Posts Tagged ‘mississippi river’

The powers that be have decided that the Jackson Avenue Ferry isn’t busy enough to merit staying open, and who am I to argue? After all, it took its closing to make actually get us on it.

Well, not even ‘us.’ Some of us (ah hem) were happily still abed while other, more boatcentric of us were up with the dawn to capture the end of the line (despite having to get directly on a plane afterward- otherwise I’m sure he’d have been there for the very last day).

The ferry itself will still run to the Gretna suburb, now from the Canal Street terminal on the edge of the French Quarter where it should get more use. Or so they hope- it was still early when Charlie went, but there were only 3 pedestrians and a very few cars making the trek. From a transportational point of view, it doesn’t seem like it’s much of a loss.

But I hadn’t been inside the Jackson Ave terminal building- it squats on the corner of Tchoupitoulas, where there’s no parking and even less security in an iffy area. All of which, I’m sure, contributed to the lack of passengers, but much thought went into the terminal- inside it’s light and airy, with escalators that I’m sure haven’t worked in years, but somehow that they were included at all seems like someone was just so… uncharacteristically hopeful.

It’s even kind of attactive from the river view.

Obviously, somebody cared about this building and, like so many others, it’ll likely just be torn down now.

When we went to see the fireworks, it was still in the 90s, and if you’d asked if I wanted to drag a tripod along I probably would have brained you with the thing. There was no way.

So, naturally, I ended up with more crappy photos of fireworks than good ones, but a few of them were kind of interesting, like this one.

Maybe this is some sort of bizarre Rorschach test, but I looked at this and thought, “Look, it’s sperm! Travelling up to the uterus, then swimming the wrong way with the egg floating above and behind!”

Okay, so maybe I’m glad no shrink’s going to analyze that one.

Our 4th of July celebration is a pun. It’s no wonder Charlie loves it here.

I’m usually resistant to going down to the French Quarter for the dueling barge displays of fireworks, but off we went- and it was really nice. The heat was oppressive, but at least it kept the crowd to manageable levels. The fireworks were impressive as always, though my photos don’t really cover the scope of them- there was no way I was lugging a tripod down and doing it right, so we’ve got what we’ve got.

One thing New Orleans knows how to do is throw a party, and there’s fireworks at pretty much every big event- and some not so big. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been minding our own business and suddenly heard the booming, and wondered what could be so exciting on a random Tuesday evening that it rated fireworks.

In a market where NPR’s had all kinds of stories about cities who’ve cancelled their displays, it was pretty amazing.

The paddle wheel boat The Natchez heads back upriver at the end of the day. Photos taken from the levee at Audubon Park.

Well, the Mississippi doesn’t have a tide, per se, but it does get swollen from runoff further north. There’s been flooding this year further upriver, but despite being very close to the top of the levee, we’ve been okay.

Except, of course, that they opened the Spillway for only the 9th time since it was built to dump the overflow into Lake Ponchartrain. It’s certainly better than flooding, but not very good for the environment- fresh water from the Mississippi turns brackish when it hits the saltwater of the lake, creating huge dead patches.

We went down to see how things stood this morning and were surprised- despite the Spillway being open for days, the river was still just at the top.

The river’s been been low for well long enough for lots of plant life to spring up…Charlie guessed this tree is about 10 ft tall in all- all but 2 or 3 underwater now.