My Mom came to visit us for a few days and we had a blast. We got to meet her partner Lisa after having heard about her for some time now and in short, We approve 🙂
Lisa was a lot of fun and just as laid back as the rest of the us so there was a good fit there. The first day we just chilled out a bit and had a nice dinner out. We ended up going to meet up with the group from the Marina that go over to Mortons Boiled Seafood every Thursday night in Madisonville along the river wall. It is always a good time and half price shrimp and $5 Bloody Marys makes it even better. A good spicy bloody mary and boiled shrimp go pretty well together.
We did a little riding around in the Dinghy and went through some local bayous. We saw a few turtles but not gators on this trip. We also saw 2 really large owls. One of them was sitting in the tree so we turned around to get a photo just as he “whooed” It sounded so cool. Sadly the pictured didn’t come out great but he was so large and vivid and when he turned to look at you with his huge eyes, you realized just how strong they must be in the tree-tops.
With no gators, we had to take a swamp tour to be sure Mom and Lisa got to see some big ole gators and the tour did not disappoint. If your in the area and want to take a good one, the Honey Island Swamp tour near Slidell, LA is a good place to check out.
If you want to see the gators, check out the video below in this post for some good closeups of them jumping up out of the water to eat some hot dogs that the tour guide would put on the end of a stick. We also saw some cute little raccoons eating along the edge of the river.
We went down to New Orleans for a day too. We went in the afternoon and did a bit of sight seeing, including a little walk down along Bourbon Street after dark. We had dinner at RedFish right on Bourbon and Canal and it was pretty good. A bit touristy, but the food was decent for sure.
As we walked down Bourbon, Lisa was like a kid in a candy store people watching. At one point during dinner (which was just before it was dark so it was getting dark while we were eating), Lisa went outside and came back in with a big corny grin on her face saying “Oh my, wait until you see the people out there”. So with that we finished up dinner and took our stroll down the street. As usual Bourbon street didn’t disappoint. We went into Pat O’briens (it is a staple and you just must visit, some videos below of the fountains and the toilet that looked like it belonged in a prison).
We saw some great street performers as usual (the photos of the band was just right out on the street and they were playing some great New Orleans Jazz. We also saw some guys that were doing a break dancing street performance and were on America’s got Talent a few years ago. We also saw a really good magician, that went by “Magician on a Motorcycle” He was very entertaining and makes his living doing street performances while he travels the world writing about it. Pretty cool stuff. Check out his website if you want. This is the Link http://magicianonamotorcycle.com
We also visited Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar. This is one of my favorite places in New Orleans to go and listen to live music and just sit back and chill. It is a dark, really dark place, in that there are no lights other than the candles spread all through the place. If someone pulls out their phone, it is like a light in a movie theatre, it is that dark. On the weekends (maybe during the week, not sure) they have a guy that just sits at the piano and plays and sings. He takes requests and is really good. In the video below I used some of his music in the background.
And no week is complete without doing a little bit of teak work on the deck of the boat. I have to
keep that progress going. In this episode I used a killer attachment for my grinder that did wonders for removing the material quickly and very economically since it doesn’t have to be changed every five minutes like the sanding disks. On the right is a photo of the part I used and connected to my 4 1/2″ grinder. If you click on the link to the right, it is a small amazon ad, that is part of an affiliate program. The item doesn’t cost you any more and I get a very small affiliate fee if you purchase from this link. Thank you for using it if this is something you were considering getting. We like them and I will most likely be getting a larger one for the 7″ grinder as well.