Diane and I returned from Dublin in early July 2016. That allowed us to attend the last two weeks
of the Hot Summer Nights concert series.
We also enjoyed hearing Alarm Will Sound play at the Mizzou
International Composers Festival in August.
However, as we learned more about what was happening in
Missouri politics, we became concerned about the growing popularity of Donald
Trump. He was really energizing Missouri’s
Republican base. The total of the Republican
votes in the August primary was much higher than the total Democratic
votes. It was not boding well for the
November general election. This was an
important election in Missouri. The
ballot would not only include the Presidential candidates, but also the ones
for the U.S. Senate and all the state Executive branch offices, except Auditor.
Planning our upcoming trips was a welcome distraction. The next one started on September 22 and included
visits with friends at the beginning and end.
Diane and I enjoyed the sense of continuity we felt from keeping up with
friends. We flew into Portland, rented a
car and spent the next day with our friend Mary B who moved from Columbia to
Portland in 2012. We visited her
apartment and took a bus downtown to see the Portland Art Museum and Oregon
Historical Museum. It was great to see
and spend time with Mary.
Mary B in her apartment
The following morning, we left Portland and drove the
scenic route on Highway 26 (passing Mt. Hood to the North) to arrive at the
Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. We hiked to view the Clarno Palisades
then drove on to the colorful Sheep Rock Unit and toured the nearby
Paleontology Center. We had hoped to see
the Painted Hills Unit, but the day was coming to an end. We drove to the town of Prineville and had
dinner at the Club Pioneer steakhouse, where the dress of the clientele in
their cowboy hats and boots vouched for its authenticity.
Mt. Hood
Me at the Clarno Unit
Colorful Sheep Rock Unit
It was quite a drive up a mountain to reach our night’s
lodging at the Bellavista B&B. We
were the only guests as most of their business was during the skiing
season. While talking to the owners we
found out that the husband had not only talked his wife into moving to the
states from Italy, but also to live in this remote area. She seemed to enjoy running the B&B and
served a great breakfast the next morning.
He told us how to go the scenic route along the Crooked
River Highway in order to reach our next destination, Crater Lake. We stopped several times to hike, watch the
fly fishermen and view the fascinating geological formations. I recalled stories my parents told of their
visit to Crater Lake as we checked into the National Park Service Lodge and
explored our options. We had a very
small room in what seemed like an attic and had to be careful to avoid hitting
our heads on the overhead beams along the sloping ceiling.
Fly fisherman
The next day after we walked on the shorter trails, we
took the two-hour trolley drive around Crater Lake with the driver providing
commentary. The weather was wonderful,
and I understood why my parents remembered Crater Lake fondly.
Trolley
Crater Lake
The first Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump was at 6 p.m. We
planned to watch it in our room while we ate our carry-out dinners from the
dining room. However, I was not able to connect
to the internet in our attic room. Darn,
we hated to miss it.
We were forewarned about our next destination, the
Oregon Caves, and knew that it did not have TV or Wi-Fi. It was not near any large population center,
being in the southwestern corner of the state near the California border. Diane and I were very accustomed to limestone
caves, but what brought us here was that the limestone had metamorphosed into
marble. Marble caves! We stayed in The Chateau at Oregon Caves, a
remarkable national park lodge. It
opened in 1934 and is a National Historic Landmark. This picturesque six-story
lodge was small, only having 23 rooms, a dining room with canyon views, and a
1930s-era coffee shop/diner. We had breakfast and lunch each day in the
diner. It was very authentic, even down
to the music available in the jukebox.
The Chateau at Oregon Caves
Diner at the lodge
The first afternoon, we hiked the Cliff Nature
Trail. As we approached the top, it
became very steep and required climbing up tall marble steps. I still remember clambering up one marble
rock, standing on its top with both arms wheeling at my sides to keep my
balance while I envisioned losing it and falling backward, tumbling head over
heels back down the rocky path. It was
with great relief that I regained my balance.
It was relaxing to sit down to dinner in the Chateau Dining Room.
Sitting on the tall steps of the Cliff Nature Trail
The following morning, we went on a cave tour, but
after going a third of the way, we had to drop out as the trails were too steep
and the passageways too narrow. We were
holding up the tour for the other hikers, so the ranger guide let us know where
we could easily exit. After lunch we
hiked the No Name Trail. It was steep,
but on a dirt path with easy views of streams and waterfalls. We really enjoyed our stay at the Oregon
Caves, acquiring a taste for the local Marionberry jam.
