Ladee's Travels

The Musical Instrument Museum is filled with wonderful instruments.  Photography is allowed, no tripods and no flash.  Still a lot of fun! The first few photos are of a flute built from recycled materials.  The rest are from various exhibits. The next two photos have different tones added to them.

This is one of my favorite places to visit and I have several posts. The photos won't spoil it because a big part of the experience is listening to all of the music.  We went for the Bastille Day events.  I took Beth to China to see the kinds of things that her mother saw on the last trip. The exhibits show the country, so there is not too much to say about these. Beth and I sat in on a "pleine aire" drawing class.  I didn't know what a "pleine aire" class was, but now I know.  It is sketching in the open air.   Wikipedia explains it to great lengths.   I am not a pleine aire pencil sketcher, but I do enjoy pleine aire photography as well as closed air photography!  On to the displays.  We put our headset on and off we went.  I was soon texted by Karl and Michele. Set off to find them.  Then we all mingled and viewed.  Nose flutes always intrigue me ever since my father and son came marching out of th...

The streets are filled with sounds all day long.  You can talk about this, but the best way is to click on a video and tap your toes along with the tunes!  Here is a sampling of what we saw as we walked through the French Quarter. Some of the videos may be in other posts...to add to the atmosphere. Check all of them out.  The last one is my favorite.  I should have bought a CD...

This is a nice evening dinner, a little pricey, but a nice evening out with friends aboard the old paddle boat (the only game in town.)  The tickets are $67 per person, but look through the local magazines such as "Where" for coupons for $3-$5 off.  The price includes salad bar, buffet, and coffee/tea/soda.  Wine and drinks are extra.  We reserved the tickets through the hotel with an $11 deposit per person (which I think is the commisssion). We met at the dock and purchased the tickets. One member of our group could not attend (she had tripped on a pot hole on the street, scraped her knees, hit her head on a pole and now has a black eye, but that is another story) so we had all of the high finance with the refund for the deposit. The refund needs to be worked through the hotel person who took the reservation but this was not an issue and went quite smoothly.  I don't know if that happens with every hotel, but the staff at Place D'Armes has been super. We were...

New Orleans is filled with music, all the time.  This is our favorite corner, as the performers here are unique and colorful.  (Watch for the unique and colorful character at the end of the video and notice the toe tapping foot action.)  If you like the music, you can purchase a CD for $10. Choice of Pear or Lemon Drop Martinis today What a way to start: 25 cent martinis!!! We had a choice of Pear or Lemon Zinger.  I will add more food photos later. I'm going to have the $20.11 fixed price luncheon special: cup of gumbo, [another martini], Antoine's Louisianna Gulf Shrimp Creole [plus another martini] and Pecan Bread Pudding for dessert.  Note that this price does not include the 9.75% tax, a well deserved gratuity for Austin, and 25 cents for each martini. This restaurant is huge and seats 1300 people. It is a museum with walls of photos of all of the past Mardi Gras queens. There are party rooms that have been reserved by the Mardi Gras "teams" fo...

How did this get so HUGE?? Wow. I remember when this was a quant little coffee shop. This place is HUGE. Who are all these people? Who told them about my quiet little place? It grew so fast. The last time I was here was, hmm, when was that? Before Kalen. 1983? Ahhh!! Almost 30 years ago!!! Double order of Beignets (powdered donuts), Cafe au Lait, Chicory coffee, and hot chocolate. Cafe du Monde serves one edible item: Beignets.  The fried donuts are freshly made and covered with powered sugar (you will be covered too!)  They offer a variety of both hot and cold drinks, and the chicory coffee is well known. You can buy your coffee in a souvenir mug, which is a fun reminder. TIPS: Make sure that you are in the correct line.  There are two lines - one is for the take-out window and the other is to be seated.  Most times the staff will try to get the take-out line to enter from the back of the shaded outside area. The seating line is to the front of the b...

The piazza was buzzing with activity and shoppers, clowns on stilts and musicians. Hasn't changed in hundreds of years.

I managed another visit to MIM and talked K into visiting with me. We met at 11AM and toured Europe for about an hour then took a lunch break in the Cafe . I had the grilled sausage and K had a roast beef sandwich. Both were accompanied by a nice chilled Heineken. We returned to the second flour to tour Asia for two hours. I needed another break, so we went to the coffee shop for coffee and a cookie snack. We spent the "last hour" on a fast walking tour through the US and Canada, and then through Africa. Exhausted, we returned to the service desk to turn in our headset. The woman at the desk told us that we had to walk just down the hall to see the Hands On room and the "Visiting Artists" room. Promising that we would only quickly look, we took our headsets and journeyed down the hall. What a wonderful surprise. String instruments, drums, things to shake and plink...all for our enjoyment. Each section is nicely hidden, so as you move past a wall, your are deligh...

The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) is located at 4725 East Mayo Boulevard in North Phoenix. This is at the corner of Tatum and Mayo Blvds, just off of the 101. The parking lot entrance is on Mayo. The building is huge. The entranceway is landscaped with desert plants and is a beautiful start to the museum experience. Little did I know what I was in for at this point. The customer service staff recommended that we start on the ground floor with the introductory section, then move to the second floor to begin viewing the instruments. An awesome collection of guitars started our experience, and a display on how instruments are made gave us a warm-up to what we were to see. We went to the second floor on the escalor (or you can take the stairs, or an elevator). The layout of the building is airy and spacious. Once we reached the second floor, we put on our headsets and continued to the first room on our right: Africa. As we rounded the corner to enter the room, we were immediately blow...