of the 9th Ward that left to pursue a career as an artist. At the time of our visit he was working on one of the five large collage pieces that will be used for a “traveling” gallery as well as being displayed outside of the museum.
This was one of those chance acquaintances that turned out to be a learning opportunity and a better understanding of the 9th Ward and the folks that lived there in the past and present. I’ve always said the “creatives” of this world are the ones with a vision for change and to help make a better way of life for those around them. They give so much of their time and energy to pass down their heritage and culture to the younger folks. Creatives also have a very important attribute and that’s their natural skill set to take action and make visions a reality. I give a lot of props to these folks.
Today we took off for some time out at the French Quarters and the surrounding areas. Our first stop was at the Cafe De Monde. It’s sort of a tradition that we get our bignettes there and a ice cold drink. I can’t recollect how many times we’ve been here but no matter how busy this place is we always get a seat. There are folks folks from all around the world chillin’.
We order from the takeout window and find seating. This is what the inside of the cafe looks like. Interested there wasn’t near as many workers that I normally see. Maybe it was still early or the timing of the photo taken.
We stopped by the cathedral in Jackson Square so Lorraine could light a few candles for loved ones. After we walked around shopped for a few hours we decided to leave the French Quarters and get a couple of Po’ Boys. Lorraine checked out Siri and found a spot that was close to our current location.
We both decided on a seafood Po’ Boy, I had the shrimp and wifey had the crab. One note about this place it was just a couple blocks from a world famous Po’ Boy sandwich place called Tracy’s. I’m not even sure of the name of the place we went too.
Here we are about to for a stroll along the Mississippi River. I forget sometimes how wide and vast the river is. You can see one of the remaining operating steams boats that still go up and down the river.
Hit one of my old new spots. We used to go this establishment when they were located at the French quarters, New Orleans. When they sold off to a new owner the place wasn’t the same. They happened to open 1.2 miles away from our families home in the Gentily district so we definitely had to give it a whirl!
I think the very original chicken dinner was different than what we had tonight. It was definitely good but not at the same level as my all time favorite Willie Mae’s Scotch House located in the 9th ward district. We had to give it a try for ourselves.
Watching grandson and Zootopia!
We he a great dinner prepared by our son in law. He cooked up rib-eye steak with a glazed potatoes that were awesome. Our daughter somehow talked me and wifey to go on a long stroll along the bayou, looked for alligators as one was spotted earlier in the day. Our daughter is trying to get us into this Fitbit craze, a way of monitoring various vitals.
It’s almost 11pm and the sounds of fireworks or gunfire is still going strong.