Marble cave wall
Me resting on a bench on the No Name Trail
We left Oregon behind the next morning as we headed for
our lodging in Chester, CA. We drove to
the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the southern entrance to the Lassen
Volcanic National Park. The park is rich
in hydrothermal sites and areas littered with lava rocks from its last
eruption. We drove the auto tour
stopping at the numbered places along the route. At each stop, we listened to the rich
descriptions provided by the MP3 files that I had downloaded onto my
tablet. We ate the sandwiches we had
purchased at the Visitor Center while at a lookout. Leaving by the north exit, we looped back to
Chester stopping at a market to pick up fried chicken to have in the room and
sandwiches for the next day.
Lassen Volcano
Bubbling mud at a hydrothermal site
Me with lava rock thrown out during an eruption
The next morning, we stopped at a nice rest stop along
the Sacramento River for sandwiches and then drove on to the residence of
Yvonne and Gordon Kimber in San Ramon.
Yvonne had been Diane’s Medical Director at Planned Parenthood of
Mid-Missouri and Gordon had been on the faculty at the University of Missouri
in Columbia. At the Kimber’s, Gordon
wanted Diane and I to sit with him at his computer to show us his pictures. It was sad to hear this brilliant scientist
repeating himself over and over, showing us how much his dementia had
progressed since the last time we had seen him.
Gordon
We were flying out of San Francisco the next day. We returned the car to the rental center
inside the airport. With our belongings,
we took the air train to an airline terminal where we went down an escalator to
the ground floor. I then realized I had
left our flip phone in the rental car and needed to go back and get it. Diane and I agreed that she would wait with
our belongings in a nearby sitting area.
I told her I would be back as soon as I could, but it might take some
time.
Indeed, it took forever at the car rental center. Since the car had entered the clean-up queue,
it took a while for the clerk to find it, retrieve the phone and bring it to
me. When I got back to the airline
terminal and was coming down the escalator, I saw Diane below me on her feet
and obviously upset. She was crying and
sobbed to me: “I thought you had gone away and left me!” I had no idea how to process that statement
other than to say: “No, I would never go away and leave you! I love you!
It just took a long time.” It was
a while before I could help her feel safe again.
Her reaction surprised me so much that I wondered if
she remembered where I had gone and why I had left her there. Had she thought more time had elapsed than
really had? I didn’t push her for an
explanation. I just soothed her and
moved us to an outside area where we could catch a shuttle to our overnight
motel.
It hadn’t been easy to find reasonably priced overnight
accommodations near the San Francisco airport.
We took a shuttle to the Millwood Inn and had dinner at the Bashamichi
Sushi restaurant across the street. The
next morning after a lousy continental breakfast, we took the shuttle back to
the airport for our flight to Kansas City via Denver. Because of the two-hour time difference, we
weren’t dropped off at our house until 9 p.m. that night.
We had less
than a week before we would be traveling with National Geographic on another
international trip: The Best of Chilean Patagonia: From Torres del Paine to
Cape Horn. We celebrated my birthday
on October 7 by going to Chris McD’s for dinner. Two days later we left for Santiago, Chili.
After an overnight flight, we arrived in the morning at
the Luciano K Hotel, a lovely boutique hotel.
Our room was small, probably because the big bed took up most of
it. The hotel had a lovely rooftop patio
where we ate our lunch, sharing two tapas plates of Ceviche and stuffed
mushrooms. After a little rest, we
walked to a nearby subway station where there was an ATM. It took two trips. The first time Diane discovered she had not
brought her ATM card, and my backup was already in the room safe. Our early dinner on the patio was a big plate
having a mound of mozzarella, great pancetta and roasted veggies. This was accompanied by a nice bottle of
Chilean Pinot Noir. Tired and satisfied,
we spent a long night in the spacious bed.
After a big breakfast of homemade yogurt, poached eggs
and fresh fruit, we walked to the hop-on, hop-off bus and took the
two-and-a-half-hour tour of the city through heavy traffic. It was a great way to get a sense of this
very colorful city. We went by the Plaza
de Armas (the main square) and the nearby Presidential Palace. There were no demonstrations, and the people
were bustling along. When it was time
for lunch, we walked to the Patio Bellavista restaurant for a long lunch
starting with pumpkin soup. Diane had
seared tuna (rare) with panko and herbs, and I had grilled hake on a bed of
corn pie topped with grilled tomato slices.
We both had a plate of roasted vegetables, and we shared a funky bottle
of Carinena wine.
Plaza de Armas
We then took the bus to the San Cristobal stop so we
could take the funicular to the top of the hill for a good view of the
city. After the trip back down and one
more bus stop, we walked back to our hotel through a park. I was amazed to see a bust of Abraham Lincoln
on display. After resting, we went back
up to the roof top for a light dinner.
