Studio Villamil

 Every time I resume my blog it takes a while for me to remember how to post photos. Hence the delay. Much easier to post on FB.  Anyway, going back about 17 million years, volcanic eruptions covered the entire Snake and Columbia River valleys and tens of thousands of square miles in lava flows. Then a mere million years ago a series of glacial lake floods (Missoula floods) carved, created and displaced the Columbia and Snake into what they are today. Basalt rock can be seen along the sides of the Hells Canyon area of the Snake River.  

 On a Snake and Columbia Rivers cruise with American Cruise Lines. Flight from JFK to Spokane. Beautiful drive down to Clarkston. Just harvested wheat fields, still with tracks from the equipment. But approaching Clarkston, elevation drops dramatically (2700’ along the way) and summer temperatures rise and terrain turns into dry rugged high desert. 

 We’ve visited numerous Civil War battlefields. Gettysburg, Bull Run, Antietam , the Wilderness to name a few. But Vicksburg, which encompasses the full area of the Confederate lines and the Union lines during the 47 day siege of Vicksburg was to me the most revealing. The park road tour takes you around the ridge on which the Union  lines were formed with cannon aimed at the higher ridge on which the Confederate cannon were placed. The Confederates got there first and set up on the higher ridge. You get to look up from the Union positions and then down from the Confederate positions. You don’t have to be a West Point grad to see why the pre siege Union assaults were so devastatingly unsuccessful. Union lines on left. Confederate lines on higher ground on right.  And the Union cemetery documents the carnage.  Seventeen thousand Union soldiers, 13000 unidentified ( shorter monuments) rest under the shade of mature magnolia trees.  

 Never knew that existed. New Orleans was an important industrial hub during WW II. The landing craft used in D day and in the Pacific were designed and built in New Orleans.  Stephen Ambrose, historian and author and New Orleans resident was instrumental in the effort to build the museum, which was founded in 2000.  Definitely worth a visit. One can wander through sections representing the various theaters of the war while historical movie war footage plays with voice over by participants. The highlight for me was the movie narrated by Tom Hanks. At which a remarkable and magical event occurred. As we filed into the theatre I was in front and picked the row. We filed in, Kathy and I and our two traveling companions. They arranged themselves and we watched the movie. When it ended, I noticed and pointed out that most of the seats had dedication plaques on the armrest. Kathy looked down and saw that the seat our friend Arnie had been sitting in had a plaque honoring someon...

 In the afternoon we went on a panoramic bus tour of New Orleans, with stops at a cemetery and at the New Orleans Museum of Art, which is located in a huge park containing both quiet park activities and a botanical garden as well as football and soccer fields and a golf course. Imagine!  But the most interesting part of the trip for me was driving through the now restored areas that had been flood destroyed by Katrina  and seeing from the ground how far below sea level New Orleans actually is. One drives along a main road (not a highway) lined with modest two story houses and ahead the road rises as to go over a railroad or highway. You can’t see what it is going over until you get to the top, and you see that you are going over  a “drainage” canal, and the water level in the canal, which is at sea level, is higher than the second story of the homes that you just passed!  We didn’t drive through the Lower Ninth Ward, not sure why.  Our guide explained all t...

Our second visit to New Orleans, but our first one didn’t really count. Just a short business trip with a little sightseeing and the purchase of a treasured metal floral sculpture. The trip was easy, as things go. Mid-day nonstop from MCO to New Orleans on Southwest; Viking rep at the airport; short rush hour bus ride to Hotel Monteleone on Royal St in French Quarter.  Nice older but exquisitely maintained hotel. Quiet comfortable rooms. Gabrielle and Will got married. Didn’t have the right clothes to crash. We decided to do our own paced walking tour of the French quarter the next morning.