Monday News- Leisure time

I have to say that this Month started out an On the Go type month. May and June were both busy travel months. I think we was home about one week both those months. We were traveling so much between vacations and work. In May it was the college things. Daughter moving and squeezing in some mini vacations. Then back to moving in at college.

June started out on a airplane to New Orleans for eight days. Then once back, off to Visit daughter in Pennsylvania. A baseball game, dinner out and shopping. Then the next week off to Virginia beach, and Smithfield Virginia. I think we were at home for about10 days that month!

July was tempting to be a busy one also.  A possible camping trip, a trip back to Virginia Beach, and helping with a move. However I just decided to say no! So this is how the month started out. First week we went to see a movie, The Lone Ranger. We went out to eat at Unos also.

On Monday hubby took my car in for new tires. Oh the dread  of it all. Balancing can be so frustrating! I will never understand why it is so hard for business who supply new tires to be able to balance them correctly. It took three trips to two different places to get them balanced! When the final place tested them, they said all of them were out of balanced. Now we took it to the original place twice for balancing. The third place balanced them all well. I think this will be the last time to get tires for my car.

Still Car work to be done, so we took it to get new Shocks and Struts. Hubby had purchased some air shock a few years ago. He took them to get installed. However they were not good ones or maybe just old. Anyway, they would not work properly. We had to take the car back and replace one of them with a new Monroe brand shock. Then the other one started not working and had to take it back to replace that one also. That was three trips to another place! Meanwhile while we were working on the tire balancing, we found out that the alignment was off. So we took it back to the place that did the alignment and showed them the report. They said that their machine seems to be off. therefore they will have to get it fixed before they could realign the tires. That meant we ended up going to another  place to get an alignment.

I wonder what happened to the car care industry? Why is it so hard to get good and reliable work done? I think we really need to find a reliable place and stick with them. Maybe it is the machines they rely on. One machine says good and the other says no good. Then the eye says the no good is correct. Well my car rides well now and in alignment, new balanced tires and shocks and struts working fine. After a week of working on the problems and three places later! Of and Lots of Dollars to boot!

Now into the third week of July and hoping for a quite week.

Second Day in New Orleans

The day started out having breakfast with hubby. The weather is rainy off and on. Not too bad. This rain is like the Southern type. It rains and then it is gone and there appears to not be  puddles. The rain is mostly a mist with a few outburst. I have found the the outburst seem to wait until one is under cover. By the afternoon the rain had stopped . Mr Sun appeared and the heat was on.

During the rain part I went to the Riverwalk Mall outlets. Sadly most of the stores were empty and the rest had going out of business sales. I could see all the damaged caused by Katrina. Once through the Mall area I walked done Canal Street.  On to Decatur  Street which is the beginning of the French quarter. Followed that down  and around to the Oyster Fest. Kind of like a circle. Anyway, I join up with the Oyster Fest and have a great time. The Oysters were great, I had Charbroil Oysters, Fried Oysters in a almond sauce  and catfish sliders. All very good. Listened to some great Jazz Music  by the Bass A Holics and watched a cooking demo by chef Brian Landry  of Borgne restaurant. Learned a lot about the fishing in this area. Will share later on with photos.

With the heat on I got a Snowball, pinacolada. Then walked the river walk back to meet up with Hubby a the convention hall. Later that night we went to eat at the same place as last night . Still great music. It was like Ozark back hills music, really enjoyed it. Tonight we will be trying another place for sure. I had Alligator again and loved it.

Ended the night with having to tell my daughter that  Great Aunt Frances passed away that day. She was 89 years old. She died from a massive stroke, which she had a few days ago. Aunt Frances joined the Catholic church and became a nun when she was 15.  Becoming part of the Franciscan  Order, became a nurse and worked in the catholic hospital for years. At the age of about 50 She left the nunhood and worked as a nurse in California. Then at  about age 60 she moved to live with my family, after she was diagnosed with uterus cancer and treated. Has been in a assist living filcility for a while about 10 years.

Today I will be going to a Plantation. Looking foerward to it. Come back tomorrow for more details. Do not forget I will be posting some photos on the On The Go Blog.( link on right side bar). See ya later.

First Day in New Orleans

We arrived on a sunny day. The temp was in the upper 80's, with a high humidity. That made the temperature seem higher. Met a couple from Arizona that stated it seemed hotter here even though the temps are higher in their state. Oh yes I remember how the humidity plays a great part in the comfort of the heat.

Photo courtesy of Lucy's

We walked the Streets and ending up at a Local Bar/Restaurant called Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar & Restaurant. The Food was very good and we did have a couple of Lucy's Classic drinks. They were Great, served with mermaids hanging and floating in the drink. The Place is Located on Tchopitoulas Street in New Orleans warehouse district. I would recommend a visit if you are in Town. Their Site has the history of the palce (link is above)

Well I did take photos however I need to purchase another  camera cord. You know how it goes....One thinks they pack everything but... there is always one thing left. So for today I will post some things courtesy of web sights. I did manage to post some real time photos on my On the Go Blog.
Be sure to take a peek. I will be posting more later today.

After Lunch we took a city tour with Vip City Tour.  Dino was our Tour guide. He was so much fun to be with. Told us all kinds of things about the city, both of the old and new. Pointed out some fun places to go as well as a shopping area that is 6 Miles long! Now I will have to revisit that area for sure. One place he took us to was the City of the Dead. Sounds scary huh, well not so...it is a cemetery that has tombs above ground. Now why is that... You see New Orleans is below sea level and as you would think the bodies would just float to the surface if buried in the manner we think of. I will not tell you all now about the goings on in that "City". However I will tell you it is very interesting to say the least. There is a photo of the City Of the Dead on the On the go blog. We really enjoyed the tour.

For Our dinner we went to a local restaurant called Mulate's. The food was the most delicious, we had Alligator and red beans and rice and hubby had a shrimp poboy.   Even had dessert , key lime pie and Bread pudding with hard sauce. The bread pudding was soooo good! It has been a long time since I had something that good. Maybe never before come to think of it. They had live music and plenty of dancing space. The Bayou Deville's were playing. You can see a photo at the web site link. Just loved that place.

Today hubby is in attending the Tech conference, so I will be venturing out later to check out the Riverwalk area.