Since we had been told the pisco sours were not as sweet as they were in
Peru and Cuba, we tried them. Indeed,
they were not. Diane had a fried fish
sandwich with onion, tomato and red pepper in an aioli sauce. I had a poached pear tart, a thin cake coated
with an intense chocolate and topped with pear slices. There were other flavorings which were too
complex to describe. We finished our
Pinot Noir from the night before.
View of the city
Bust of Abraham Lincoln
After a good night’s sleep, we were ready for an early
morning all-day wine tour. We chose the
Uncorked Wine Tours three-winery visit into the Casablanca Valley on the
Pacific side of Santiago, and it was great. There was only one other guest, a
young man who was also staying at our hotel.
Andrea was our tour guide. The
first winery was quite small and owned by a man interested in going back to the
traditional ways of using clay pots for the fermentation process. Then we moved on to a winery that used the
current standard, stainless steel tanks.
Finally, we stopped at a larger cooperative for small producers that had
baby, mommy and big daddy size tanks. We
had a wonderful lunch there, which began with ceviche, then grilled salmon with
a mushroom sauce, followed by pieces of braised beef on a bed of potatoes. Each course was served with a different glass
of wine. By the time we got back to the
hotel at about 6:30, all we could do was fall into bed.
Clay pot fermentation
Stainless steel fermentation
Big tanks at the coop
In the morning, we took a taxi to our next hotel, the
Grand Hyatt, where we would meet up with the National Geographic tour. It was located in a more modern part of the
city and did not have the atmosphere we had enjoyed so much. We did not opt in for the tour back into the
city as we had seen enough and did not enjoy sitting in the heavy downtown
traffic. Our hotel room was up high in
the building and offered great views of the mountains to the East. We spent time walking around the grounds
before the evening Welcome Reception. We
ordered room service for 7:30 as we wanted to have another Chilean wine. National Geographic had given each of us a
fifty-dollar credit on our room bill for lunch and dinner. We had an order of mixed green salad, grilled
salmon, truffled risotto with mushrooms and lemon cheesecake. The wine was a Cabernet Franc from the Maule
Valley, delicious and 14.5 percent. We
slept well.
Andes to the East
The tour started with a repositioning day. We took a three-hour flight south to Punta
Arenas. From there we boarded a bus for the
two-and-a-half-hour drive north to the outpost of Puerto Natales where we
checked into the Remota, located on Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) Sound. Our group explored the town, including a
visit to the Municipal Historical Museum with exhibits on the region's Native
Americans and its settler past. We spent
a comfortable night here and enjoyed the ambiance.
Lobby of the Remota
As our two buses headed further north toward our
lodging for the next few nights, we stopped along the way at the Mylodon Cave
Natural Monument, named after a large extinct sloth. The cave had an extensive ground-level
opening with marked walking paths that led us deep within. I could readily imagine animals seeking this
cave out for shelter.
Path leading into cave
Me and Diane with the sloth
As we continued
on our way north, we encountered a bike race.
The road was very narrow, and they asked our buses to pull over. The bikers were so spread out we had to wait
for about an hour and a half. We were
approaching the Torres del Paine National Park where
our hotel, the Rio Serena, was located.
At the high altitudes, there was snow on the ground and snow geese
flying overhead. Reaching the hotel, we
found our very comfortable room on the ground floor. It had a large window with a scenic view.
View of the central massif of Torres del Paine
After a nice buffet lunch, our group met for a
scheduled walking tour which we were told would proceed from the hotel down a
road to the river, along the river and then back to the hotel. After the initial introductions, we were
never again within earshot of our guide.
He moved too quickly for us to keep up with him. He sometimes was so far ahead that we could
not even see him. I was glad we had our
walking sticks while going through the pasture land adjacent to the river,
avoiding horse droppings and grass-like large tufts. The only birds we could identify were the
upland geese. We did have great views of
the mountains and the rocky Torres del Paine (meaning "Blue Towers"
in a mixture of Spanish and local indigenous languages) which give the park its
name.
We stayed in bigger building with green roof
The next morning, we drove past Lakes Toro and Pehoe to
the largest lake, Lake Sarmiento. Here we walked to the Nordenskjold Lookout
which is directly opposite the Paine Massif.
Our bus continued to the Hotel Lago Grey where we had lunch. Afterwards we walked a long way over cracked
ground to the shores of Lake Grey in order to board the Grey III for a
three-hour ride up the length of the lake to the Grey Glacier, an active
glacier. The boat cruised across the front
of the calving glacier to a point that revealed startling blue ice. After the boat ride back down the lake, the
bus took us to the hotel for dinner.
