Roadtripping

American Queen: Getting ready to board

Here’s the American Queen, docked by the New Orleans Riverwalk. I’m getting ready to board for its inaugural cruise up the Mississippi to Memphis. The return of overnight riverboat cruises to the Mississippi is a big deal for cities all along the river where the boat will make port calls, as merchants expect passengers will inject money into the local economies.  Last night, I went to the Carousel Bar in the Monteleone Hotel in the French Quarter and found local residents talking about seeing the boat on the river in the last week or so and wondering when its official launch would be. Launches, maiden voyages and inaugural cruises are sort of like politicians declaring their interest, their exploratory committees and their candidacy – it’s hard to define which is which and when one becomes the next. The christening of the American Queen will be at the end of this cruise in Memphis on Aug. 27. 

 

National Park Week: Free admission

 National Park Week starts Saturday, and from then through April 29, admission is free at nearly 400 national parks and other monuments, refuges and other sites managed by the National Park Service, including Everglades National Park, pictured above. 

The National Park Service is pushing fitness for this week. Keep reading to see 10 park activities the service suggests to help you stay fit: 

Busch Gardens: Kasi the cheetah

This is just an excuse for me to post a cute photo on the blog. A year ago, when Busch Gardens Tampa Bay launched its new coaster, Cheetah Run, it also introduced a cheetah cub to the new cheetah habitat, a pairing of thrill ride and animal experience. The cub, 8 weeks old at the time, was named Kasi by fans via a Facebook poll. He was paired with a 16-week-year-old yellow Labrador puppy, Mtani. The pair have grown up together, and here they are, one year later.

Photo Credit: Busch Gardens

 

Road trip attraction: Biloxi shrimp tour

In Biloxi on Wednesday I went for a short cruise on a faux shrimp boat. The Sailfish is a tour boat that has been operating since 1955, touring the Mississippi Sound, and was later fitted with a shrimp net and a winch to show tourists how the shrimping industry works.

In the morning, a tour bus stopped at the Small Craft Harbor by the Hard Rock Café where the Sailfish is docked. The tourists filled the boat. But in the afternoon, there were only four of us on the tour, so we got a pretty good overview of the logistics and the economics of the shrimping industry. 

The Sailfish stays close to shore in shallow, protected waters where shrimp congregate and the crew drops a net that picks up whatever is swimming near the bottom. On Wednesday, the take was very small. As the winch hauled the net to the surface, seagulls descended, pecking at the flashes of silver scales visible in the green net. But they were tiny fish, two to three inches long. There were a few tiny crabs, as big as a man’s thumb, and one adult blue crab that was clearly annoyed. And one shrimp. Rough weather the day before had apparently driven the shrimp to deeper water.

A crew member picked out various creatures, told us about them, and tossed them back. Everything eventually went back into the water. The Sailfish doesn’t do commercial fishing; it educates tourists about it in a cruise that takes about 70 minutes. It's interesting, something a little different for tourists, and kids will love the crawly things that come up in the net. 

It was a pretty day in Biloxi, sunny and in the high 70s, and shrimp or not, it was the perfect day to be out on the water.

For information, click here.