Journalhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/en-GB2012-02-14T05:42:10ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Frog Spawnhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2012/2/12/frog-spawn.htmlMike Caine2012-02-12T15:24:00ZFrog Frog Spawn Home Isle of ManI had another check of the pond for frog spawn today and wasn't at all surprised to see several more clumps of frog spawn. I sat quietly on a nearby bench and after a short while I noticed a few large ripples emanating from the same spot in the pond and after a short while a frog poked its head out of the water. I sat as still and as quietly as I could as we stared at each other but I eventually had to move my arm and the frog instantly disappeared beneath the surface again.

Photo: Frog spawn in our pond

]]>Frog Spawnhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2012/2/10/frog-spawn.htmlMike Caine2012-02-10T15:00:00ZFrog Spawn Home Isle of ManApart from the last week or two we've had a very mild winter here on the Isle of Man - I "blame" fitting winter tyres on my wife's car for the first time for that. The past couple of weeks have been a bit colder, but nothing like the sub zero temperatures and snow they have recently had over the water in the UK.

I've been checking our small garden pond for frog spawn every few days, when I remember, and today I saw one small clump of frog spawn. We had about three separate spawnings last year and I expect it to follow a similar pattern this year.

]]>Atlanta and homeward boundhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/23/atlanta-and-homeward-bound.htmlMike Caine2011-09-23T11:00:00ZAtlanta Deep South USA Isle of Man TravelMy mother and I went down for breakfast this morning while my wife stayed in our room with a slight hangover. While we were at the buffet selection a waitress approached and asked if we wanted tea of coffee. I said coffee and was trying to explain to her where we were sitting but she smiled and said she knew where we were seated and sure enough, by the time we returned with our breakfast, a pot of coffee was waiting for us. I guess it's not a hard thing to do, but that attentive and observant waitress impressed me a lot.

I was also very impressed with Johnathan at the concierge desk. He tried his best to get us on golf buggy tour of Atlanta but as it was fully booked up we walked to nearby Art Museum instead. I'd have really liked to try the buggy tour, but trying to book it fifteen minutes before it left wasn't really a viable option. 

The Art Museum wasn't really of much interest to us so we walked back to the Federal Reserve Bank Museum near our hotel. We had to go through strict airport style security to get in, which I thought was odd for a museum, but I then realised that it was actually a working federal reserve bank handling millions of dollars each day. There was an interesting exhibition on money through the ages, from simple bartering up to today's modern methods or payment and we were amused to see an 1800's Manx three legged coin displayed in the "unusual forms of currency" section. Like us, it was a long way from home.

When we went back to hotel Johnathon greeted us with a very welcome and refreshing cold drink and we retrieved our cases from the bell boy and the valet parking brought our car around to the main doors and helped us load the car. After tips all around we eased out into the heavy traffic to make our way to the airport. 

It was a horrible drive to airport in the heavy traffic and there was a lot of edging from one lane to another in order not to miss our various turns in the slow, densely packed traffic. We eventually made it to the Alamo returns drop off where we were checked and told we had driven a total of 1681 miles. From there it was a trip on the airport rail system back to the south terminal were our plane seemed to be leaving from. 

Check-in was a farce. We managed to "self" check in with help from an assistant and then had a separate line to check our hold luggage. This took ages as everyone in front of us seemed to have huge cases or too many cases. I couldn't help notice they were all the same ethnicity and wondered why they seems to think baggage allowances didn't apply to them. Some seemed to be trying to check two or three times the cases actually allowed. We also watched on with amusement and amazement as one huge and heavy case was laboriously loaded on to the scales by two passengers and they then had to unloaded a huge amount of clothes on to the floor to get the case down to the required weight. I didn't see what happened to all ow the clothes left on the floor as it was eventually our turn to check in out luggage, which took about one minute as we knew the rules and allowances. 

We went to the gate T7 where I had a burger, fries and a beer while we waited for out flight home. The flight itself was terrible, I was far too hot and couldn't get any sleep. On a previous British Airways home from the USA it was quite cold and a bottle of water at my feet had actually frozen during the flight but it seemed that Delta had the heat turned up full and I was wishing I was waring shorts and a t-shirt.

I was very glad  to land in a cool and breezy Manchester Airport where we had a couple of hours wait before our Flybe flight back home to the Isle of Man.
]]>Birmingham to Atlantahttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/22/birmingham-to-atlanta.htmlMike Caine2011-09-22T21:46:00ZAtlanta Birmingham Deep South USA Drinking TravelWe had a buffet breakfast this morning which was situated on the top floor of hotel. There was a curious option of scrambled eggs with ham cubes mixed in to it; not much use to my vegetarian wife, but I really enjoyed it for a change so I was reasonably happy.

