Today was one of those perfect New Orleans Sundays, surprisingly cool and dry, blue sky, light breeze. It started with a lazy morning at home followed by a ride down to the Treme for brunch with friends, sipping champagne on the balcony in J. and S.’s newly-installed hammock. I lay there, staring up at the sky, listening to friends chatter and laugh, and felt damn lucky to be alive. The evening found me riding down the Bacchanal, a wine bar in the Bywater, for music, cheese and bread, and yes, wine. I snapped this photo on Chartres near Louisa because I just loved the color of the sky. I mean really. Look at it. It’s practically obscene. Over those train tracks and that wall is the Mississippi river, and off in the distance you can see a ship docked at the shore. I love the way the river stays hidden here, so sometimes it looks like a ship is driving down the street. This city looks like it does because of the shape of that river, but you’d never know it from biking around town. It’s a rare thing in this town to stay hidden, and that’s just what the river does. But its affects are everywhere. After a lovely night sitting out side I rode back through the Bywater for some night swimming and then back Uptown by way of the Treme, the Quarter, the CBD, Central City, and Magazine Street. Yes, it was a perfect Sunday in New Orleans, better, as always, by bike.