It’s still the holidays, I think, so today I tossed the Surly in the back of my car, grabbed my National Parks Passport, and headed to Mississippi to get a cancellation stamp from Davis Bayou, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The gulf shoreline along scenic highway 90 looks a lot different than it did this time last year. It’s still eerily quiet and relatively empty, but now there are roving bands of workers in matching t-shirts and reflective vests carrying clear trash bags, raking through the sand, hunting for oil. Continue reading
parks
Wheelbarrows on Harrison in City Park
After a storm dropped buckets and buckets of rain on us (thanks for the ride to brunch, S. and J.!), I hopped on the Surly for a holiday afternoon pedaling around town. I headed for Bayou St. John and City Park to see if I could find some July 4th revelers, but alas, there were few. I think it’s true that most folks go out of town for the holiday weekend. Either that or the brutally hot temps were keeping people close to air conditioning. But I love riding in the heat, and today I was in the mood to sweat. Continue reading
New Playground Equipment at Wisner Center Park at Annuciation and Upperline
As I was getting on my bike to head home after enjoying the Laker blowout with N., I thought about what I was going to say about this picture I took tonight of new playground equipment at the park on Annunciation and Upperline. When I first moved to New Orleans this park was still filled with FEMA trailers, but that space is now a baseball diamond. The basketball courts have been redone. And now, finally, the rusted out swingset and aluminum overhang has been replaced with this colorful new equipment. Continue reading
Lemann Pool at Lafitte and Prieur
Oh, I had a most lovely Sunday! I spent the morning finishing a book and then working on my own. Then I lathered on the sunscreen and headed out on the Surly, to the library for a replacement read, then to A.’s yard sale for a blueberry delivery. I rode to Mid-City for lunch and some iced tea and, frankly, some air conditioning. See how long it took for me to remark on the fact that it is incredibly, outrageously, downright filthy hot around here right now? Continue reading
Containers at the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant on Monticello and Claiborne
Today is my blog’s second birthday. I started the blog to gently mock my sister’s daily blog of her lunch (check it out–it’s actually sublime). I certainly didn’t expect to still be writing it, almost every day, two years later. But here we are, I’m still riding and writing, and both still bring me immense amounts of pleasure. One of the things the blog has done is forced me to pay attention as I move through the world. Continue reading
Peregrine Falcon Kite With Realistic Wing Flapping Motion at the Fly
It was another hot and humid day in New Orleans, the sun was shining, and S. was still in town, so after riding our bikes to campus for class, we headed over to N.’s for po-boys at Domilise’s and a bike ride to the zoo. Well, Domilise’s was closed unexpectedly, and the zoo’s closed on Mondays, so we grabbed sandwiches at a terrible restaurant and decided to ride over to the levee to look at the Mississippi River. I could look at that river forever. Continue reading
Community Garden at Terpsichore and O.C. Haley
After I finished my writing for the day I hopped on the Surly, still shiny and new from the shoppe, and headed out to do a final ride of the route for this Saturday’s Bicycle Second Line with the Metro Bicycle Coalition. Streets change fast around here, so I wanted to do a last run, taking note of any road construction or serious potholes. Other than the usual off-roading on Freret and that sinkhole developing at Melpomene and St. Charles, the streets are decent and the parade is ready to roll. Continue reading
Blue Skies Over Bayou St. John
I have been riding the Surly almost exclusively lately, but this afternoon I hopped on the road bike I got from S. and headed out to meet D. for lunch. Man, road bikes are entirely different creatures, aren’t they? Seriously speedy, crazy-quick handling–it was fun. But this evening found me riding over to the Jeff Davis overpass for a photo shoot with D. from the New Orleans Bike Book, and I needed to take the Surly for this one. Continue reading
Blue Sky Over the Fountain at City Park’s Big Lake
I had one of those days today, the kind where you set out on your bicycle with no real plan and find yourself stumbling across the most lovely things in fantastic weather with a spectacular blue sky overhead. Oh, it was divine! After a quick stop to make some copies at work, I rode over to City Park to register for tomorrow’s Tour de Lis and find out about getting a spot to hand out membership applications for the Metro Bicycle Coalition (regular readers: please consider joining to support safe cycling in the Crescent City!). By the time I got over there I was seriously soggy from the heat, so I ducked into the New Orleans Museum of Art for air conditioning and Continue reading
Wildflowers at Perrier and Valence
After yesterday’s disappointing duckling search, I decided to take T.’s advice and ride my bike around Audubon Park in search of Uptown baby birds. No such luck–I must be catching them all at their naptime–but I did see a whole bunch of herons, egrets, grown ducks, and turtles. It was a lovely day, and lots of folks were running and walking and rollerblading and biking and staring at birds. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 