Rolling on the River

While my daughter's family was in town last week, we went on a tour of the Mississippi River on the steamboat Natchez. It was a hot day, but if you moved around you could find a spot where the wind was blowing enough to make you comfortable. The scenery was great. The out-of-towners seemed impressed with all the ship and barge traffic on the river.

On the left is grandson Sullivan with his back to us. Aaron is the white shirt, holding Sophie, and Vicky is on the right.

The cake? Sullivan made a friend of a young lady celebrating her birthday. She and her mom stopped by to give Sophie and Sullivan a piece of cake.

-- steve buser


Update on yesterday's post. The paper said there were 2200 people working on the clean up. The lifting of the barge got a set back. They were welding large steel plates and hooks on the barge so they could use a crane to lift it straight up. But rain storm came in and they had to call off the welding for the day.

End Up -- Theme Day

Today is the first-of-the-month "Theme Day" on many City Daily Photo Blogs. Today 's theme is metal. And there is one piece of metal that has all of New Orleans talking. It's this barge that was struck by a ship. It sunk and spilled a lot of oil. That caused the river to be shut down -- dozens of ships were held up for days -- some in port, some waiting to come into port. Then just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, workers started to get the barge ready to lift it out. But it started leaking again.

Here the salvage crews works out plans to get the barge up and keep the oil spill to a minimum.

Down stream, dozens of boats pushed booms around to soak up the oil. This was a massive cleanup effort.

-- steve buser


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Stretching out your neck

This is another montage look at the quartet of Brown Pelicans from yesterday's post. They have been hanging around by the Canal-Street-to-Algiers Ferry Boat landing next to the World Trade Center in New Orleans. When the ferry starts approaching from Algiers Point, they get out of the squatting position on the left and start stretching their bills and gular sac as you see from the various positions. They put on quite a display. I can only think that they area expecting a pretty full meal of some large tasty fish.

--steve buser

Technorati tags: Brown Pelican, birds, Mississippi River

Lagniappe -- ( a little something extra )

Sweet River, sweet life.

Today on Pixel Eyed

Come on, take a free ride

The eager winter group
Go ahead and say it and get it over with. 'Steve, there's something wrong with you. You must have gotten taken out of the cosmic oven way too early."

I admit it. I have a loose screw or too. One of them is ferry boats. I love a ferry boat ride. And when our grandchildren and daughter, Vicky, were in New Orleans a few days ago it gave me to opportunity to do what I love. Fortunately, they all loved it too.

The ferry from the foot of Canal Street over to Algiers was pretty full of pedestrians -- it being a holiday and the weekend of the Sugar Bowl. But, I was surprised at the number of people that did just what we did -- rode over to Algiers, and got right back on the ferry to come back. It's not the destination that counts it's the journey.

Here, the ferry goers were lined up along the sides as we cruised into the dock in downtown New Orleans. The trip over was punctuated with a passing cargo ship and tug pushing a load of barges down stream. All of which is just a distraction to the main event. To see downtown New Orleans grow taller and taller in front of you.

Best free ride in town.


Lagniappe -- ( a little something extra )

Close your eyes and dream, m'lady.

You will wake up in that dreamland. You will be in the 16th century and it will be a Royal dream, if I do say so.

How does that song go? "Lost in the 1600's tonight -- shoo do be do bop, shoo do be do bop."

Today on Pixel Eyed

Fading in the fog

The fog is rolling in off the river -- blurring and covering. Landmarks are slowly fading to gray. Not much to get your bearings by. But look for the taller things. They stand out. The Steamboat Natchez is still there, tall in the fog.

While it may slow down river traffic. The fog here on the Moonwalk in the French Quarter of New Orleans adds a romantic air.

--steve buser

Lagniappe -- ( a little something extra)

Alluvially speaking it spills into Trinity Bay and makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Hydrologically speaking a dam and channel control the flow.

Geographically speaking it is a source of water that supports the tourism and industry of Houston.

But we're speaking pixelly here, and I just thought it was an interesting shot.

Today on Pixel Eyed

Bayou Boogie

The sun is setting. Not much time left. One last fishing spot to check out before boogeying back home. Bayou Lacombe sparkles in the dimming light of dusk. Maybe it will be hypnotic for the fish that have been eluding you all day.

--steve buser

Lagniappe ( a little extra)

They live separate existence. Neither aware that their fates are intertwined.

Today on Pixel Eyed

Pushing past the waves x 2

Waves upon wave
Plying the waves on the Mississippi River as it pushes upstream, this tug boat makes good head way. The early morning sunny waves that strike glancing blows on the river waves, highlighting the journey.

--steve buser


Lagniappe

The last rays of sunshine are still warming the tops of the buildings, but in the tree-shaded jaunts of Central Park, NY, its time for the last few pumps on your skates.
On Pixel Eyed, today

Late for class

Flat tire?
Sailing classes were going on out on the lakefront of New Orleans. The class of these small boats all sailed out of the harbor together -- minus a few stragglers with last minute equipment adjustments. This brave sailor heads into the wind to get to the bouy where the class is gathered. In the background is another class of bigger boats -- probably older students.

