New Orleans Part 13. The End.

 Last morning here. It went so quickly, and there are still a few things I had hoped to see, but oh well….maybe anther trip in the future?

We had our usual breakfast and then went for a walk so i could take some pictures of a few murals I had seen painted on some buildings just up the street.

Then we headed back to the hotel to check out, and called a cab to the airport. Probably everyone but me has seen this technology for calling cabs, but it was new to us! I guess each one is connected to that particular hotel; when I asked if they could call us a cab, he said “Oh, just push that button” so I did, and a screen popped up saying what out driver’s name would be, where he was, and expected time of arrival. It took about 3 minutes and the cab was there. I was quite intrigued.

Anyhow, we zipped off to the airport, and the security was minimal, we were through in about 15 minutes and at our gate in no time, with lots of time for lunch at Lucky Dog. I also had a couple of free $10 gift cards from Starbucks that I had received at the Barrett-Jackson auction. I am always hesitant to use “free” things because they hardly ever are, but these worked fine and we each had some sort of fancy blended, carmel-y, whipped cream concoction. 

The flight left on time, landed in Denver where we had to change planes again, but this time there was no horrible concourse “take a train” change and all went well.

Actually, even though I still haven’t had the joy of sitting with a dog on a plane, I did get to play with Biscuit for an hour while we waited! She is an 11 year old rescue who dropped her toy on my foot to play fetch. She could only run a foot or two, so it was a slow game, but fun nonetheless.

I always treat myself to an airport paperback when we travel, and I generally leave it in the airport with a note saying “pass it on” and stating  what airport it was left in, but I hadn’t had a chance to finish this one yet, so it came home with me. Jack Reacher books are my “airport go-to” and I am always happy when I find a new one!

And before we knew it we were back in Kalispell. We just walked to the hotel, we were there probably before the luggage was unloaded on the luggage carousel. It was about 9:30 pm, so we simply went to bed. Funny how you can be so tired from a flight when really all you do is sit. 

Next morning we headed home and were in our own house by 1pm. Hard to believe that only 24 hours earlier we were walking on the streets of New Orleans. Travel is so mind-bending.

Anyhow. The trip was great. Here is my “New Orleans A to Z”

A- Alligators!  I saw some and ate some.

B- Beignets, Bread Pudding, Bananas Foster, the good foods start with B!

C-Crawfish! Like a delectable but better prawn.

D-Dirty rice. Better than it sounds. And the Dixieland Band. 

E-Etoufee. Similar to gumbo, but thicker.

F. Frogs legs and file. 

G. Gumbo! 

H. Hurricane…the potent drink that is a “must have” on Bourbon Street.

I. I can’t think of anything I saw or ate that starts with I, except “I” loved it here.

J. Jambalaya

K. King Cake!

L. Lafayette Hotel, our recommended home away from home.

M. Muffuletta and Mardi Gras World.

N. Nectar flavoured sno-ball.

O. Oysters and Okra!

P. Po’boy and pralines.

Q. Queen of Hearts float in Mardi Gras World. 

R. Remoulade, Roux, Red Beans & Rice. 

S. Swamp Tour, Street Cars and Sno-Balls.

T. Turtle soup 

U. Ursuline Convent.

V. VooDoo potato chips (and voodoo in general)

W. Walking shoes…we walked and walked and walked.

X. Some of the X-rated scenes on Bourbon St.

Y. Got nuthin’ here. 

Z. Zydeco music and Zapps potato chips! 

Rating? 10/10….highly recommend!

New Orleans Part 12.

 After the WW2 Museum we headed to the French Market and Jackson Square, (on the Hop-On bus) which were both side by side and in the general area of the paddle wheel cruise this evening. 

The French Market was pretty big, but not as big as I had anticipated. There were a lot of food stalls which looked quite tasty, and a few produce stalls, which were mostly empty (as in sold out for the day) and a whole slew of tacky souvenir stalls, all selling the same types of things, you know, poorly made T-shirts, those resin/plastic items like little coffins, skeletons, riverboats etc. Like Dollar Store items. A ton of genuine alligator heads and parts, keychains and so forth. Towards the end there were a lot of local artists though, and that was fun. A lot of paintings, carvings, jewellery etc. I bought a tiny watercolour, and we had a delicious mango sno-cone.

