Destin, Florida and surroundings

So this is our final stop before driving home, we leave tomorow and it should take 3 days with overnight stops in Savanah, Enfield N.C. and somewere in New Jersey. The weather here is cold and wet but we rented bikes for 3 days I can use them to ride to the beach and to a lake in the park. I took some pictures of the sunset on the gulf, the beach is made of sand as white as snow so it does get quite beautiful.

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

The Park is nice and one of the rare State Park in Florida with full hookup that means Sours, water and electricity and in this case internet and Cable. It's a good place to relax, I know we will come back again another year.

The end of another beautiful day

 

We also did a bit of shopping, the other half of our road trip team was in need of it ;)

So tonight I have to get things in order, so we can leave early tomorow. This sould be my last posting until our return on Friday.

Louisiana Bayou

One of the thing I wanted to photograph was the Bayou, not much the Aligators since I have quite a few of those but more the Cypress trees that grows in the Bayou in the water. The main place that I had projected to do those pictures was an area around Lafayette. I had planned a trail in the Bayou overthere and to visit the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island, as it turned out it was more then one hundred miles away from our camp and a treck that my wife would not do or let me go and do without grief. So instead we will keep this for another year and that time we will stay in Lafayette for a few days before heading out to New Orleans.

Cypress Trees in the Bayou

So instead I took off in the rain on a morning early and went to a spot that was sugested by a local as a good spot to find the environement that I was looking for. The place was perfect and halfway trough my session it stopped raining, so by 9h00 I was done and I had told my wife that I would be back for lunch, so I took off to the visitor center of the Grand Bayou region in Grey that is 10 miles or so past Thibodeaux. Once there I was given the location of a trailhead 15 miles further so I pushed on and was on the trail by 10h30. In the middle of the week on a cold cludy day of winter it is nice because you are the only human on the trail. So it was a fun trail and I took some pictures then drove back and made it back to camp at 12h30, total driving that day 100 miles or so.

The trail in the Bayou

We left Louisiana on friday, crossed Missisipi and Alabama along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico passing trough the cities of Biloxi and Mobile. We are now in Florida on the Coast near the city of Destin.

More posting to come.

Grand Bayou, Louisiana

New Orleans : The Food

The first night when we arrived in Louisiana we were tired and looking for a place to go and eat supper, the owner of the plantation where we were staying sugested a place called Hymel's about 6 miles up the road, to put you in context we are in a rural area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along the Missisipi, actually on road 44 that follows the levee. All along on top of the levee the locals are building tall bonfires to be light up on Christmas Eve a local tradition. Anyway on road 44 it's pretty beat up it's hard to beleive that people actualy live in some of these houses, so we are driving along and there is an abandoned gaz station and an old beated up building but there is light inside and cars parked all around and even at the foot of the levee across the street, there is half of a sign with Hymel's written on it. So while my wife waits in the car I decide to go inside and inquire if it is the restaurant, I poke my head inside and it's a bar with a Cajun musician and a big dining room on the right side, so I get my wife from the car and we pick a table in the corner of the restaurant, this way I can observe the place. It's hard to believe that there is all that restaurant, they even have a second dining room in the back, could fit in what seemed to be a small abandoned gas station from the outside. I order a crawfish etouffe and my wife a fried catfish platter. The food arive in melamine plates and it tastes great, the place is filling up with locals, they know one another some move from table to table. On our first night we had the chance to experience the real Louisiana.

Hymel's on road 44

Now of course I had researched a few restaurants that I wanted to go in New Orleans but on the first night tjat we went in the city I found out that the wait without a reservation was longer that we could wait, So that night we ate at Napoleon House on the corner of Chartres and St-Louis. We both had Jambalaya and it was excellent.

Napoleon's House

We went back to town the next day and had lunch at Antoines the oldest restaurant in New Orleans and the creators of oysters rockefeler. The staff is in full penguin suit, it feels like you are entering a museum, so we get seated in the "Grande Annexe" one of the most popular room of the restaurant, they have about 8 or 10. We order from the lunch table d'hote. We both have the buttersquash soup for starters, I follow up with a feuillete of oysters and my wife an escalope de veau farcie aux aubergines. I took a bread poudding for desert and my wife took a cheese cake. On the way out of the washroom I could see in the kitchen so I peeked in and asked if I could take a look around, the Chef was sitting at a desk at the end of the kitchen with a laptop monitoring the service, it was quiet so we got the chance to chat, it was very interesting.

