Looking back at some old New York City pictures

Since we didn't do anything today worth mentioning I thought I would post some old pictures of New York City.  If you ever wanted to go to New York City the time to go is between Thanksgiving and Christmas when all of the decorations are up.  Every year at this time I get the urge to return.  I thought you might enjoy a few of the pictures of a couple of our trips to the big apple. 



This picture is of  Hoboken, NJ which was totally under water after Sandy.

 

 

 Inside Macy's Department Store

 

 

A look at Central Park from the top of Rockefeller Center

 

 

Time Square at night

 

On our way to Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn, NY



 

Deep in Chintown

 

 This must be how they live so long

Looking up at the Statue of Liberty

Deep in the Brooklyn subway system and going deeper

Store window decorations on 5th Ave.

Some really big Christmas lights

One entire building decorated

 



Bike ride to Eat and the Wharf.



 

 

Today after taking the dogs for a long walk we decided to take a bike ride on the Back Country Trails to Canal Rd. and then to the Eat restaurant for Italian day. The ride to the restaurant was very nice with the weather in the mid 60's.  It didn't take us long to get there since it is only about seven miles from the rv.  The food was again over the top.  They can fix things as simple as mashed potatoes and make them unlike any you have ever had before in your life.  The lasagna they had today was the best we have ever had.  After lunch we rode to the Wharf which includes a collection of upscale shops, a condo building and many boats tied up to docks.  Oh, there is also an arena for concerts where Janet sang her best rendition of "Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood.  She sounded pretty good for some reason because she only sings just a little better than me and I make the dogs howl when I sing.   We walked around the docks and talked to a girl cleaning one of the boats.  She said most of the owners of the boats she cleans live in states outside of Alabama.  

 

 

Have you heard of fire ants before.  Well I was attaching lines to Janet's screen room and while I was kneeling down pounding in a stake I was mistakenly in a nest of fire ants.  When disturbed they get very aggressive and go on the attach which I learned the hard way.  Won't make that mistake again.

 

Just think Miranda Lampert was on this very stage not many weeks ago on the same x on the stage where Hulio is belting out her Proud to be an American song.

I bet Miranda's outfit was just slightly more subdued than the road construction orange and yellow number that Huli was wearing.





 

These ought to be in the Fat Tire Beer commercial. 

The shops at The Wharf line each side of the main street.  At the end of the street is the condo building and behind that are the docks where the boats are tied up on the inter costal waterway.

They are starting to decorate for Christmas

 

 

 

 To get back to Gulf State Park we cut through the Orange Beach Sportsplex which I posted earlier held the SEC soccer tournament this year.  This sportsplex has 12 fields that include baseball, football and soccer.  It is a very nice facility with each field having restrooms and lights for night games.  I can't figure it out exactly but everything around this area says the municipalities have very large budgets to maintain these types of facilities.  I think they get the revenue from the taxes collected on the condos because the permanent residents couldn't support all of the improvements you see in the area.  Sorry about this observation but my brain translates everything to dollars no matter what it is or how hard I try not to do it.  This is a condition I was born with.  For example, you may be explaining your experience about this mornings church service you attended and my brain is guessing how much you put in the contribution plate and whether or not they passed a second plate for the proverbial building fund and how much they would net doing this 52 weeks per year.  So, now you know and it ain't pretty.



