horse carriage

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Bourbon Street Late Afternoon in New Orleans with Zeb and Soapy Duck

Can we ride in the horse carriage?

Horse Carriage

Moms said yes.   We love slow horse carriage rides.   And we see more.   This is a great way to see New Orleans.

From horse carriage

Going down these narrow streets is fun.  Our guide and driver told us wonderful stories about New Orleans and the French Quarter. We rode for about 30 minutes and we loved it.   But when we got off, Soapy’s mom wasn’t ready to leave the horse.

Such a nice horse

She and the horse had a few moments to bond.  We ducks loved the horse too, but we kept our distance.   We walked a few blocks back to Bourbon Street.   Our moms don’t drink and my mom doesn’t like the dark, so we went late in the afternoon.  **We ate at Cornet Restaurant; sitting on the balcony we had a great view of Bourbon Street.

From Cornet Restaurant

We ordered two different sampler platters.  Those moms started eating before photos.   Oh well, it was all delicious.  Looking from our table, we saw the silver man.

Silver Man

There was also a gold man.  And people walking down the street with great costumes.

Waking in costume

If you didn’t want to eat at a restaurant, Lucky Dogs cart was near.

Lucky Dogs cart

We saw these carts several places in New Orleans.   Our drivers said they were good, but there were too many other restaurants we wanted to try.    After dinner, we planned on walking along Bourbon Street and enjoy all the street entertainment.   But…

Rain on Bourbon Street

The clouds started coming in.   The the wind got stronger.   Soon it was raining on Bourbon Street.   After the rain stopped we found Rev Zombie’s VooDoo shop.

Rev Zombie’s VooDoo Shop

There was really great stuff inside.   We signed up for 5 in 1 Tour by Haunted History Tours.   Drew was our guide and he was great.   Very informative and he is a wonderful story teller.   We didn’t see ghosts, but the history and ghost stories were really fun.  Tour ended a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked home.   Remember we mentioned awhile ago the in New Orleans we heard music everywhere.   This sign shows how much they really love the music.

Music

Another fabulous time in New Orleans.

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Zeb the Duck in Rockville, Indiana. More Covered Bridges!

Normally we love to attend festivals, but today we planned to arrive after the festival was over.   Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?   We arrived in Rockville, Indiana late Sunday afternoon.   After checking into a motel, we walked to the nearest covered bridge.

Billie Creek Bridge

This is a great bridge.   We did walk through it, but thought it was strange to see “Cross this bridge at a walk.”

Horse cart coming through covered bridge

But now I, Zeb the Duck, understand.   Horses are to pass through the bridge at a walk.   Isn’t this a perfect horse pulled cart?   Cars, of course, can drive slowly through the bridge.   OK, we are here in Rockville, Indiana as the Covered Bridge Festival is ending.   The town of Rockville had a population of 2,600 people according to the 2010 census.   A nice, small town.   But the covered bridge festival begins the second Friday in October and lasts 10 days.   During that time, there will be about 2 million visitors, according to the website.   That is a lot of people!   Let’s look around town first.   The courthouse is a majestic old building.

Rockville, Indiana Courthouse. Tents from covered bridge festival

Here we see some of the tents used during the festival.   We love decorations.

Decorations for autumn in Rockville, Indiana

Autumn decorations abound in Rockville.   Near the courthouse, we liked the Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Memorial Presbyterian Church

The town has many old homes that are still in use today.

Older homes

Look at these wide, tree lined streets.

Tree lined street in Rockville, Indiana

Plenty of space for 2,600 people, but too crowded for hundreds of thousands or even millions.   This county in Indiana has at least 31 covered bridges.   The Visitor’s Center provides maps, with 4 recommended routes.   Humans can drive all over the county, following the suggested routes, to experience driving through covered bridges.   We found some bridges Sunday night, but did more driving Monday morning.   Here is Crooks Bridge.

I, Zeb the Duck, am in Crooks Bridge near Rockville, Indiana

I like bridges with windows.   This part of Indiana is farm country.

Tractor in use. This is farm country.

This farmer is working on his tractor today.   Farming is hard work.   This farm has the barn with cows and a covered bridge in the background.

Definitely farm country. Barn on left. Cows with covered bridge in background.

You can see the dust from a car that just drove through the covered bridge.   Of course, farms mean cows, and we like cows.

Cow with covered bridge in background

This cow lives and grazes near the McAllister Bridge.   I, Zeb the Duck, wanted to remind you that these bridges are necessary.