Antoine's on St-Louis street

Antoine's Main Dining Room

Feuilleté d'huitres

On the next day we went for lunch at the courtyard of two sister another New Orleans staple restaurant it has an enclosed courtyard similar to Jardin Nelson but on that day it was to cold and they closed it. We ate inside the brunch buffet and it was good with some cajun dishes but it was not to the level that I expected for tha class of restaurant. The staff was nice and helpfull with my wife's alergies, the jazz band was good. The decor nice but the food taste ok at best, the presentation of the buffet especialy on the cold side needs an upgrade.

Inside at Courtyard of two sisters perfect room for lunch

The Cold Buffet at Courtyard of Two Sisters

On our last night in New Orleans we ate at the River's Edge restaurant across the French Market, my wife had the etouffe and I had Catfish and Shrimps both were very good, my wife completly finished her plate, a rare occurance. We then crossed the street to the famous Cafe du Monde for Beignets an Coffee. A must go on any visit to New Orleans.

Famous Café du Monde

New Orleans : The Plantations

We are camped in Convent Louisiana on the shore of the Missisipi it's right across the street, We are camped on the grounds of the Poché Plantation one of the plantations surrounding us, we are in the heart of what is called Plantation Row.

So since we are both interested in the history and the experience we intend to visit as man as possible. As I mentionned we are camped at one and the tour of it is included, there are three other across the Missisipi in Vacherie Louisiana, the bridge to cross is only 10 miles from our campsite and about the same distance on the other side. They are Laura's House, St-Joseph Plantation and Oak Alley.

The first one Laura's House a Cajun Plantation of bright colors has a fantastic guide, very interesting. The site is restored to period and well maintained. There are slaves quarters to visit and gardens complete with banana trees. The life of the slaves is a big part of the history that is told.

Laura's House

Slaves Quarters for 2 Families at Laura's Plantation

The Second Plantation we visit is St-Joseph, it is still a sugar cane plantation today. This plantation is not restored and maintained as well it was one of the last to be opened to the public on the tourist circuit but it has some interesting tidbits of history as well as many artifacts.

St-Joseph Plantation

Old School House

The third one we visit has retainded most of it's live oaks in the front of the house, a lot of old oaks had to be destroyed when the levee along the Missisipi was built at the begining of the 20th century by the corps of enginers. The oaks in front of the house are more then 500 years old and a magnificent sight that dwarfs you. This Mansion if very well restored and full of priceless antiques. It also has a restaurant, we were hungry and decided to eat there, the food was good and the price reasonable. For the visit of the house the staff is dressed in period costumes, personaly I find that it ads to the overall experience.

Oak Alley Plantation the oaks were at least 300 years old before the house was built

The next day we visited the Poché Plantation, the tour that was included with our campsite, the visit was sceduled for 11h00 and the tour was given by the owner a very friendly guy. He just aquired the place a few years ago and he's in the process of bulding the grounds the mansion is restored and filled with antiques, he rents the rooms upstairs as a kind of Bed and Breakfast.

Poché Plantation

After that visit we drove about 11 miles on the same side of the river to Houma's House the Plantation that is the most highly acclaimed. They even have a five star restaurant, once again we ate there. The grounds are like a botanical garden complete with ponds and fountains. The tour is given by a guide in full attire velvet dress and all, the owner lives in the house and is an avid antique collector the amount of silver in this house is unbelivable he even has a Silver Roastbeef serving charriot and other very fine pieces includin a silver sculpture of Lincoln by Gutzon Borglum the man who sculpted Mount Rushmore.

Houmas House Gardens

Inside Houmas House

It was enough for that day so we kept the last one 10 miles from our camp on the same side of the Missisipi but in the opposite direction from Houma's House for the next day. That plantation called San Francisco was purchased by Marathon a big oil company in the south for the land they needed to build their refinery, it' so big the first time I passed beside it at night I tought it was a city. Their plan was to demolish the house, already this one doesn't have any land in the front the levee and road passes 50 feet from the house. Fortunatly someone in the board of directors decided to save the house so now it stands on a lot of 400 feet by 400 feet in the corner of a giant refinery. It is the least restored of the houses as far as furnitures but the did a lot of work to restore the original faux finis and embelishment on the inside walls and cellings.

San Francisco Plantation

San Antonio

After being in the desert for awhile it felt good to get to San Antonio, the city is beautiful and our camp location was perfect we were less then 15 minutes from everything I wanted to see. The first thing to see of course was the Alamo, the famous mission where the most important battle for the independance of Texas from Mexico. We also saw the movie in Imax and visited another museum on the subject.