It was interesting, and I’d have been sad if I didn’t go, but believe me, it’s certainly not what it’s hyped up to be. Imagine your local farmers market times 10, but besides the “good local” stuff add in huge amounts of crap.

After we left there we walked over to Jackson Square, which was a really pretty place to sit in the shade and rest and people-watch. It’s a roughly city block in size, and the streets surrounding it are filled with artists, musicians, street performers and the like. 

At one time it was the site of public executions and the hanging of slaves, but today it is filled with live music and concerts.

The church is St Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously operating church in the United States.

We then headed over to Cafe Du Monde, just a few minutes walk away.

‘Café du Monde is the world's most famous coffee shop and a New Orleans institution. Found at the end of the French Market and the corner of Jackson Square in New Orleans' French Quarter, Café du Monde has been serving up their crispy beignets and creamy cafés au lait since 1862.”

Apparently you “need” to go there if you are in New Orleans, and indeed, it was on my list of things I wanted to see, but honestly, every other beignet place we tried was superior. I think this cafe has fallen into the “tourists must post their Instagram pictures” trap. It was crowded, noisy and busy. I will say, the service was 100% excellent and the coffee was really good (made with chicory) The beignets were smaller than other places, but they were lighter and fluffier,  and with much more powdered sugar. They were super messy to eat! The atmosphere was more like a food stand (albeit a giant one!) at a carnival as opposed to a world famous coffee spot. 

We checked out a few of the shops nearby, went into Aunt Sally’s Pralines and watched them being made, and of course sampled a few and purchased a few. The sweet potato were amazing! 

We found the place where we were to get on the boat, luckily there was shade and lots of seating. A local we had spoken to a few days earlier told us the best hint he could give us was to be in that line-up by 5:30, (even though the tickets said 6 and we had reservations for 6 for dinner) but he was so correct. We were about 10th in line, and even though they do this twice daily, every day, the staff seemed to be incredibly confused. No one ever did ask to see my ticket, they asked if I had one and that seemed to suffice. We walked inside and down a level and were seated at a little table for two.

It was a pretty sizeable dining room. The table had bread and a large bowl of salad, as well as water, so we just started to eat. In a few minutes our server came by with bowls of seafood gumbo, which was one of the “ok” ones. Not great, but very spicy. The dinner itself was buffet style, and while researching which boat to take and whether or not to have the dinner, a lot of people said not to bother, that the dinner was either awful, or “so many better places to eat in New Orleans” . I hemmed and hawed and my final thoughts were: Well, we can’t really eat a dinner prior, because that would be eating at 3 or 4 pm, too soon, and we didn’t really want to eat after as that would be 9-9:30 which might be too late. We are old and like to eat our dinner at 6:30-7-ish. Plus, it’s not like we weren’t going to have the opportunity to eat at other places, and as well, eating on the boat with live jazz playing is part of the whole experience. I knew it wouldn’t be any sort of 5-star meal, after all, whipping up a buffet for a few hundred people day after day has got be pretty routine. 

Anyhow, it was fine. Well, better than fine, but not over-the-top-spectacular. We both enjoyed it thoroughly. There was baked chicken, seafood pasta (with crawfish and shrimp) jambalaya, green beans & bacon, a pasta primavera, fingerling potatoes, banana’s foster and white chocolate bread pudding. There was a charge for beer and wine, which we had, but we never did get a bill. 

We finished eating about 7, just in time for the boat to set sail. I may or may not have had a second bread pudding first. 

The cruise was really nice. It was evening by now, so the sun had gone down and the breeze off of the water was much appreciated! There were three floors that we could wander though, and lots of seating. The live band was on the upper deck, with a bar and snacks as well. The city lights and passing boats at night were beautiful. 

I’m not a big fan of jazz and blues, but this band; The Dukes of Dixieland were really good, and did a lot of familiar songs, the lead singer had a very “Louis Armstrong” voice and did a lot of his music.

The two hours went by quite quickly, there was some historical narration the whole time, so we could pick up a few interesting facts. 

When the boat docked, the thought of walking back to the hotel seemed so very exhausting that when I spotted a line-up of pedicabs, I jumped right in one! How these guys do this all day long amazes me. Our fellow and his wife both do it, they must have thighs of steel. Luckily New Orleans is fairly flat, but still, hauling around all these fat-ass tourists has got to take a toll.