Zeb on edge of bridge, over river

This one allows passage over the river.   This trip we just wanted to see the covered bridges.   We were not particularly interested in purchasing items, but maybe next time we will come during the festival.   We hope you enjoyed festivals and autumn drives this year.   We like them.

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St. Louis, Missouri with Zeb and Soapy Smith Duck

I, Zeb the Duck, and Soapy Smith Duck had part of a day in St. Louis.   What should we do?   We drove downtown and parked across from Busch Stadium.

Busch Stadium

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team plays here.

St. Louis Cardinal at bat

The Cardinals have won many World Series of Baseball and the fans are very loyal.   Then we heard fireworks.   A man on the street said that means someone hit a home run.   Well, what are ducks and moms to do?   We bought tickets, went into the stadium, found our seats and then bought hot dogs.   For a last minute idea, we had pretty good seats.

Watching the baseball game

This was an exciting game.   The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburg Pirates 7-0.   Lots of action in this game and the crowd was happy and cheering as their favorite hometown team continued to score.   The game ended and as we left our seats, we noticed the cardinal on the end of each row of seats.

A cardinal on each row of seats

Isn’t that great?  We like this stadium.   We did need to take a quick look at the Cardinals store inside the stadium.

Store inside Busch Stadium

Here we are perched on a can by the doors.   Outside more fans were celebrating.

Cardinals Nation. Across from Busch Stadium

Across the street from Busch Stadium, Cardinals Nation was feeding and refreshing many fans. The weather was warm with the sun shining through the beautiful blue sky.   What could we do next that would not seem like a let down after that great game?   The sidewalk had the answer.

St. Louis has an arch

St. Louis has The Gateway Arch, the world’s tallest arch, located on the banks of the Mississippi River.  The Gateway Arch opened June 1967.   This, the tallest monument in the United States, is dedicated to “the American people” and a tribute to the westward expansion of the United States.   Our moms have been here before and they loved this area.

The Arch

That is a big arch!  The Gateway Arch is 630 feet tall, compared to the Washington Monument at 555 feet.   The arch has a stainless steel skin and glimmers in the sunshine.   Before we ducks joined the family our moms went inside the arch to the observation area.   There is a tram in each leg of the arch to go to the top.   With 8 cylindrical 5 seat compartments with a small window in each compartment, 40 humans ascend at a time from each side.   The cars, or compartments, swing like Ferris wheel cars, half Ferris wheel and half elevator, it takes 4 minutes to arrive at the top.   At the top observation area each side has 16 windows, 7″ x 27″ (180 mm x 690 mm).  Through these small windows, you can see up to 30 miles (48 km) into Missouri and southern Illinois.   We did not go inside the arch this time.  Near the arch, we saw Harry.

Harry the horse and his carriage

Harry pulls this carriage.   We wanted to ride in Harry’s carriage.  We are riding with the Mississippi next to us.

Mississippi River and bridge connecting Missouri and Illinois.

That bridge over the Mississippi River goes to southern Illinois.  This is graffiti wall.

Graffiti wall. We love it!

We enjoyed the pictures painted here.   We must like artful graffiti.   After a ride along the river and through part of downtown St. Louis, Harry, who likes apples, carrots and peppermint candy, took us to our car.   We were asked not to feed Harry as he is not done working for the day.   If he gets fed, even a snack, he wants to go back to the barn.   So we petted Harry, paid and tipped our driver and left our carriage.   Our car was parked across from  White Castle hamburger restaurant.   Naturally we went to White Castle for a light dinner.

White Castle hamburgers. Arch in background

Looking through the window of White Castle, we liked seeing the Gateway Arch.   We enjoyed our time in St. Louis.

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Cozumel, Mexico with Chanel the Bear

Today I, Zeb the Duck, want you to see these photos of Cozumel, Mexico from my friend, Chanel the Bear.

Big boots for a small bear

Big boots for a small bear

Aren’t these the biggest boots you have ever seen with an adorable bear?   Looks like a place to have a lot of fun.   Cozumel is a small island of Mexico.   A great tourist area with fantastic beaches, scuba diving and snorkeling.  These horse drawn carriages looks great and just announce that you are a happy tourist.

Horse drawn carriages in Cozumel, Mexico

Horse drawn carriages in Cozumel, Mexico

I love to see them, Chanel.   Wow!   Look at the size of your cruise ship.

That cruise ship is huge

That cruise ship is huge

These ships really are floating cities, aren’t they?  Thanks for these great photos, Chanel.