There was a full moon over the Paine Massif, and Diane had a lot of fun
taking pictures.
View of Torres del Paine peaks
Walk to board the Grey III
Approach to the Grey Glacier
Blue ice in glacier
Full moon over mountains
Diane and I spent the next morning walking around the
hotel grounds birdwatching with several hours of easy to moderate walking. The group was then taken on a drive where we
saw a couple of interesting animals, a Darwin’s Rhea, similar to an ostrich,
and herds of guanacos, a relative of the alpaca and llama. In the afternoon, we drove to Laguna Azul
(Blue Lagoon) where we saw pink flamingos and had great views of the three iconic
granite towers. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Cascadas del
Rio Paine, a set of cascades backed by the central massif.
Herd of guanacos
Pink flamingos
Diane at the Cascades with the central massif behind
her
In the morning, we drove to the Salto Grande
waterfall. The trail to the waterfall
lookout was also the first part of the “Horns Lookout Trail.” We ate lunch at the Hosteria Pehoe
hotel. Since it is on an island in Lake
Pehoe, we were required to walk over a long bridge to get to it. Then we went to Puerto Natales where we
embarked our favorite ship, the National Geographic Explorer.
Salto Grande waterfall
The National Geographic Explorer
Our group would be spending the next few days exploring
the Chilean Fjords. The National
Geographic Explorer left Puerto Natales in the early hours of the morning,
heading toward the Kirke Narrows. The
clouds continued to increase through the day, and the winds started to
rise. As we navigated the fjords, the
wind started to whip up small white caps and black-browed albatross and other
seabirds whizzed past. In the lounge, Santiago Imberti gave us a presentation
on seabirds which outlined the life histories of these amazing creatures and
showed lots of images of the species we would likely see over the next few
days. Following lunch there was time for
a rest, and then Brent Stephenson gave a photo presentation that provided
techniques and tips for making the most of photographic opportunities on this
expedition.
Black-browed albatross
Later in the afternoon there was an overview about
conservation initiatives in Chile and about the Karukinka Reserve, which is
administered by the Wildlife Conservation Society. It was then time for our
daily cocktails and a welcome by Captain Oliver Kruess, who introduced the
ship, the expedition and the senior officers on board. This was followed by a fantastic dinner, and
for most of us an early night to prepare ourselves for another action-packed
day.
As the ship reached the Kirke Narrows two Zodiacs were
sent out to assess the flow through the very constricted area. The flow was too fast, so the ship paused to
wait for it to drop until slack tide in the morning. Then Chilean pilots came aboard to supervise
progress through this constriction, and as the passengers stood on the bow of
the ship, we could see the wreck of a ship that didn’t make it safely. Passing through, the ship continued on its
way toward the Strait of Magellan.
Ship that didn’t make it
We were now deep within the fjords of Tierra del Fuego
cruising amongst high, snow-capped mountains.
After breakfast we took the Zodiacs to shore, landing on a long beach at
the end of a glacier-carved valley.
There was a field of dead trees behind the beach. We were told the story about how there had
once been a huge beaver dam which drowned acres of these trees.
Beavers were imported to southern Argentina from Canada
in 1946 to develop a fur industry. When
this did not bring the hoped-for wealth, the animals were abandoned. With no natural predators the beaver
population increased and spread. Current
estimates ranged between 100,000 and 200,000, which meant that nobody really
knew what it was. There had been various
plans to control or eradicate beaver, none of which had been particularly
successful. After lunch we were offered
another stop at a beach for a hike.
Diane and I choose to stay aboard a Zodiac for a ride along the shore to
see the plants and sea life.
The next morning began with Zodiac tours by the natural
history staff at the face of Garibaldi Glacier.
We watched for the calving of the glacier, listening for the boom as it
dropped into the water. We wanted to get
close to the glacier, but not be too close when it calved. The area was also surrounded by waterfalls. Steep cliffs exposed small channels of falling
water, glacial in nature. We spent a lot
of time in the Zodiacs, even being refreshed with cups of hot chocolate by a
boat of crew members wearing Viking horns (in Chile?). Our ship continued to cruise the Beagle
channel, so named for the British ship Beagle, in which Charles Darwin explored
the area (1833–34).