Anyhow, we were back at our room soon enough, and got ourselves organized and packed for leaving tomorrow. Luckily our plane doesn't  until around 3 pm,  so we can take our time in the morning.  

New Orleans part 11.

 Tuesday Oct 3. Tomorrow we fly home. How did the week go so fast? 

We had no plans for the entire day, until the jazz cruise this evening, so we decided to utilize the last of the Hop-On Hop-Off pass and go to the French Market and Jackson Square. We walked over to our cafe where our server was standing outside smoking some weed with a friend and hollered “Two orders of toast, with a side of peanut butter!” (As that’s what we had every single day) It will be sad to go home and have to make my own toast. 

Anyhow, we ate our toast and headed over to Canal St to hop on the Hop-On and head over to the market. 

Same of the interesting things that you see on the tour are a few famous people’s homes, including Sandra Bullock’s, Beyoncé’s, Anne Rice’s, and one of the Manning’s…Eli? Peyton? Parent? I’m not sure, and a lot of other football player’s places, but I don’t follow the game, so the names meant nothing. Neither did seeing the Superdome excite me, other than remembering how so many people had to stay there during Katrina.

I felt obliged to snap a picture. 

This place had a sort of interesting story behind it:

It’s called The Plaza Tower and was started to be built in 1964, but the owner quickly ran out of money. It was eventually finished in 1969 for a cost of $18 million, and was opened for office and residential use. However, it had to be abandoned in 2002 due to asbestos and toxic black mold as well as elevators that wouldn’t function properly and constant leaks.

It was purchased in 2011 for $250,000 and the new owner planned to renovate/fix it up, until a panel blew out of an upper floor and hit a passing cyclist (which of course then involved a massive lawsuit) and the roads around it had to be closed (for fear of further falling debris)

In 2021 the owner put a massive net around the top (I think 5 floors), which is the weird black shape that you can see. It’s become an expensive albatross that no one knows what to do with.

Another interesting thing we noticed were the huge amounts of beads in trees. During Mardi Gras when beads and other goodies are thrown from parade floats by the hundreds of thousands, many get caught up in tree branches, and end up being left behind. I guess it could be considered eco-unfriendly, but I personally think they look festive and very suitable to the atmosphere of New Orleans! The city and homeowners just leave them, so I guess they think the same as I do.

By now the bus is almost at the WW2 museum stop, and it’s still early in the day, so I made the quick decision for us to hop off the Hop-On and check it out. 

Let me tell you. Everyone who told me to go was 100% correct. It was just incredible. I’ll likely go on a bit long here, it was that amazing. (Not that I ever am at a loss for writing words anyhow.)

After you purchase your tickets you get a dog tag (not a real one, more like a hotel room key) but it has “your” soldier’s information on it, and you can scan it in various places throughout the museum and follow your soldier’s journey through war. The soldiers are genuine men and women whose lives you can follow. 

My fellow was Roy Rickerson, and he did some amazing things during the war. He was born in 1918 in Louisiana and died at the age of 82, in the same parish he was born in. His team, named “Louise” (maybe for Louisiana?) was  responsible for rescuing 21 downed Allied airmen, killing 461 enemy soldiers, wounding 467 and capturing more than 4,000. His whole story was fascinating and made the experience much more personal and emotional. 

Anyhow. After you get your dog tag, you go to the depot and get on a train, which was an original troop car, and while it didn’t really go anywhere, you felt like it did as it bounced and shook, and a film strip outside the windows showed the countryside passing by. Very cool.

When you arrive, there are retired servicemen and women who help you decide where to go, I think a lot of your choice is time-dependant, I mean this place is HUGE, multiple levels, a movie theatre, 5 pavilions; the entire complex takes up 6 acres in downtown New Orleans. 

There are arrows on the floor that you follow, that in turn follow the course of the war. There are nooks and crannies everywhere with short videos, artifacts and a lot of immersive exhibits as well. I can’t even explain how absolutely fantastic it was. And other than the faint sounds of the videos, it was completely silent. There are signs asking for silence throughout. 

Most of the small rooms with videos were empty, but there were occasionally older men in uniform just sitting there, staring at the screen, and some younger men with service dogs as well.  It sort of broke me.