The Alamo

One important feature of San-Antonio is the Riverwalk, here is a description of it from their website :
The San Antonio River Walk is a public park, open 365 days a year. It is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath approximately 5 miles of downtown San Antonio.  Lined by bars, shops and restaurants, the River Walk is an important part of the city's urban fabric and a tourist attraction in its own right. We went to eat at Casa Rio the first restaurant to open on the riverwalk in 1947. The food was excellent and it was fun to sit by the river on the terrasse, the dog didn't appreciate the ducks but that's another story. Later we took the boat tour on the river and that was fun as well.

San Antonio Riverwalk

The Alamo is one of a serie of five missions that were built by the spanish between 1690 and 1730, some are more in ruins then other, some still have mass celebrated there on sundays, all are interesting to visit.

Mission San Jose at Sunset

San Antonio also has a nice Botanical Garden so yesterday we went there to take our morning walk. I took my 60mm. macro lens along and had fun with the bees and the flowers.

The Bee's at work

We left there at 6h00 this morning and we are now in New Orleans so there will be more stories to follow.

Carlsbad Caverns

As I mentionned before we did a detour from El Passo trough the high desert to get to Carlsbad, the reason was to visit the Caverns there.

Well worth the detour

In the past we have explored many caverns such as Lurray in Virginia, Mamouth Caves in Kentuky, Howes Caverns NY, Karshner Caverns in Arizona. The Carlsbad Caverns National Park are the top rated of all caverns in the US and the only ones I visited that are self guided with the use of a tripod permited.

I can see for miles...

But first to get there you need to drive up a 7 miles twisted mountain road with cliftside drops my wife's favorites :) but on the way down she got to see about 50 antelopes going trough the valley beside her. I didn't since I had to keep the eyes on the road and there was no place to stop.

Totem Pole or Rock of Ages

Once you got up the road you get to the welcome center from the height you are you can see for miles. In the visitor center we were sent back to change shoes since the ones we were wearng had been in other caves on the east coast and that so far their bats are not infected with the white nose fungus that is killing the bats on the east coast. That being done there is 2 ways that you can get 750 feet below the earth you can hike down a 2 miles steep trail trough the natural entrance or take an elevator that takes you 75 stories down and right into the caves. We took the elevator because we had time constraint we had to drive another 3 or 4 hours to get to our next stop after the visit..

A Cathedral Celling

There are many tours availables but we choose the Big Room Trail, it take one and a half  hour to go around, the size of it is very impressive, like entering a cathedral, the lighting is extremly well done and perfect for photography. Except for the loud Japanese tourists with flashlights everything is serene, the cavern is big enough to leave them behind while they take picture with flashes. After that it was a suprise at every turn and the best cavern pictures I ever took :)

Early Explorations

We left there and drove to Fort Stockton in Texas at the end of our drive ther was a duststorm, it made it interesting.

We are now in San Antonio, but that will be another story.

From Yuma to Carlsbad via Las Cruces

So leaving Indio in California we have some serious driving to do the first day's plan was to get to Yuma, visit the prison and sleep there, we decided to push on and try for Gila Bend at the door of the Sonoran National Forest, this way we could stop and sleep in Tuscon to spend some time with a friend that lives there. It didn't work out because they had previous plans for thanksgiving so on the second day we made it to Las Cruses in New Mexico, a good spot to go refill our groceries and since it was Black Friday we also did a bit of shopping, then we hit the road for a third day passing trough El Passo Texas and then driving to Carlsbad New Mexico the site of the famous Carlsbad Caverns National Park, I'll get more into it on my next posting.

Saquaro in the Campsite

As we were arriving at our fisrt stop at Gilla Bend we were passing trough a forest of Saquaro cactus and the sun was setting I was very much in the need to stop and take pictures of them in the sunset, but unfortunatly by the time we were parked the only one available was in the campground and didn't offer much possibilities. Not the shot I had in my head but I did the best I could with it.

Saquaro in Nature

The next day as we crossed the National Forest I pulled over and took some pictures. Then back in the car for the long drive to Las Cruces.

Rock Formations in the National Forest.



So we got to Las Cruces as the night was setting in, we parked on top of a high mesa overlooking the city and we were so tired that we went to bed right away. The next morning when I went outside to walk to the showers it was very cold and we had heavy rain all night. There was a storm front closing in and it was causing the clouds to roll in over the mountains and on the city in the valley down below.

Zoom in on the clouds passing over the mountain

A wide shot with the city of Las Cruces at the foot of the mountains

We then hit the road again with Carlsbad as a destination for today. In order to do so we first have to drive to El Passo and then use secondary road trough the high desert and a mountain range with a low cloud cover. Quite a ride we got ther at sunset once again.

