New Orleans - colorful, noisy, music, beauty, historic, polite, homeless, tourists, flat, water, food!
Our 4 days here have been crammed with touring and eating! So many awesome sights to see and no time to see them all. Our friends and fellow Loopers have recommended their favorite spots to visit and we have picked those that won't break the budget but yet allow us to savor the flavor of New Orleans. Our itinerary went like this:
Day 1 - World War II Museum (5 1/2 hours) (packed our own lunch)
Dinner at Pat O'Briens
Day 2 - Walking tour of the Garden District including cemetery
Lunch of Muffuletta at Central Grocery & Deli
Tour Mardi Gras World
Jazz concert at Preservation Hall
Dinner at corner restaurant - best peach Sangria
Day 3 - Walking Tour of French District
Lunch of sloppy roast beef Po'Boy at Johnny's
Toured Challmete Plantation where the Battle of New Orleans was fought
Dinner of left over Muffuletta
Day 4 - Walking tour of Baratania Preserve to see the swamps (no alligators - too cold)
Packed lunch
Toured Laura Plantation
Day 5 - Finally had a beignet on our way out of town!
Our day at the World War II Museum was not nearly long enough to see everything, but was long enough to overload our brains!
You may ask, as we did - why a WWII museum in New Orleans? Turns out two historians had a dream that they made come true in 2000. President Eisenhower stated to Dr. Stephen Ambrose (a famous local historian/author and one of the partners) "Andrew Jackson Higgins is the man who won the war for us. Without Higgins designed boats that could land over open beaches, the whole strategy of the war would have to be rethought." The Higgins Boat Company in New Orleans built the majority of the vessels used in the war. In 2004, Congress named it the National World War II Museum. It highlights battles, people, life, allies, enemies, artifacts, causes, and endings. As much as we've learned about the war over our lifetime, this museum still brought to light facts that I'd either forgotten or hadn't known. The biggest being the amount of Europe that Hitler had taken over before America entered the war.
Any idea what this is? I didn't guess - Bob, of course, knew :)
It's a dog tag machine.
While Spam was actually developed during the depression to utilize the undesirable pork shoulder, Spam did not become widely used until WWII.
I never tire of seeing the size of these mobile phones. I don't think cell phones would be as popular if they were this cumbersome :)
Carrier Pigeons used extensively during WWI were still used during WWII - especially during the Normandy Landing when radios were not trusted.
Speaking of Normandy - this bell is the only exact, ringing replica of the original Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. It was a gift to the museum from the Normandy region of France.
Harley Davidson - war time version.
The Boeing Company paid for the aviation building of the museum.
Many original planes used during the war "fly" over the visitors.
Several close-up views of cockpits, bomb bays, gun turrets are available to look into.
We had dinner at Pat O'Briens that night where we sampled Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, Seafood Gumbo, Crawfish, and their signature drink - a Hurricane.
We took a self guided walk through the Garden District. This is the area of famous people and big beautiful homes. We are not familiar with author Ann Rice, but we were told she is very popular and has lived in/written about many homes in this area.
Most of the houses were well kept up but this fence had seen better days.
This house is owned by Sandra Bullock. Considered cutting edge for its day, the staggered, set-backs of the front facade make it possible for every room to capture the sun's light no matter what the time of day.
Much of the filming of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button took place in this home.
Many of these homes are very deceptive if you see them from the front.
Surprised?
This is dubbed the stained glass window house, but I have renamed it the dog house. Not sure how many dogs they have but all the signs on the fence are about dogs!
This is what we would have on the boat if we had a dog - "Paws to Enjoy The Good Life"
Cast iron was a popular trim for the porches.
One of my favorite houses, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) often attended elaborate parties here.
This plant is used both as a ground cover and wall cover. It looks as though it does not need to be trimmed much.
We saw quite a few hitching posts around, but this house still has the mounting block to get into the carriage or mount your horse.
The cemeteries are called "Cities of the Dead". This one is in the neighborhood of the Garden District. All the graves are in mausoleums above ground because the water table is so high.
It is said that most of the mausoleums have a shelf that does not go all the way back. When the next member of the family dies, the previous remains were shoved back off the shelf to make room for the next one. This grave has more than 30 remains!
This mausoleum is a heartbreaker
So many of the graves are in a state of sad disrepair. The organization Save Our Cemeteries is trying to save as many as they can. How can stone bend???
Not all is dead here :)
We were more than ready for lunch and very happy to try the much touted Muffuletta (pronounced as best I can translate is just as it is written slurred together very fast. They are huge and was plenty for two meals for Bob and I. Luckily we loved it.
To be continued in Part II
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