Weekend Report: 2 May 2015, Abita Springs
This spring weather is absolutely divine! I feel like New Orleans has been blessed with an incredibly long spring this year (starting, oh, about February and still going!). Each day, I am committed to enjoying the gentle breezes and subtle warmth because I know, soon enough, it’s going to be hotter than Hades. With such great weather, we know that now is the time to be getting our outdoor excursions explored.
So, this weekend we took a little day trip to the Northshore, just on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, to St. Tammany Parish. We crammed our bikes in the back of the Blazer and set off to find some adventures on a biking path called the Tammany Trace. The Trace is a “Rails to Trails” program, a nicely paved path that makes use of what was once part of the Illinois Central Railroad line. Today, the path is over 30 miles long and connects four prominent towns on the Northshore. At each trailhead location there are parking facilities, city parks, and small, free museums telling the history of the township. It’s such a great use of land and has, I’m sure, done wonders to the local economy. The path is well maintained, and being here in coastal Louisiana, nice and flat and so easy to enjoy without too much exertion.
We started at the trailhead in Covington, the most western point of the trail, and made Abita Springs and sites in that town our destination, a distance of only about 4 miles between the two towns. In Covington, there was a cute little arts market set up at the trailhead park, with food and music too; we did a quick peruse but then got on the trail.
We made a fantastic stop at the Abita Beer Brewery. There you can take a tour of the brewery, learn about the beer making process and all their types of beer, and try all their types of beer for FREE! It was awesome! The tour lasts an hour. As you walk in the door they hand you a regular size plastic cup, and invite you into the “bar” where they have taps of all their beers and you’re free to fill up and sample as much as you like, self-serve. An employee gives an informative introduction, they show a couple videos, then walk you through the processing facilities. Then you return to the bar and drink some more. What a great way to spend an hour. Abita beer is good beer but it isn’t my favorite necessarily. They all seem to have the same finish, because I think they use the same malt for all their beers. But when it’s free...
So, this definitely set a new tone to the rest of our adventure. Good thing that path was straight and flat! We rode on into Abita Springs and had a picnic lunch in a gorgeous 2-story gazebo, which originally was part of an exhibit in the 1884 World’s Fair held in New Orleans and moved to Abita Springs piece by piece in 1888. We had the second story all to ourselves, and munched on cheese, crackers, olives and fruit, while telling silly stories and laughing with our beer buzz.
(Neither of these photos of the gazebo are mine. I pulled them from online, but aren’t they pretty?)
After this we rode through town and found a local, unique attraction, called the Abita Springs Mystery House and UCM Museum. It’s part folk art museum, part junk heap, part social commentary, and all amazing. It reminded us a lot of Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens in that there were mosaic works and random items (like computer keyboards and paint can lids) hammered to the ceilings and walls, and hand-written messages here and there. There were miniature dioramas with little parts on motors so you’d push a button and pieces would start moving. There was a nice collection of vintage arcade machines, which were made even more fun because when we paid our $3 admission, the owner handed us each a dollar in quarters so we could play the machines.
We walked through the museum and when exiting, struck up a conversation with John, the owner. I guess he just liked the look of us because he then handed us the key to his art studio and told us to have a look around. He then joined us and we hung out talking for over an hour. He as interesting guy. He also gave us a free ticket to Jazz Fest for two for Sunday (a gift that if we were to have bought tickets ourselves would have cost us about $160); it was a musician’s comp ticket, which he got because he produces the performer Bobby Lounge, who was playing on Sunday. After this it was getting late, and so we biked to the car and headed back across the lake to home.
(Our reflection in the infinity light mirror.)
(This is neat because this is the historic riverboat that is docked in Chattanooga, TN.)
Unfortunately we weren’t able to use the Jazz Fest ticket (though I did give it to my neighbor who used it) because we had plans on Sunday. Joshua had a music gig with one of his bands, playing at a music festival called Noizefest. It’s a DIY event that was celebrating its tenth year. This year it was held at this fantastic, hidden gem of a park on the West Bank called Bretchel Park. It was so nice. The noise music fit so well in such an open, outdoor space that it became this ambient energy that made the experience really cool. It was a neat event, with young kids running around and playing music too. There were goats! It was just a nice way to spend a beautiful day. All in all it was another great spring weekend!
