Road trip east

I think I've covered the high spots of our time in New Orleans, but since I got there the old-fashioned way—feeling every mile along the road—the journey also afforded some photo opps and associated stories.

The trip there was taken exclusively on IH-10. The stretch between San Antonio and Houston I'm very familiar with, including the new state-of-the-art rest area near Columbus that you see on the right here. There are two of these spiffy parks now in this stretch of highway and they make it so easy and pleasant to break up the drive and take care of biological necessities. One even has wifi so you can tweet your progress!

After picking up Steve at home and Joan at the Houston airport, we headed on east. IH-10 gives you a blow-by-blow commentary on just how big Texas is with its mile markers. Take a look at the number of this exit sign (on the left) near the Louisiana border with the cookie-sounding towns: it's that far from El Paso. I'm always reminded of a postcard I saw once many years ago that featured this immortal poetry:

"The sun has riz, the sun has set.
And here we iz, in Texas yet."

Even with today's higher speed limits, you know this still could happen.

At any rate, as the sun got lower behind us, we were in Louisiana, fortunately crossing the big bridge at Baton Rouge before it got too dark.

For the trip home, we decided to take a road less traveled, and found our way down to state highway 44, a route that hugs the Mississippi (mostly unseen due to the high levees) and passes some lovely plantations. It takes you through some not-so-lovely scenery, too, though still interesting, like this stretch near Garyville. We thought of some half-remembered unpleasant statistics about public health issues between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It's not hard to believe when you drive past and under structures like this:
However, the route along the river (we crossed the bridge you see above over to state highway 18 on the other side) features other kinds of scenery, too, like sugar cane fields, picturesque cemeteries, and the afore-mentioned plantations. This one, Oak Alley, was the most impressive. I wish we'd had time to take a tour. Maybe on the next trip this way. At any rate, it set the Gone with the Wind music playing in my head—not hard to understand, is it?
As I mentioned, we didn't really get to see as much of the river as I'd hoped. I'd sort of forgotten about the levees, and I certainly didn't expect them to be as high as they were. On the left here is what the river looks like from the top of one, as we we lucky to catch this impressive set of barges when we climbed the levee opposite Oak Alley. A busy river, even on a Sunday morning.

We got to see it, of course, when we crossed those bridges—several along the "Plantation Parade" as well as the big one at Baton Rouge. (By the way, this link will give you more information about all the plantations we saw, plus a few more, and provides a nice map, should you want to take this tour sometime.)

But that's not the only impressive river you see between Houston and New Orleans. Here's a typical shot off the causeway that crosses the Atchafalaya Basin, where the Mississippi really wants to go.
The very informative Tulane Univ. page I linked to above regarding the levee system also has a good explanation of why the Mississippi's still where it is instead of here. If you want to learn more, I heartily recommend John McPhee's book, which is listed on this page's bibliography. That's where I first learned about this fascinating phenomenon. David Brin's novel Earth (which is becoming more and more prescient) deals with the issue in dramatic fashion as well.

Joan got home to Colorado not long after I got home to San Antonio—doubtless a more efficient mode of transport, time-wise. But you do miss the details on the ground.

Wordless Wednesday: a rainy day on campus

Just like Easy Rider...sort of

...except that we went to a different cemetery...and we rode a streetcar instead of motorcycles...and there were no drugs involved....

We took advantage of free time Friday afternoon to cover two New Orleans tourist bases with a trip to the Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District. We thought it would be neat to visit one of the very unusual, haunting New Orleans cemeteries, and we wanted to see some of the beautiful GD homes. The streetcar ride took care of both.

It was impossible not to take a lot of pictures in this place.
What a beautiful, fascinating, and peaceful square block!

I was intrigued by a couple of the structures that used this different kind of rock and mortar technique. Maybe they are older? Or just exhibiting a different style? On the way out of town, at a much larger cemetery, I noticed a few others that looked like this, too.

Obviously, the cemetery isn't a museum, but a living collection of memorials. And some of the dear departed are still fondly remembered.
I wish I knew more about the cemetery to tell you.
But I was content just to enjoy the wall-to-wall photo ops.

Which means this post is mostly pictures.
But I hope you don't mind.

Out and about in New Orleans

As you can tell from this photo, taken in Jackson Square, we were very fortunate with the weather for our New Orleans weekend. It was cool, but not cold, and there was no rain in sight. Hardly even any clouds.

One great advantage to visiting the Big Easy in other than summertime [when the living is easy] is that the weather is conducive to the opening of the characteristic door/windows in the walls of most of the restaurants in the French Quarter. Originally built before air conditioning, most of these picturesque features probably close up and chill down during the hot months.

