The New Orleans Riverfront

Thursday, August 6

At about 3:30 we left the Insectarium and walked down to the Riverfront to the mall there. We toured the mall for a while and had a late lunch there.

It's always a pleasure for us to see the big ships coming by on the Mississippi River. It's not the kind of sight we get to see very often.

After lunch and some exploration of the mall, we of course went to the little version of the Cafe du Monde there and had beignets. Just outside we spent some time watching the river traffic. We watched the ferry coming across, and it reminded us of our visits to the waterfront in August 1999 for Jordan's birth, and 2002 and 2003 when we were making May visits down.

From just outside the Cafe du Monde, we had a good view of the bridge and the river traffice on the Mississippi River.

I love watching the working tugboats on the River. This powerful tug is pushing loaded barges upstream against the mighty Mississippi.

We watched as this great tug pushed the barges all the way under the bridge. The power of the turbulence behind the tug speaks of the energy it has to expend to push the barges against the current.

We enjoyed out time spent with Ashleigh and Elyse on the Riverwalk. At right behind Elyse, a big tug is taking a set of barges downstream with the current. Actually it looks like it is taking two tugs to manage these barges of coal in the current of the Mississippi.

To add a little more drama to the river scene, the paddlewheel tourboat Natchez is out on the river, but a huge tanker from the sea is bearing down on it. In addition, there is a fairly powerful thunderstorm brewing over us.

If anything exciting is going to happen on the river, Brenda, Ashleigh and Elyse are right there to see it.

Well, it looks like the ships are going to miss each other. But it doesn't look like this storm is going to miss us! So we head for the car and travel toward Pearl River.

We left the Natchez strutting its stuff out in front of the tanker, headed upriver.

Since we were at the Riverfront, it was convenient for us to go through the French Quarter on the way to the expressway.There we saw the rows of houses with balconies and wrought iron railings. I had seen them first in 1959 when I came to New Orleans for a missions conference. We went by the original Cafe du Monde and saw the displays of art close to it. We also passed the French Market.

The sky looked very dark as we headed for the highrise bridge leading out of New Orleans, but from the bridge we got a view of the waterway and the big railyard just east of it, and there was a lightening sky to the south.

We actually missed the thunderstorm the whole way to Pearl River, but got this beautiful rainbow view as we crossed Lake Ponchartrain.

After dropping off Ashleigh and Elyse at home, we drove the 40 miles or so back to our hotel on St. Charles. We got back about 8pm. The storm had actually cleared the air, so we got these nice views of the city from our vantage point on top of the 12 story hotel. Below are views in segments starting at the right of the above view and proceeding leftward.

Friday, August 7

We walked a few blocks over to Magazine St and had breakfast at the Broken Egg restaurant. We then went out to Pearl River and took Jeff to lunch at Carreta's in Slidell. The girls and Darla were all back in school for the new school year. After a relaxed day, we headed back toward New Orleans for our last night there. It being 10 years past Katrina and driving across Ponchartrain on the twinspan several times a week, Jeff has probably gotten used to the new bridge. But we still intensely feel the Katrina devastation that blew this bridge to pieces, and every time I go over the hump on this new bridge I think about it.

It was kind of a treat to watch the New Orleans skyline as we drove back toward St. Charles Avenue. Since Jeff and family moved out to Pearl River just before Katrina, we have not driven in to New Orleans very often.

Here we are coming off the Hwy 90 flyover and have to negotiate these merges to get to St. Charles Avenue on the right of the expressway just past the church on the right. By this time of the week we were accustomed to all these merges.

Saturday, August 7

We had spent our last night at the Wyndham Hotel, St. Charles Avenue, and checked out to head out to Pearl River. We spent time with the family on Saturday and spent the night in the Microtel at Pearl River.

Sunday, August 8

We again enjoyed attending worship at the very vital Northshore Church. I was interested in the nice design of their worship bulletin. We have a very high regard for all of these staff members, but of course are particularly partial to one. Jeff was the host for this week's service, a duty they rotate among the staff.

After church we all went to Carreta's for lunch and then we said our goodbyes and headed north for our return home.