We were much rested today and I was ready to go exploring.

Mal took us out to check out the local scenery and have some lunch at the Beach Hut.

We’ll be heading out to the Big Easy later. It will be our first visit to Mandeville LA where our NOLA family moved to. Can’t wait for a new adventure!

Wifey and I headed out to SF for lunch on the wharf. The temperature there was much cooler than home.

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. 

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. 

I have to say the longest stretch of road I’ve ridden on car or motorcycle has to be I-10 going through Texas. It seems it goes on forever. I can see why a lot of travelers prefer taking the I-40 route as it is much more scenic and the there are plenty of towns that are geared more towards the “tourist” and sight seeing.

There are major cities along the way and that means Harley Davidson dealerships. Needless to say we’ve visited a bunch of them across this great country.

We took off heck of early this morning for the airport. The goal was to beat the Essence festival goers to the airport.  Tough to say goodbye to our New Orleans family, especially Baby J. I know we’ll be back but nevertheless it’s not a good feeling. I’m am super glad that Mal & Patrick let me take a lot of photos and videos.

This morning we all woke up early to do a photo session at the City Park grounds. Lorraine and I had scoped out a few areas the day before. We were able to get some awesome photos and Baby J did really well as he slept through the whole time there. Even after we finished the photo-shoot and had some beignets at the cafe he was sound asleep.

Even after we finished the photo-shoot and had some beignets at the cafe he was sound asleep!

We had an easy night for dinner, picked up a couple pizzas from the local Pepperoni Rays.

Yup, wifey made a pot of rice to go with the pizzas and chicken wings..

Yesterday we took a quick photo op checkout of City Park. This is one of the largest urban parks in the nation. It’s actually larger than New York cities Central Park. I’ve never really heard of it since it is out of the way and not so close to the city life where we have spent most of our visits to New Orleans.

One of the main attractions is the museum of fine arts. We went inside but had a bag check in policy. Since I was carrying a lot of camera gear I didn’t want to do the check in.

This photo taken at the botanical garden area of City Park. I can see where this would be a major attraction during the height of blooming season but during the blistering summer heat most of the showcase flower were already gone for the season.