We’re still here – New Orleans, Seabrook Marina slip 12

Sunday was a day of football and as everybody knows by now – it was quite a day with both play-off games going into overtime. I feel so sorry for New Orleans – the Saints were robbed and it was difficult to watch.

Monday was a day of projects. Michael continues to fix lots of things on the boat. I swear that guy can fix ANYTHING. He is truly amazing.

I, on the other hand, spent the better part of the day trying to learn how to use my camera. My sister, Sandy, gave me her Olympus e-500 Evolt. Said it was sitting on the shelf collecting dust and maybe I could put it to better use. I love, love, love it – but it is pretty complicated. I’ve been using the auto-point-shoot method but I wanted to take photos of the beautiful full moon last night and couldn’t. So I thought I’d try to learn to use a few of the hundreds of features it offers. This morning I read through the on-line 216 page manual, watched some you tube videos and googled some stuff. From what I read I decided to change four or five of the settings to what I thought would allow me to take moon photos tonight. Just as I finished I heard a sound outside and Michael says grab your camera the Natchez Paddle Boat is coming right in front of our bow. I grabbed the camera ran to the bow, focused and pushed the shoot button – nothing. Tried again – nothing. OMG, I have ruined the camera. Sorry Sandy! So I come back inside and tried to remember which settings I changed and what they were before I changed them. Not sure if I got it right or not but I finally got it back to the auto-point-shoot. Apparently there are a couple of buttons which allow you “semi”-auto-point-shoot. You can put it on auto but push and turn a few buttons for scene/night, etc. So I will try that.

Anyway I set my alarm for 6:00 pm.  Moonrise was said to be 6:15pm. I grabbed my tripod (yes, we had a tripod that we brought from San Diego-who knew) because everything I read/watched said it was important to keep the camera very steady. I bundle up and go outside before my alarm goes off to set up. While I’m waiting for the moon I notice behind me that the sky is a beautiful orangey color so I take a picture of that. Then I notice across the water the Natchez Paddle Boat all lit up – the one I couldn’t get a photo of earlier in the day. So I take a picture of that. So now’s it’s about 6:15 – no moon. 6:30 – no moon. Finally around 6:45 the moon started to creep up. I took some pictures. Gee, it really moves slowly. So I go up on the deck which is behind our boat so I can get a better angle. Take some pictures up there. Michael brings me some wine. It’s really cold out here and the moon moves very slowly. I come back down and think it would be nice to try to get our boat and the moon in the same frame so I take some more pictures. Bottom line is – I never got anything I totally loved but I am posting a couple for you to see. Hopefully by the next full moon I’ll have more knowledge and experience and they will be much better.

Today – Tuesday, we went to the French Quarter. Took an Uber. For those of you who don’t know this – taking an Uber with dogs can be quite a challenge but that’s a story for another time. First stop was Café Du Monde for café Au lait and beignets. Delicious! It wasn’t very crowded today but lots of construction everywhere. We were looking for a very special place today. Some 41 years ago Michael actually asked me to marry him at a gumbo restaurant in the French Quarter. Neither of us could remember the name of it or where it was so scouted about until we finally found it The Gumbo Shop on St. Peter’s Street where he asked “will you marry me?” Obviously you all know the answer…..

Then we went to visit a friend who recently moved to NOLA. I assisted Vimarie with the sale of her real estate in San Diego last year. We created a 1031 Exchange and sold her six Ocean Beach apartments and exchanged them for seven units in the French Quarter, a single family home in the Garden District and a small condo for her daughter in Little Italy in San Diego. It was fun to catch up with her and see her property. She’s is a lovely, talented and smart lady and loves living in the Big Easy! She recommended Horn’s for lunch in Frenchmen Street area. It’s a local hangout and is home to some of the city’s most popular live music venues. After lunch we headed back to the boat.