Before we left for Atlanta my mother and I went for a quick stroll in nearby park but I then noticed the adjacent courthouse and quite a few people lying or sitting around nearby, all seemingly eyeing me and my DSLR camera so we didn't linger long and we went back to the hotel to pack and checkout.

A far shorter drive than yesterday found us in Atlanta and we stopped at a shopping mall in Buckhead before going to the hotel. I went to Macy's and bought three more Tommy Bahama shirts. The short drive to our hotel took ages because of a minor shunt ahead and as I was getting anxious about our fuel level I turned the engine off during long waits to conserve some gas. We eventually made it to the hotel, which was on our left and on the "wrong" side of the road and due to the very heavy traffic I was glad to abandon the car to valet parking rather than self parking that I preferred.

The Atlanta Loews hotel is absolutely fantastic and although our rooms are on different floors my mother's room number was 1234, which was easy for her to remember, and our was 2626 on the top guest floor. There seems to be private apartments on floors above us. In the evening we had a meal in the hotel, washed down by a few drinks and some more drinks back in our room to get rid of our remaining supply of alcohol before we go to the airport tomorrow.

]]>New Orleans to Birminghamhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/21/new-orleans-to-birmingham.htmlMike Caine2011-09-21T21:33:00ZBirmingham Deep South USA Driving Eating TravelI hadn't been looking forward to today as it was the longest daily drive of our trip. After we'd packed, checked out and loaded the car we set off for the long haul to Birmingham. We'd initially decided on at least two stops during the five and a half hour drive, with maybe my wife taking a turn at the driving, but in the end I did all the driving with just the one stop for something to eat and drink and to refuel the car.

As we'd already paid for a tank of fuel in the rental price I didn't want to return it with a lot of fuel in the tank so we did some calculations and I put in enough to see us back to the rental depot at the airport. After we'd checked in to our hotel in Birmingham we drove to a nearby mall where the women looked at various clothes and cosmetic shops and I bought a Tommy Bahama shirt in Macy's. I'd heard Scott Bourne going on about these shirts being his favourite, and as I'm of similar stature (short and fat) I decided to get one.  

We had our evening meal back at our hotel. This turned out to be a bit of a shambles as it seemed to be a restaurant / catering training establishment. The waitress, although very pleasant and cheerful, didn't really need to tell us she needed a drink and a cigarette break; that the gay chef (her words) was always on her back, etc. The meal was roughly what we'd ordered, with only a few mistakes, but I'll never understand how they managed to ruin a fairly simple rib eye steak.

]]>New Orleanshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/20/new-orleans.htmlMike Caine2011-09-20T21:52:00ZDeep South USA New Orleans TravelThis morning we headed out on a tour bus to see more of New Orleans than our immediate area. We saw some of the city parks, cemeteries and also spent some time in the areas still devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, some six years ago. Some of the houses were still abandoned and derelict and other plots were simple left empty. As few modern and interesting looking energy efficient houses had been built in some places, but the area still needed a lot of work.

In the afternoon I had a wander down Bourbon Street by myself and ended up enjoying a beer in the Musical Legends Park where Steamboat Willie jazz band were performing. Back at the hotel I did another lap or two of the Carousel Bar before we all headed out for an evening cruise on the Natchez riverboat.

There was quite a large queue for the river cruise on the Natchez, but once they started the boarding process it wasn't too long a wait. It would have been faster if there wasn't usual pose for a photo process before you boarded. We skipped that part as usual as we've never bought any of these tourist trap type photos. The meal was served in two sittings and as we'd chosen the first sitting we were tucking into our buffet meal before the Natchez had even cast off. After the meal was sat out on deck and listened to the on board jazz bank and enjoyed what view we had as it was quite dark by then.

]]>New Orleanshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/19/new-orleans.htmlMike Caine2011-09-19T20:38:00ZDeep South USA Eating New Orleans TravelIt was our 30th wedding anniversary today - makes me feel really old.

Breakfast here wasn't a lot better than other places we'd stayed at. I had really had high hopes for southern style cooking but few meals had really stood out and most others had been disappointing. Catfish seemed to be a popular choice of fish but whereas I was expecting some succulent cut of fish most times is was just battered and deep fried and no different from any run of the mill fish and chip shop back home.