Garibaldi Glacier
Bringers of hot chocolate
The next morning, the wind was blowing hard and we
fully experienced the forces of nature that have made this region famous. Because of it, our group did not have a
chance to go ashore and visit Cape Horn as was intended. Instead, we were forced to stay aboard the ship
to observe from a distance the lighthouse where a Chilean family lives for a
year, managing the site and receiving visitors to this, the southernmost
outpost of Chile. We could barely see
the albatross monument which pays homage to sailors that perished attempting to
round Cape Horn. The sculpture is a simple thing – two angular plates of grey
steel form a square balancing on its corner with the middle cut out in the
shape of an albatross in flight. There are multiple stories of ships waiting
for months for the winds to calm so they could cross to the Pacific Ocean side,
finally giving up and going the other way around the world to be able to reach
their destinations. Sailors that
travelled these waters going the ‘wrong’ way, from east to west against the
prevailing wind and currents, were thankful and proud when they made it.
Cape Horn in the distance
Our ship then sailed north for the protection of the
Beagle Channel and anchored in front of Puerto Williams, the southernmost
settlement on the planet, where we cleared immigration out of Chile. A short while after, on the other side of the
channel, we docked in Ushuaia to clear immigration into Argentina.
During the night the ship left Ushuaia, sailed eastward
out of the Beagle Channel, and, by first light, had reached the northwest coast
of Isla de los Estados (Staten Island).
This was only the second year that Argentina had granted permission to
visit the island.
As we cruised toward our first anchorage in Hoppner
Bay, early risers watched a sei whale, the third largest whale in the world. Diane and I took a Zodiac cruise inside a
little bay. There were pairs of kelp geese, flightless steamer ducks, red-eyed
Patagonian crested ducks, black-crowned night herons, rock cormorants, two
species of oystercatchers and a variety of small birds to be seen at the
intertidal zone while Andean condors, turkey vultures and striated caracaras
circling high overhead. By mid-morning guests who wanted to paddle kayaks could
do so.
Sei whale
During lunch, with everyone back on board, our ship
moved farther east along the north coast to another large bay, Puerto
Cook. Diane and I started with the group
on the hike across the isthmus of the island, but soon found we were lagging
far behind and went back. We were then
able to take a Zodiac cruise along the margins of the bay, and saw a rarely
seen leopard seal that hauled itself up onto the shore near the landing site.
Leopard seal
On our second day exploring Staten Island, Argentina,
we went ashore at San Juan de Salvamento Bay to visit the famous ‘lighthouse at
the end of the world,’ which inspired Jules Verne’s eponymous novel. Diane took pictures of it from down below,
but we didn’t even try the walk up to the top of the hill. Before heading back to the ship, we scouted
the shores on our Zodiacs and found groups of sea lions and a big colony of
rockhopper penguins that spread high up on the island’s cliffs. Known as the
mountain climbers of the penguin family, they truly showed us how they live up
to their name as this colony rose by the thousands into the heights of these
700-foot-high rock walls.
Sea lions
Rockhopper penguins
Back on board, while we all were enjoying an excellent
lunch, the announcement of a killer whale sighting made us jump from our seats
and make a beeline for the observation decks. What a sight! Several groups of
whales were hunting sea lion and fur seals, and surging the waters around us.
Our captain kept our ship close to the action at all times. The whales took
turns stalking the seals, as we saw calves, females and two big male whales
hunting them. They seemed to work as a
team, finally circling a seal, lunging and capturing it. Now we watched as they tore it apart, having their
lunch.
Killer whales hunting
Our final day of exploration on Staten Island began
with a Zodiac cruise along the shores of Observatorio Island. Here, wildlife
was abundant! As we made our way to shore, various species of birds lined the
rocks. Gulls, geese, ducks, cormorants and penguins were everywhere we looked.
One prominent point appeared to have a buzz cut, when in reality it was
thousands of nests of blue-eyed or imperial cormorants. Many Magellanic
penguins were running up and down the slopes. It was comical to watch them gather
in their groups and react to various creatures passing by.
Imperial cormorants
Magellanic penguins
And there were the sea lions and fur seals to watch.
Individual sea lions, including a few massive males, were scattered throughout
while the far point was filled with fur seals. The males were beginning to
spar, with many fights breaking out and some of them were even climbing up to
the top of the island, showing off their ability to move on land.
After lunch, it was time to say goodbye to Staten
Island and head towards Ushuaia. We picked up an escort of giant petrels and
albatross. Soon, we also attracted some Peale’s dolphins who began to bow-ride.
When some whale blows were spotted, the ship maneuvered closer to find at least
three sei whales. These medium-sized baleen whales were charging through the
water, putting on quite a show for us.
As the evening progressed, we all gathered in the
lounge for our final group slideshow and some excellent words from the captain.