Further out the rest of the class battles the strong breeze and swelling seas (swelling lakes?)

--steve buser

Lagniappe

Today on Pixel Eyed -- the studmeister struts his stuff and a New Orleans wedding reception

Butterflied shrimp

Butterfly nets
Another shrimp boat from the Bayou Bienvenue area, out east of New Orleans. Note the nets hanging high on either side of the boat. Those are butterfly nets. They hang out and down just below the surface of the water. The purpose is to catch shrimp swimming along the surface, usually with the help of a out-going tide.

That's opposed to the other kind of nets which drag along the bottom of the lakes, scooping up the delicacies.

In 2006, Louisiana shrimp landings totaled 135 million pounds (heads-off weight) and were valued at $144.8 million dockside.

--steve buser

Lagniappe

Today on Pixel Eyed I'm in "High Cotton"

So, I looked around the Daily City Photo pages and came up with these photos that seemed to capture that "high cotton" feeling.

Detroit Marathon: And the Winner Is... -- St. Louis Daily Photo
Did you notice? -- Sydney Daily Photo
Man and his dog. -- Selma Daily Photo

Whatever floats your boat.

I was out at the Mandeville harbor shooting pix of a sailing regatta (redundant I know) the other day. I was just starting to focus in on the sail boat way off in the distance, coming into to shore. Suddenly this boat comes past my lens. I had to pull the camera down to take a better look. Sure 'nuff, it's an inflatable dingy with a little motor on it. Notice the "captain" -- looks like he is imaging himself on the deck of the Queen Mary. The passengers seem just as content. Notice that only the dog has a life jacket on.

Whatever floats your boat.

Boat pix today on Daily City Photo blogs:

Petit matin - Early in the morning -- Arradon (France)
Paddle boats -- Wichita, KS (US)
A ferry above city level -- Riga (Latvia)
Bay View -- Sarasota, FL (US)

--steve buser

Feathery fisticuffs

Apparently there is such a thing as bird manners, because these flighty fighters took great exception to the fact that the feathery fellow on the left didn't share his food. They were squawking and swirling a good ways away from me. It was pretty apparent that a real fracas was going on, so I started to wander over toward there. Suddenly they swooped up, buzzing each other in flight and landed their 100-decibel free-for-all near me.

It wasn't just the two birds in this aerial feud, either. There were about 25 of them in this feather-filled fray.

I smell a good business opportunity, though -- a class on basic manners for birds. Maybe we could call it "Share to Soar."

-- steve buser

Steamy music

This one is for Tara with Baton Rouge Daily Photo. She asked back in June if the Steamboat Natchez still has its calliope. I hear it nearly every day from our parking garage, even though I am up 8 floors and the boat is about a half mile away. I thought that in this day of automation, it was computer controlled. I was walking by the boat recently and some whisps of steam caught my eye. Much to my surprise, there was someone playing the it. It's steam powered! And notice to the right (below), the lights in the bulbs. A different light glows for each note.

Check out this old brochure on the boat -- page 5 has a drawing of the calliope. It's great marketing for the exciting cruise they give down the Mississippi River. Make sure it's on you itinerary for your next trip to the Big Easy.

--steve buser

Mid-lake drama

We were about in the middle of Lake Pontchartrain the other day when a nasty thunderstorm started moving across at us. The "middle" is about 12 miles from shore. This shrimper was high tailing it as fast as his boat could move. Not a good place to get caught in a squall.

I'm pretty sure he didn' make it all the way back to the New Orleans side of the lake before the storm overtook him --at the speed he was going it was more than a half hour to shore. Of course we were heading away from New Orleans at 60 mph on the Causeway. So this was just a brief drama for us.

But, since this is 7/7/7 I'm sure he got lucky.

--steve buser

River race?

Almost looks like a race a a tug boat pushes his tow just in front on of the paddle wheel boats that ply the Mississippi River. The paddle boats offer tours down the river from the docks at the foot of Canal Street -- while its a favorite draw for the tourist, I think a lot of New Orleanians like to make it a Saturday or Sunday outing, too.

-- steve buser

Busy River Day

I caught this scene out my office window the other day of a lot of activity on the Mississippi River at the foot of Canal street.

Starting at the top, can see some barges being fleeted (parked) on the opposite bank. The first tug is pushing a chemical barge (LP) up the river. The next is pushing a covered barge -- could be grains -- down the river. The next tug is pushing several barges with containers up the river.

Against the shore, the red boat is the Port of New Orleans' dredge. At the far bottom left is the Algiers ferry waiting for the river to clear before it takes off. And at the far right bottom is the Cajun Queen.

Quite a lot of activity at one time. Oh, one other thing. Find the barges with the containers -- the long narrow group in the middle. Follow them all the way to the right. See the brown half circle coming out of the river at the far left -- that's the plum of silt from the Port's dredge.