Here are some pictures as we were driving in.
A cool bridge on the way in.
I believe this is part of the Metairie Cemetary. These make me think of the movie Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd.
A pic of the downtown skyline.
The first thing we did was go to the National WWII Museum. I was thinking that there was no way the museum would be able to live up to my expectations after going to the museums in Europe but it was pretty good. We had to go through it pretty quickly since we wanted to make it to a parade that afternoon. That's always hard for me because I like to read everything, hehe.
The front of the museum. There is a 45 minute video you can see that is supposed to be really good but we didn't have enough time for it.
A tank. I imagine this is one used in the war but it could be a replica too.
We couldn't use flash in the museum so most of the photos came out really blurry. I decided to put this one up anyways because it shows the amount of troops the United States and Germany had before the war. There are tiny little soldiers in each box. It's crazy to think how many more they had than us. We did have much more than this by the time we went over there but it just goes to show how much more prepared for war they were than us.
Stars that women would put in the window to show that their husbands or sons were in the war.
Copper was really important for the phone lines that soldiers used in the war so they had to start making pennies out of a different metal.
Also blurry but these are a lot of posters trying to convince men to enlist.
This is a model of what the water and air would have looked like for the Normandy invasion. So many ships and planes.
Propaganda from the war in the Pacific. It's kind of sad how demeaning a lot of the posters are that were displayed in the states. There was also hardly a mention of the Internment Camps that Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants were forced into.
After finishing up at the museum we started walking towards the parade route. It was about a mile away from the museum so we figured it would just be easier to walk than look for parking again. We stopped for a quick lunch at Subway since we were running out of time. It was starting to get pretty sunny and hot outside so we were lucky to find a spot to watch the parade under a tree. It was really crowded but we still had a pretty good view. The floats were huge and pretty elaborate. There were also lots of parade walkers that were very boisterous. It was a family friendly parade but there was still lots of drinking going on, even by the people in the parade!
Some cool houses on the way to the parade.
Parade Walkers. It seemed like all the parade walkers were men's groups.
They were all carrying these sticks with flowers on them to hand out to spectators.
All the floats were really big and painted up all nice.
A band of police officers.
I wonder how they make these "hood ornaments."
Not sure what group this was for but they had an interesting figure on their float.
You can see the cabbage in this photo. Occasionally they would throw the cabbages instead of beads. They also threw out random things like cups, candy, frisbees, and even packets of chips and carrots lol.
A frog float. You can see all the people on the balcony in the background too.
Watch out for the cabbage! Most of the people throwing them were good at making sure someone was looking. It's a good thing too because those are heavy!
I wonder how many hours go into putting these floats together.
I love the way they marked the streets. They had regular street signs too but this was a nice touch.
There was so much trash everywhere!
More houses on the way back to the car.
Around 2:30 we decided to walk back to the car and head to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. It was pretty interesting finding parking since we didn't want to be too close to all the action but we found a parking garage that was pretty close to everything we wanted to see. We walked along Bourbon Street for awhile before heading to the St. Louis Cathedral. It was about 3:45 and there was an event going on at the church and it wouldn't be available for sight seeing until 4. We were really close to Cafe Du Monde so we decided to head over there for Beignets. The line was really long and after some investigation I discovered they only took cash and we didn't have any. We decided to go back to church since it would probably be time to go in. The special event in the church was a wedding. They were just coming out when we walked up. I don't know that I would want to have my wedding at such a famous church because so many people outside were gawking and messing up their pictures. It was really pretty inside but we didn't stay very long. I think we had already met our church quota while we were in Europe.
Bourbon Street!
Balconies and shops along Bourbon Street.
The balconies are so pretty!
The back of St. Louis Cathedral.
Artists and entertainers (fortune tellers, etc.) in front of St. Louis Cathedral. They were basically around all of Jackson Square.
Close up of the cathedral. It is the oldest operating cathedral in the United States. A church was first built here in 1718 and there have been rebuilds and reconstructions about 3 times. The church as it is now was started in 1850.
One of the sites that makes you automatically think of New Orleans.
The ceiling inside the church.
The altar and mural.
The pulpit in the shape of a seashell.
The organ. I think this part was probably the prettiest with the painting all around the organ.
After finishing up at the church we decided to find an ATM so we could get some beignets from Cafe Du Monde. We had to wait in a quite a line but it was worth it. We went back and sat on some benches in Jackson Square to eat. After devouring our beignets (they were delicious!) we wandered around for awhile looking at all the restaurants and shops. We decided to sit down and the best place to do it was near Jackson Square where they had street performers entertaining crowds. They were mostly acrobatic/break dancing kind of performers but they did some pretty cool stuff. Here are some pictures and videos of the street performers.
This guy did like 40 or 50 push ups like that! Crazy!
The church and Jackson Square from where we were sitting.
The same guy who did the crazy push ups jumps over lots of people. Even though they were crouching down it was still pretty cool.
This guy does a crazy moving headstand.
It was getting pretty close to dinner time so we found a restaurant and met up with my friend Lynn and her husband Tony. I met Lynn through RSC in college and loved hanging out with her. Since then I've done a terrible job of keeping in touch but knew since she lives near New Orleans and we would be here it was the perfect time to contact her. We had a good time catching up at dinner and then we headed outside to watch another parade. At first it was just some small cars coming along with people throwing out beads and it we even thought it was over for awhile. We decided to walk further down the street and were happy to see that the parade was still going it just had a large gap. There were plenty of large floats and parade walkers so we got a lot more beads and goodies.
Lynn and I watching the parade after dinner. Loved getting to hear her laugh again :)
When we went out to watch all that was going by were these little fancy cars.
Another car with a fancy paint job.
Really hard to see but these all are old people watching the parade. It was so cute to see all the "Q-tips" hollering for beads.
We were thinking the parade was going to be a dud but when we walked a little further down the street we saw more floats. This one was like a street car.
This lady was getting beads from every single person that walked by. There's no way wearing all that was comfortable. What's she going to do with all of them anyways? Daniel and I didn't get that many but I already know I'm going to end up throwing most of them away.
A float with live music. Most of them just had speakers.
By the time the parade finished it was almost 10 and we still had to drive back to Patterson. We said our goodbyes and started walking back to the car. We ended up walking back along Bourbon Street and it was crazy how crowded it was. We actually ended up seeing parts of the parade again because it was supposed to end on Bourbon Street. I don't think Daniel liked all the crowds walking back but I'm a big people watcher so it was interesting to me to see how everyone was acting. It was still early too so there weren't that many crazy drunk people.
We were exhausted from all the walking around when we got home but we had a wonderful day so it was worth it. There's a lot more to do in New Orleans that we didn't get a chance to see but I'm sure we'll get a chance to go back someday.
If it was this crowded and crazy for St. Patrick's Day, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like during Mardi Gras! Does anyone have any crazy New Orleans stories?
Only 2 more days until we go back to Houston!!!
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