Just as he was wrapping up our trip, a wandering albatross passed closely by
the windows of the lounge, almost within touching distance. It was a very
fitting end!
In the morning, we once again said goodbye to the
National Geographic Explorer at the dock in Ushuaia. After a tedious wait for our flight to the
Buenos Aires airport, we were able to board our plane for the overnight flight
to Atlanta. Soon we were in St. Louis,
on the shuttle and delivered to our doorstep.
The 2016 general election was two weeks after we were
back. It was disastrous for Missouri
Democrats. Trump won Missouri by 57% and
had long coattails. Republicans won the
U.S. Senate seat and all of the state Executive Branch offices. Many good Democrats were defeated and some of
the elected Republicans have risen to national prominence since. For example, the man elected to be Attorney
General, Josh Hawley, is now a U.S. Senator and the man elected to be Treasurer,
Eric Schmitt, would become the next U.S. Senator from Missouri. Locally, there was a split in the two Boone
County Commissioner races, one going to the Democrat and one to a
Republican. The two “safe” Democratic
state Representative seats in the city of Columbia remained Democratic, but the
seats that extended into areas of the county all went to the Republicans. Although Trump won the Presidency according
to the electoral college, Hillary Clinton won the plurality of votes. The year 2016 was the fifth time this had
happened in the history of our country, the most recent being in 2000 when
George W. Bush’s election was decided by a vote of the Supreme Court. The rest of November was uneventful; we had
our Thanksgiving dinner at the House of Chow.
We didn’t make it to Denver to visit our friends Joe
and Karen in 2016. Therefore, we asked
them to join us on a December trip with Road Scholar to New Orleans: Out and
About in New Orleans: Jazz, Jambalaya and Joie de Vivre. We took the shuttle into St. Louis so we
could fly directly to New Orleans on Southwest Airlines. We met up with our friends at the late
afternoon orientation, along with our group leader and fellow attendees. The group had its welcome dinner in the Hotel
Monteleone (pronounced Mont Lee Own) restaurant, Criollo. Since New Orleans is known for its food, I
will describe the eventful meals we ate during this trip. The hotel’s restaurant was just average, but
here goes. I started with the tomato
basil soup, whereas Diane started with the chicken and sausage gumbo. After a sorbet intermezzo, we had the entrée
of tournedo of beef with a wild mushroom sauce and airline breast of chicken,
caper beurre blanc sauce with vegetable du jour and oven roasted potatoes. Dessert was a white chocolate crème brulee
with mango sauce. I should mention that
the French bread in New Orleans was served in a paper bag, no knife. I pulled the loaf out of the bag and tore off
chunks by hand.
We had a lecture the next morning by Anne Leonhard who
grew up in New Orleans and earned her Bachelor’s degree in science from
Southwest Missouri State. After teaching
middle school a few years, she said she moved to kindergarten in order to keep
her sanity. After 20 years of teaching,
she pursued a career as a professional tour guide. She was also a featured chef at the New
Orleans School of Cooking. Our lecture
was entitled Introduction to New Orleans Architecture. We toured the ‘American’ part of town and
went to the Garden District for a walking tour where we could see many examples
of the architecture we had heard about in the lecture.
Lunch was at the Commander’s Palace where we were
serenaded with Christmas carols by three great singers. This was the place for a three-martini lunch,
twenty-five cents each. Diane had vodka
martinis with an olive. I had blue
curacao on the rocks. We both started
with turtle soup. For the entrée, I had
garlic seared gulf shrimp over garlicky grilled rapini greens with slow roasted
tomato, wild rice, charred shallots, brown butter pureed Louisiana yams,
cebollita emulsion & sweet corn soubise.
Diane had the cast iron seared gulf fish with Louisiana crab boiled
peanuts pureed with brown butter, roasted eggplant, farro, grilled kale,
slow-roasted tomatoes and a charred shishito-fish bone butter. We both had the creole bread pudding soufflé
(all the richness of Creole bread pudding whipped up into a light soufflé,
finished tableside with warm whiskey cream).
After lunch, we wobbled across the street to a cemetery to view the tombs. We then walked to the streetcar line for the
return trip to our hotel. Fare for
seniors was forty cents.
For dinner, we walked to the New Orleans School of
Cooking. The ingredients were ready for
the chef to prepare each dish. The first
one was a chicken and sausage gumbo. He
prepared a pot that had seasoned and browned chicken and sausage. In a skillet, he made a medium roux with lard
and flour. Then added the trinity
(onion, celery and green pepper) and garlic.