We headed out on one of the streetcars (we never found one called "Desire") and went to the National World War II Museum. I would have liked more time to spend looking around the various exhibitions but we'd booked a time slot to see their "4D" film experience which was really rather good and it was interesting to see the second world war it from the American point of view.

We rode various other streetcar lines to see the main thoroughfares of the city and had a walk around some areas but the heat and humidity were starting to get to us.

When we returned to our hotel the others wanted a rest so I headed downstairs to the hotel's famous Carousel Bar and had a few Blue Moon beers while the bar slowly revolved around the central serving area.

In the evening it really poured down and we didn't fancy having to go to far to eat. My wife was searching on the internet for somewhere nearby and surprising settled on a small diner nearby called Daisy Duke's. As I expected the waitresses were dressed in tight shorts and t-shirts but they weren't quite as good looking as the original. As usual the meal was absolutely huge and we had to leave a lot of it. My vegetarian wife ordered a Bloody Mary drink but it arrived with some unknown crustacean hanging off  the side of it, which totally put her off drinking it. I had  ago but it was too spicy for me so I went back to my beloved Blue Moon beers.         

I think we probably forgot it was our wedding anniversary and we'd probabky have made the effort to eat somewhere an bit more posh if we'd remembered.

]]>Lafayette to New Orleanshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/18/lafayette-to-new-orleans.htmlMike Caine2011-09-18T22:00:00ZAtchafalaya Deep South USA Lafayette New Orleans TravelDuring our conservation with the Voorhies yesterday we had learned that the father and son team operated the "Atchafalaya Experience" boat tours of the interesting looking swamps and bayous we had passed over on the I10 the day before. Over breakfast it was arranged for Kim to take the three of us out in his boat for the morning.

This was probably the highlight of the whole trip for us.

The drive to the swamp was a bit longer than I'd expected and I realised it was taking us along the same elevated interstate we'd arrived on the day before so it looked like we might be continuing on ow way to New Orleans through Baton Rouge after all.

We eventually arrived at the launch site where there was a visitors centre with films and displays about the swamp and we watched them while Kim prepared and launched the boat. We were soon heading out on the small boat between the two lanes of elevated interstate and then turned off along one of the many stretches of water and into the confusing mass of swamps and waterways.

I'd have been totally lost in about five minutes but Kim, our tour guide, was excellent and knew his way around, no doubt from years of experience. The next few hours were spent watching the wildlife, including alligators, and we even handled a baby alligator before carefully returning it to the swamp. It was fascinating to see and old wooden oil or gas platform and the remains of the wooden railway supports of an abandoned line. Even seeing the elevated concrete interstate with all of the traffic passing along it was quite fascinating from our peaceful boat on the waterways.

When the tour was over we said out goodbyes to Kim and headed off to New Orleans, where we were staying for the next three nights. After passing through Baton Rouge there was a torrential downpour and I was glad that most of the traffic slowed right down to around 30 mph as visibility was severely restricted.  

Eventually the downpour stopped and we were making good progress to New Orleans. I saw some of the worst driving I'd ever seen in the USA on this part of our trip. This included a car pulling off the grass central reservation / median without seemingly looking behind him and nearly causing a multi car collision as cars had to swerve to avoid him. We were nearly caught up in the mayhem but luckily no-one was next to me when I instinctively swerved to avoid another car that he had nearly hit.

A football match had just finished as we arrived in New Orleans and the traffic was very heavy. It took us a while to get to our hotel in the French Quarter but we eventually made it and I was glad to get out of the car and leave it for the next few days. After checking in we wandered down the (in)famous Bourborn Street and on to the cathedral area before ending up sitting at the nearby banks of the Mississippi, just watching the boats for a while and enjoying the late afternoon sun.

I was a bit annoyed when someone tried to scam us with the old "I bet I can tell you exactly where you got those shoes, the city and the state" routine - the answer being "on your feet in New Orleans, Louisiana" but I just stayed silent and glared at him so he went on his way. It does annoy me when these scammers see tourists as easy picking.

Just as we we going to find somewhere to get our evening meal one of the longest trains I'd ever seen in my life slowly passed by and we had to wait about 15-20 minutes for it to clear the crossing so we could continue on our way. We had an enjoyable meal in Muriel's restaurant on Jackson Square before returning to our hotel.