The various battles each had an area that was designed to give a sense of what it was like.

The above picture shows the amount of soldiers each country had at one point. Each of those little men is equivalent to 3,000 servicemen! I had no idea that the Germans and Japanese had so many, compared to the USA.

One area had an average American home of that time, you could walk through the house and almost feel like you lived there. 

Above and below pictures are in the entrance hall.

Above is the hall for Guadalcanal and below is a bombed bunker.

Below, all the videos were only 4 or 5 minutes long, and all were extremely informative and interesting.

Each room had the short film, then an immersive area, then displays.

The only room that was different and that we didn’t linger in was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was just one large, dark hall, with a screen showing the horrible events of those days. Just black and white clips of children burned and crying, people in shock, the empty cities, the devastation. It was really emotional. I’m not sure what music was playing ever so faintly in the background, but it tugged the heartstrings for sure. 

Anyhow. There was so much more to see, areas of the Japanese internment, Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and other atrocities. Of course the ending areas showed the celebrations and joy at the end of the war, but the earlier areas were quite a hard thing to see, in many ways, but I do think everyone should go, if possible. I’m so glad we went. 

We were a little bit quiet as we got back on our Hop-On bus and continued on to The French Market and Jackson Square. 

 

New Orleans Part 10

 After the cemetery tour, we walked back over to the ticket office and saw a few of the Hop-On Hop-Off buses parked there, as that is where they originate from each day. The thought of walking back to the hotel in this heat just seemed like an exhausting idea, so we decided to buy tickets for the bus and take the full tour. 

We found a shady spot up top, and it was such a treat to just sit back and enjoy the narrative and see some new sights. It’s an hour and half for the complete tour and takes you to quite a few places, and the guide was extremely interesting to listen to. Some of the places we had already walked to and/or seen on the streetcar, but it also drove through Marigny-Bywater, Treme, all down Magazine Street, through the Superdome area and through the Riverfront/French Market/Jackson Square area. It was really fun. There are 19 stops in all. The driver said that one restaurant he recommended was The American Sector, by the WW2 museum, and once we did the whole route, we just stayed on for another half circuit and then got off at the museum for a lunch.

It was a very cool place (literally and figuratively), set up cafe-style and filled with a lot of men who you could tell were veterans. The service was top notch (honestly, is no one ever cranky in this city?). I had a shrimp po’boy which was completely different than the one I had at Bourbon House, but equally delicious. (As did Steven)

The bill came with 4 Tootsie Roll candies, and the note explained why (above) (which I did not know)

You know, every single thing I read about the WW2 Museum and every single person I talked to said “Go!” “Go!! It’s unbelievable” “Worth every penny”. I ran into a German woman in the bathroom of the American Sector, and she desperately urged me to go. She said she cried through most of it. (She told me she was German, her father was in the war, on the other side I’m assuming, we didn't get into details) and she hadn’t been sure she would be comfortable in there, but she said everyone should go. Everyone. I just didn’t know if I wanted to or not. I do love museums, but…I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it. We walked inside the admission area and I was so undecided, and we decided to pass. 

On the way out, who did we run into but Todd and Colleen..the couple that we spent time with at the Barrett-Jackson auction! What are the chances? We had a little visit with them, and then the Hop-On Hop-Off came down the road, so we hopped on and headed back to the hotel for a freshen-up. 

We decided to walk down to the riverfront to see where the boats for the evening jazz & dinner cruise left from, and to see if we could find a restaurant called “Coterie” that a local had told us was worth eating at. 

The docking area was easy to find (for tomorrow’s adventure) and the Coterie was only about a 10-15 minute walk from there. I had a bowl of seafood gumbo, and Steven had shrimp & Tasso pasta. My server brought me salted crackers and told me that I must put them in it, and I really didn’t want to….crackers in soup are abhorrent to me (ugh…gobs of sogginess) but he was watching me anxiously. So I did, and of course he was right and I was wrong and it was delicious! All these wasted years….

After this, we were full and tired, and decided to just walk home. There was a cooking school just up the street where they were making pralines , so we stopped there for a bit and checked out the spices and cooking goodies, then “surprise”…we were back on Bourbon Street. It’s like it’s seducing us! We people watched a bit and headed home in the darkness. I sure like this place.