This was added to the pot with the chicken and sausage, gradually
stirring in stock, bringing to a boil.
The heat was reduced and the soup was simmered and seasoned with Joe’s
Stuff seasoning. Before serving he added
green onions. The gumbo was paired with
French bread, but it could have been served over rice. I tried some, but my ears started burning and
my lips complained, so I turned my plate over to Diane.
Next the chef cooked a shrimp etouffee. He made a dark roux then added Joe’s Stuff
along with the trinity and garlic. Stock
was heated in another pot, then gradually added to the roux until well
blended. He cooked the mixture for 20
minutes and then added the spice of crab, shrimp & crawfish boil to make it
hotter. Finally, he put the shrimp in the
pot and cooked them for five minutes.
Before serving, he added chopped green onions or parsley and served the
etouffee over rice. Again, I could eat
very little because of the heat.
Finally, the cooking turned to things I could eat. The first was Bananas Foster. Butter along with brown sugar was melted to
form a creamy paste and then caramelized over medium heat. Banana liquor was stirred in along with the
bananas and rum. The mixture was heated,
ignited and pinches of cinnamon trickled in for effect. Lastly, the chef made pralines. Sugar, brown sugar, milk, butter, vanilla and
pecans were combined and brought to a boil until the softball stage was
achieved. It took a lot of stirring before
the mixture was creamy and cloudy and the pecans were suspended. Globs were spooned out on parchment paper and
I got Diane’s praline.
Our next morning’s lecturer, Harriet Robin, kept us
entertained with her talk on It’s a New Orleans Thing. Harriet was another lecturer who was born and
resided in New Orleans like her friend Anne Leonhard. She had a B.S. in Food and Nutrition and
worked as a production dietician. After
retiring she became a tour guide and joined the staff at the New Orleans School
of Cooking. She could have been a
stand-up comedian. We broke for lunch on
our own, going to the Red Fish Grill.
Diane and I both had a cup of the Redfish bisque (roasted tomatoes,
brandy, green onion oil) followed by a BBQ Oyster PoBoy (flash fried oysters
tossed in Crystal BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, red onion, housemade blue cheese
dressing) with Creole potato salad.
After lunch, we met Barbara Robichaux for a bus tour of the city. She is an officer of the New Orleans Tour
Guide Association and was the first to do tours about Katrina. We drove through the “Creole” part of town
and went up to Lake Pontchartrain. We
stopped at the Morning Call in City Park for coffee and beignets. We drove by the elevated homes built by the
Make it Right foundation supported by the actor Brad Pitt. Barbara was not impressed saying the
elevators in the houses were expensive and would eventually not work. She discussed the causes of the flooding
after Katrina.
Dinner was on our own.
We went across the street to Brennan’s.
I had oyster soup (poached Louisiana oysters, brioche toast, herbsaint
crème fraiche) and a Jackson salad (quail eggs, Nueke's applewood bacon,
Valdeon blue cheese & French dressing).
Diane had Poisson Blange (slow baked Gulf fish, butter poached crab,
oysters and shrimp, fennel-potato purée, herbsaint nage). For dessert, I had a Golden Chocolate Shell
(chocolate cherry sticky pudding cake, white chocolate ice cream, pistachio
powder, dark chocolate sauce). It looked
like a gold egg that you needed to crack open, but then they spoon the hot dark
chocolate sauce over it and it dissolves the “shell” revealing the cake and ice
cream. Wonderful! Diane had the Praline Leidenheimer Bread
Pudding (rye whiskey anglaise, chantilly cream).
The next morning, we visited City Park. We walked around the Sculpture Garden and
then toured the New Orleans Museum of Art.
We especially enjoyed the special exhibit: Seeing Nature: Landscape
Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection. Then we went to the World War II Museum. We first saw the movie Beyond All
Boundaries, narrated by Tom Hanks and then, using the provided $15
vouchers, had lunch in The American Sector Restaurant. I had a fried oyster salad (Corn Fried
Oysters, Bibb Lettuce, Shaved Radish, Blue Cheese Crumbles, Sugar Cane
Vinaigrette). Diane had a salmon BLT
(Grilled Salmon, Applewood Bacon, Bibb Lettuce, Tomato, Citrus Aioli, 7 Grain
Bread). She shared her fries with Joe
& I.
