Random Parks (Austin, TX) -- February and March 2020

 In the early days of 2020 (before the pandemic hit and the world went to Hell), I’d take some walks at some area parks.  I’d take a few random pictures here and there, but they were never meant to be a “pictorial” of a particular location (which incidentally came about later in a roundabout way).  Since all of these pictures were taken between February 2020 and March 2020, it made sense to group them all together in one file.  All of these are in Austin, unless otherwise noted.

 

Great Hills Neighborhood Park (February 2020)

 Lake Walter E. Long (February 2020)

 Twin Lakes Park (Cedar Park, March 2020)

 St. Edwards Park (March 2020)

 Mansfield Dam Park (March 2020)

 Tanglewood Park (March 2020)

 And just for good measure, here’s some random deer pictures of those that hang out in the neighborhood.

Driving Around the North Shore (Mandeville, LA) -- November 2019

 While we were in the area, we also went across to the North Shore to visit some of Lauren’s friends in Mandeville.  This was a lake-side community which didn’t seem to be very big, but there was more here than meets the eye.  Of course, the high-end property is on the waterfront, but as you headed north of the causeway you reached where the normal people lived.  And some of the other people got to briefly touch-base with here in Madisonville (a smaller area to the east) and Covington (a community of equal size north of Mandeville).  Most of the pictures were of the area as we drove from one place to another, simply because I didn’t want to take pictures of other people’s houses to post on this website.  Seeing what it looked like from the streets was enough to give you an idea of what it looked like.

Lake Pontchartrain (Louisiana) -- November 2019

 In order to visit some of Lauren’s friends during our trip, we also needed to go across to the North Shore.  That meant crossing Lake Pontchartrain.  While there are major roads on the east and west side, those are rather a long way around depending on where you were going or coming from.  Someone had come up with the idea of building a bridge across the Lake, which was a distance of twenty-six miles.  Yeah, you could actually do a marathon by starting at one end of the bridge and running to the other.  I wonder if someone has done that yet.  Just because of the thought association I had to take a picture of the “13.1” mile marker (which is the half-marathon distance).

 

While it looks like the bridges for the Florida Keys, it’s not the same.  There’s no islands to anchor this to.  It’s just two sets of double lanes going in each direction, which an expanse of water were the median should be.  Rarely is there a turn-around spot too, and there’s not much of a shoulder to pull off on, or to allow emergency vehicles to get through.  This is a toll-road also, but only in one direction.  When you’re heading north out of New Orleans it’s free, but the return trip south is five bucks.  Keep that in mind for the poor commuters who use this every day.

 

The day we went over the weather was pleasant, so we got a nice view of the clam water and clear skies.  This must be quite the white-knuckle situation if you’re driving on this during a good thunderstorm.

La Salle Park and Lafreniere Park (Metairie, LA) -- November 2019

 We’d come to Metairie to visit some of Lauren’s friends.  It was just after dark when we arrived at Lynn’s place, so we didn’t get a good view of the area until the next day.  The one of the “main drags” of the city was Veteran’s Blvd, where all the commercial places were (Outback, Barnes & Noble, and such).  We were staying a few streets south at a place just off of Airline Drive, which was much more residential (with the businesses which support it).  Just a short distance down the road from Lynn’s place was La Salle Park, where we made sure to take Milo for walks in the morning.  It was a nice grassy and shady metropolitan park, which had the Jefferson Performing Arts Center nearby, as well as the Ochsner Sports Center (which was the training camp for the New Orleans Saints).

 I was being sociable, and Lynn was setting the agenda, we didn’t explore as many of the places I would’ve liked to.  The intent was we’d come back frequently and check out other parts of the city.  During lunch time I would get and drive around to try some of the local establishments.  One place I enjoyed and hit twice was Lee’s Hamburgers on Metairie Drive a short distance east of where we were staying (close to Codifer Blvd).  I enjoyed the authentic atmosphere there, as opposed to the one to the west of Lynn’s place (which felt kind of “corporate”).  Also, I was amused at a particular street sign I had to drive past to get to the location I liked.

 Also while we were there, checked out Lafreniere Park, which was close to Veteran’s Blvd.  This was a larger park with more development.  In addition to a performance stage and a large pond network, we noticed the park was filled little habitats constructed for the stray cat population to give them some shelter and feeders for dry food.  Interesting that how Austin prides itself on being “animal friendly” won’t do something like this.

 Anyone whose been to Metairie please don’t shoot me for what I’m about to say.  The section of Airline Drive down by Lynn’s place reminded me a lot of Sunset Beach (which I dove through frequently when I went to California for work).  Just substitute Airline Drive for Pacific Coast Highway, and to the south was ocean one block away as opposed to the Gulf a few miles away.  It evoked the same feelings I had there (I liked Sunset Beach), so Metairie felt very comfortable and familiar to me, even though I’d never been there before.  Yeah, you’ll never see evacuation signs on the Pacific Coast, but it just added to my enjoyment of the area.  I look forward to going back and experiencing more of what this place has to offer.