A dry lake in the high desert of New Mexico

El Capitan in Guadeloupe Mountains National Park as we are crossing the mountain pass, we are now only 40 to 45 miles from our destination.

Yuma Territorial Prison

The Guard Tower

First a Prison:

Cells and yard at the Yuma Territorial PrisonThe prison accepted its first inmate on July 1, 1876.For the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy. The prison was under continuous construction with labor provided by the prisoners.
Despite an infamous reputation, written evidence indicates that the prison was humanely administered, and was a model institution for its time. The only punishments were the dark cells for inmates who broke prison regulations, and the ball and chain for those who tried to escape.
In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed Arizona State Prison Complex located in Florence, Arizona.

The Cell Block

Then a High School:
From 1910 to 1914 the Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings. When the school's football team played a game against Phoenix, with Phoenix favored to win, the Phoenix team branded the Yuma team "criminals" when Yuma unexpectedly won the school adopted the mascot with pride, sometimes shortened as the "Crims"; the school mascot image is the face of a hardened criminal, and the student merchandise shop is known as the Cell Block.

Now a Museum:
The prison was barely saved from destruction, empty cells provided free lodging for hobos riding the freights in the 1920s, and sheltered many homeless families during the depression. Townspeople considered the complex a source for free building materials. This, plus fires, weathering, and railroad construction, destroyed the prison walls and all buildings except the cells, main gate and guard tower; but these provide a glimpse of convict life a century ago. It is now an Arizona State Park but even at this it was recently threatened of closure and saved by a local Yuma citizen group.

Another view of the remaining Cell Block

The Salton Sea

When we were stopped in Indio the plan was to go and visit the Salton Sea, California's largest lake it's 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, the surface of the lake is at 227 feet below sea level. In ancient times part of the gulf of California, it became closed off and 2000 years ago it was a giant lake that over time it dried up.

Site of one of the Yacht Clubs that were on the Salton Sea

During the late 1800s, ther was a big planned in a region south of the lake called the Imperial valley. A canal was built to divert water from the Colorado river to irigate the 100,000 acres of fields in the valley.

In 1906 after a very wet winter the swells of the Colorado river broke though the canals and gates and poured in out of control for more then 18 months into the then Salton Sink creating the actual Salton Sea.

Great Egret

By the 1950s the Salton Sea had become a popular resort with 2 yacht clubs, beaches and a championship golf course, by the 1960s the increasing salinity had put an end to the flow of visitors and stuctures, motels, garages, restaurants etc.. became abbandoned and derelics ruins. From a photographic point of view one of the reason I wanted to visit the area, the other being that the Salton Sea is a stop for millions of migrating birds that pass trough the region each years.

Pelicans Feeding

Bombay Beach is a small derelic town on the shores of the Salton Sea, it's a favorite of many photographers for it's post-apocaliptic look, Needless to say that it was on my list but not on my wife's, so I went alone. It was a bit disapointing as some of the famous sights such as the airstream trailer in the sunken trailer park are no more, but still interesting.

Welcome to Bombay Beach

What's left of the sunken trailer park

Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday we went to visit this National Park, we are now camped on the valley floor between the mountains of the National Park on the east and the Sierras on the west the San Andreas fault line runs right under us allong the valley. So once again the day starts with climbing a mountain road, that road was strait and in the desert so the view as we are climbing is awsome. The Cottonwood entrance to the park is about 25 miles away.

Joshua Tree National Park

We brought the dog alone, the planned trip is 5 to 6 hours, she's not aloud on trails but we can take turns staying with the dog, plus the ranger points out some dirt roads where the dog is allowed.

A dirt road in the park

We have more then 50 miles to drive trough the park to cross it from one end to the other, along the way there are interesting trails and interesting viewpoints. the first one on our trail is the chola cactus garden. We left early and the light is low and yellow perfect for pictures.

Chola Cactus Garden

This Chola Cactus is also known as the Jumping Teddy Bear Cactus because of it's soft bristle. However just brushing against it or a soft touch and the spines will detatch and stick on you, hence the Jumping part of the name.

High Altitude in the Park

Our last stop in the park was a place called Key View it's an high altitude viewpoint at the top of a winding road, You get a complete view of the valley at the bottom and the Salton Sea on the south. The was an interesting view of Mount San Jacinto that had a cloud ring around the summit.

The Raven Soars towards Mount San Jacinto 10,834 feet (3,302 m)