After lunch, we visited the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion
featuring galleries on D-Day in Normandy, a train station and various types of
military equipment. We spent the most
time at the pavilion exhibiting the Campaigns of Courage: European and
Pacific Theaters. It took us
chronologically through both campaigns of action. When we were done, we found the streetcar
stop and made it back to the hotel for a visit to the hotel bar, The Carousel,
where we bought expensive cocktails and watched the bar go round. Dinner was on our own, and this time we went
to GW Fin located in a stylish updated warehouse space with quite modern
decor. Diane and I both had Scalibut
(baked halibut topped with thinly sliced, caramelized scallops served over a
risotto and garnished with pea pods and a pea shoot). For dessert, I had the White Chocolate &
Caramel Bread Pudding (Dark Chocolate Chunks, pecans, whipped cream) and Diane
had the Crème Brûlée (Fresh fruit).
Our Road Scholar tour guide, Clare Pierson, started the
next day with her lecture, Authors from and of New Orleans. She is another lifelong resident of the
city. She has taught literature for the
3rd grade through post graduate and been an editor of literary publications. She provided a four-page list of writings and
writers, bringing along many books for us to examine.
We had lunch on our own and we went across the street
to Mr. B’s Bistro. It was very crowded
and we had our only “snippy” waiter, but decided to tough it out. I had a simple lunch of the soup du jour, a
pureed spinach soup. Diane and I split
an order of duck spring rolls (two house made spring rolls filled with duck
confit, shiitake mushrooms, spinach and goat cheese served with a sweet
ginger-garlic dipping sauce). Diane had
Gumbo Ya (a rich country style gumbo made with chicken and andouille sausage).
We had the afternoon free. We walked down Bourbon Street to the Cabildo History
Museum which had exhibits about the early settlers, colonial life and the
Battle of New Orleans. We then walked to
the Mississippi river and bought tickets for a two-hour boat trip on the
Steamboat Natchez. Cities look different
from the water. We first went down the
river (towards the Gulf). It was very
industrial, with the huge Exxon/Mobile refinery, barge after barge and some
larger ships. We then came back up river
past the starting point, seeing a big Carnival cruise ship. During the cruise, we were entertained by a
jazz band.
We went back to the hotel to pack and go to our
farewell dinner at Bourbon House. Our
group had a private room on the second floor.
Dinner started with a Corn & Crab Bisque (sweet corn in a creamy
Louisiana blue crab bisque). The entrée
was Gulf Fish Meuniere (pan-seared, served with Creole meuniere sauce, seasonal
vegetables and smashed potatoes). We
think it was a drum fish. Dessert was
Crème Brulee (creamy vanilla custard served with seasonal fruit). We really enjoyed a three-piece band led by
Thomas Fischer, a clarinetist. The other
members were a banjo player and a bassist.
They chose some songs but received a large number of requests, several
from Diane.
Diane and I were tired and went back to the hotel, but
others stayed on and went to jazz clubs, including our friends Joe and
Karen. We have such wonderful
opportunities to hear good jazz in Columbia with the We Only Swing Jazz series,
that we didn’t participate in that activity during our stay.
On our last morning, we walked to the Court of Two
Sisters for brunch. It seemed like a
typical offering and not notable. We
went back to the hotel and boarded transportation to the airport for our
flights to St. Louis via Houston, arriving on time at 6:50. We had been checking the weather and thought
the Missouri forecast looked OK. It said
that the snow wasn’t coming until the next day.
Boy, were they wrong. We went
downstairs and sat near Exit 15 in the Southwest terminal to watch for the 8:50
MO-X shuttle. And, we waited. We started calling every 15 minutes, then
every half hour. Each time, we were told
that there had been a freezing mist/rain causing a multitude of accidents on
I-70. They would say: "We have several buses on the way,"
"They are 30 miles away," then "They are 20 miles away,"
etc. A little after 1:00 am, we saw
some students who were wearing clothes with MU insignia. They told us they were on a bus leaving
Columbia at 2:00 pm and had just been dropped off upstairs at arrivals. They missed their flights and had to spend
the night in St. Louis. Instead of a
van, we were picked up by a big bus at 1:30 am that was full of people who had
been boarded up at the main terminal.
The interstate exits were lined with 18-wheelers, and they were also
zooming by us in the rain. We got into
the Columbia MO-X location about 3:45 am where we were assigned to smaller vans
to take us to our homes. After our van
dropped off three other passengers, we made it home about 4:20 and went to bed
about 5 a.m. on December 17. Our
sidewalk was very slick, the temperature was dropping and the rain had turned
to sleet. We got up at 9 a.m. the next
morning, Saturday, to see sidewalks and roads covered with ice. That night we did get some snow. We stayed in until a Monday afternoon grocery
shopping trip.
We saw Craig over Christmas and MF at New Year’s
Eve to finish an eventful 2016.