Rainy Monday - Time for a Road Trip to Mississippi

In looking at the forecast over the weekend we noticed that the weather on Monday was going to suck with rain starting in the morning and lasting all day.  So for all of you trivia fans we decided it was time for a road trip to the birth place of the one and only creator of the song "Margaritaville"  Jimmy Buffet. Yes, we went to  Pascagoula, Mississippi.  We are not huge Jimmy Buffett fans or anything but we did want to see the fine city of Pascagoula, Mississippi.  We left around 8:30 and it took around two hours to get there.  We thought about taking the Mobile Bay ferry to cut some time off of the trip but decided we would go around Mobile Bay to get there but would take the ferry coming back home.  Pascagoula is a nice small town with it's largest employer being Ingalls Ship Building. The local people we ask about Jimmy Buffett had no idea the location where he was born so we didn't pursue it.  We walked a little around Beach Park on the gulf and ate at The Sisters for lunch which alone was more than worth the trip.  Where else could I eat fried green tomatoes in November. The story about how we found out about this restaurant is a little sad but here goes.  We were walking the dogs around Beach Park in Pascagoula and I noticed a elderly gentleman sitting in the parking lot in his truck not far from where we were parked.  So as we usually do we went over and ask him about a good local place to eat.  He recommended The Sisters and went on to describe Mondays menu and then told us about Wednesdays menu that included his favorite pork chops.  He gave us directions and we said our good byes.  After dealing with some issues finding the place Janet told one of the "Sisters" owners about the mans recommendation.  She ask us to describe him and all Janet could say was he was elderly and was missing his right thumb.  That was enough for her to tell us who the man was.  She said last Thursday he lost his best friend from childhood of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.  The restaurant usually donates leftover food to local charities each day but last Friday they took the food to the deceased man's family.  She told us she is worried about the man we met in the park parking lot since the two were inseparable.  You just never know what other people are dealing with when you talk to them.  The food at The Sisters was fantastic.  The fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, and jalapeno corn bread was just what you would expect from two southern girls who were great cooks.

After leaving the restaurant we had some time to kill before catching the Fort Morgan ferry on Dauphin Island.  We first stopped off at a Mississippi liquor store to stock up since Alabama has the ABC state stores which are very expensive compared to Indiana.  Well we ran into the greatest little Vietnamese lady you could imagine who was reading the Bible written in Vietnamese.  She and Janet are talking about reading their daily devotionals as I was loading up a card board box full of 100 proof  Hot Damn, 99 Black Berry, Tanqueray Gin and a gallon of Vodka.  We were almost out of liquor at the 5th wheel and this little lady was a very good sales woman when I could get her to stop talking to Janet about Bible verses long enough to sell me some alcohol.  Well we were finally able to get 100 proof Hot Damn.  I was thinking about taking the regular Hot Damn and mixing it with some Barcardi 151 to get the proof up.  Now I know where I can get it.

Leaving the liquor store we were still about one half hour ahead of schedule to catch the ferry so we stopped back at Bayou La Batre, Alabama where I wanted to see the fishing part of the town in a little more depth.  They catch and process a lot of the shrimp and oysters eaten in much of the U.S. in this little town.

Wouldn't you know it we get to the ferry with about 10 minutes to spare and they cancelled the ferry for the afternoon due to high winds.  Even though the sign leading to the island said the ferry is still running today.  Oh well, this meant we had to go around Mobile Bay to get back to Gulf Shores.  We're just glad we had  the dogs with us since we were gone about 10 hours today.  Hope you like the pictures.

Jack




In Gulf Shores this is what you see when you drive by the local Walmart.  You wouldn't even know it was there if you weren't looking for it.

Driving by Mobile Alabama on a rainy dreary Monday morning

You see these "low country" houses everywhere down here. 

Another thing they make in Pascagoula Mississippi is oil rigs

We left Gulf Shores and it was 74 degrees.  We get to Pascagoula and it was 59 degrees.  Huli is trying out her middle east look with a dirty sheet we had in the truck for laundry tomorrow.

This house was owned by Ingalls the ship builder at one time.

 

Who would a thunk it.  The best marriage is Liquor stores and Body Shops.  This is the liquor store the Sisters sent us to.  I would go back just to talk to the little old Vietnamese woman who runs it.  Janet can talk bible scripture with her while I bother her to give me prices on the liquor she has.  She gave us some good deals, 







There are literally hundreds of little fishing boats like this one parked in inlets along the coast.  I wanted to talk to some of the fisherman but didn't see anybody around any of the boats. 



Now that is shucking some oysters

The bridge to Dauphin Island

Downtown Mobile at night  (night - pitch dark starts at 5:30 pm.)  The tops of the buildings are lit up in light purple lights