]]>Lafayettehttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/17/lafayette.htmlMike Caine2011-09-17T20:38:00ZDeep South USA Eating Lafayette TravelBreakfast today was even worse. They changed the location from the main house to the garden room, some distance away, but the food seemed just as bad. I'd decided to give the bacon and sausage a miss and just have the scrambled egg but this seemed to be even more salty that yesterday.

I cheered up myself by the thought that we'd be leaving Monmouth Plantation and Natchez today. I had been looking forward to my stay here as the highlight of the tour but the attitude of the check in staff at Monmouth Plantation and their inability to give us the rooms we'd booked soured the place for me. After packing and loading the car I left the keys on the unattended reception desk and left before anyone came and asked me if I'd enjoyed my stay as I was afraid of exactly what I'd say to them in my response.

While planning this trip I'd hoped to call in on the interestingly named Baton Rouge on the way from Lafayette to New Orleans but it seemed that on this leg leg of our trip our Garmin Nuvi GPS had decided that the fastesr route from Natchez to Lafayette was stright down the interstate to Baton Rouge and then west to Lafayette. As this seemed to take us through the industrial part on Baton Rough, which wasn't very attractive, I made a mental note to give Baton Rouge a miss to following day.

I should have checked the route on the GPS first but as it was new to us I wasn't sure how to do it. We did enjoy the spectacular drive west from Baton Rouge along the elevated Interstate 10 over the swamp land though. When we arrived at Lafayette there was no one at home in out Bois Des Chenes antebellum accommodation for the night and we then realised that we should have phoned ahead to confirm an arrival time.

We set off to try to find a tourist information bureau that may be able to help us contact the owners as we were having problems phoning the establishment on our UK based phones. We couldn't find any tourist information but did eventually manage to get through on the phone and leave a message on their answer phone. We returned to the accommodation and shortly after the owner's son, Kim, arrived with a boat in tow and shortly after that the owner, Coerte Voorhies, arrived. We made our introductions and he showed us to our antebellum accommodation, which was certainly different from some of the modern hotels we'd been staying in recently.

After unpacking we set off to see some local attractions but as it was now late in the afternoon most of them were closing so we returned to our accommodation for a rest. Both our tour itinerary and Coerte recommended Randols restaurant for an evening meal where you could enjoy craw fish and cat fish while watching local Cajun bands and dancers. My mother had found Sherlock Holmes of all things on the television and as she was feeling tired she decided to stay in and give my wife and I a evening off from her so we headed off to Randols.

When we arrived there my vegetarian wife checked through the menu and found very few options for her. As it was also very hot and noisy we decided to give it a miss altogether and stopped off at a nearby Italian restaurant we'd spotted on the way. I had a rather bland and soggy pizza but thoroughly enjoyed the constant Coke refills and had about four large glasses of Coke during the meal. I think we were often very dehydrated due to the heat and humidity.

]]>Natchezhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2011/9/16/natchez.htmlMike Caine2011-09-16T20:33:00ZDeep South USA Eating Natchez TravelUgh! Breakfast this morning was complete shite. So much for the southern style breakfasts I'd been looking forward to. The scrambled egg was awful, the tiny single sausage was very salty and the incinerated bacon was inedible. I could hear other guests asking for their eggs a different way, or for mushrooms or tomatoes, but is seemed that you could only have your eggs scrambled and with a small sausage or a piece of bacon.  

During this miserable breakfast the gardener / handyman decided to wash the windows with a hose pipe, much to the shock and consternation of the elderly guests sitting by the windows. Would it have hurt to wait until they had finished their meal?

After breakfast my wife and my mother went on a guided house tour. I gave it a miss and went back to our room. It turned out all they saw was the room they had just had breakfast in, the hallway they had just been along to get to breakfast, and the dining room. Not much of a tour at all.

We had decided  to do a tour of plantation houses today, but the first highly recommended one we went to, Stanton Hall, had paint peeling off the shutters and rotting wood so we decided to give them all a miss and went the Catholic Basilica in Natchez and then on to the nearby old photo exhibition of Natchez at the First Presbyterian Church's Stratton Chapel Gallery.

Following a good lunch at Cotton Alley on Commerce Street we went to the modern, but empty of shoppers, Natchez Mall where I bought a pair of shorts and then went back to Monmouth Plantation for a rest in the sun and to catch up with some of the books and magazines we'd bought for the trip.

My mother and I had a walk around the gardens at Monmouth Plantation and in the evening we ended up going back to Cotton Alley for our meal as there didn't seem to be a huge choice of restaurants in old Natchez. Like the previous evening I had a few more beers and my wife drove back to our accommodation.

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