But we were treated to such nice views as these at Pere Antoine's and Voila, on the left and right, respectively. We ate a late dinner (actually Joan and I had breakfast omelettes) at Pere Antoine's the night we arrived, grateful for its location just a few steps away from our hotel. And Voila lured us in to lunch on Friday, with its fried shrimp sandwich special. I shouldn't have eaten the bread, but it was too yummy. And the shrimp was perhaps the best fried shrimp I've ever had!

Our big dinner Friday night was at Tujague's on Decatur, just a block away from the hotel. The food there was terrific, too, but it was too dark to take a good picture. It is a charming little place, even without the nice window/doors. But, then, Decatur is a busy traffic street and bringing that atmosphere into the place wouldn't be as agreeable as it is on the quieter Quarter rues.

Enough about the food....although it's hard to say too much about it. Bottom line was, we weren't disappointed, and we had very high expectations going in! Even the box lunches the Historical Society served at the World War II Museum on Saturday were scrumptious—how many places can offer that kind of cuisine?!

Our hotel was the wonderfully atmospheric Place D'Armes, right on the Square. What a great location! [Its name comes from the fact that another name for Jackson Square is the Place d'Armes. In San Antonio our former Plaza de Armas is now Main Plaza. Perhaps we really do live in more peaceful times, even though it doesn't always seem that way?] Anyway, here is the entranceway to the hotel's lobby, pictured on the right.

We had lots of fun just ambling around the Quarter, mostly on its quieter streets like the ones around our hotel. Although we did make it over to the Rue Bourbon for a quick visit (Steve spent more time there than his older and more sedate sisters, and has more authentic New Orleans stories to tell as a result.) There were all kinds of funky shops and upscale galleries at street level. Like the one on the left featuring the very popular and almost ubiquitous blue dog image. But looking up you see such lovely domestic architecture as this:


We did venture away from the Quarter a bit, but never far enough to need our car, which rested up from its long trip in the hotel garage the whole time we were there. Part of our transportation needs were met by streetcars. On the left you can see one of the stops in the Garden District, where we made a brief excursion Friday afternoon.

On the right is a glimpse down the main drag of the city, Canal Street, which we had to cross whenever we made the short journey from our lodgings in the Quarter to the neighborhood of the World War II Museum and our Marauder Men colleagues. The tracks you see serve another streetcar line.

We walked between the venues most of the time, which was exercise very much called for, given our larger-than-usual caloric intake during the weekend. But we also rode streetcars (on yet another line) back and forth a few times. It was fun, plus it gave us a chance to see more of the Old Man River himself, as in this photo taken on the embankment near our streetcar stop. Wish we'd had time to take a boat ride!

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You can see more pictures of our adventures on Steve's blog. And I'll have some more for you in a couple of days, highlighting our trip to a Garden District cemetery.

Wordless Wednesday: given enough time....

A belated veterans' salute

The main reason we were in New Orleans when we were was the grand opening of a new section of the World War II Museum there. The Marauder Historical Society was taking advantage of the event to piggyback their annual reunion onto these festivities. Which didn't exactly work as well as we might have liked, but it was still a rewarding and educational weekend. (As you probably know, my father flew 67 missions during the War in B-26 Marauder medium bombers. If you haven't seen his Journal, check it out!)

I had always wondered why New Orleans? for the D-Day Museum that became the National World War II Museum. I found out the reason during the dedication ceremonies. (You can also read the answer in the Museum's FAQ.) The Museum's founder, historian Stephen Ambrose, was a New Orleanian, but even more important is the actual location of the facility in the city.

It's located very near the site of the factory which manufactured "Higgins boats," the landing craft that Eisenhower is said to have credited with "winning the war for us." They made the huge amphibious landings like those on D-Day possible. One of the side streets bounding the Museum property is named Andrew Higgins in honor of the inventor of the boats. What an appropriate place to have a Museum dedicated primarily to the battles (in the Pacific as well as in Normandy) where these boats were so important!

The climax of the ceremony (other than Tom Hanks' entertaining remarks) was a flyover from a nearby airbase. Steve took a video of that you can see here. [Thanks to Steve for pointing out the very obvious way to load videos, but it was taking forever so I went back to just using a link. I'll happily remain a non-multi-media blogger, I guess.]

On the right above is the view of our fellow-bleacher-bums at the dedication. [Making all these vets sit on bleachers for 3 hours in the sun was one of the weekend's logistical foul-ups but it was only mildly inconvenient for us.] And on the left (note the red line) is surprise speaker Mickey Rooney (Tom Hank's appearance—see his picture in my teaser post—was expected, Rooney's wasn't). I had no idea all those many years ago when I enjoyed watching him as Andy Hardy in old movies on TV that he had actually served in the War (although his service came after his Andy Hardy days.)

Friday morning was the dedication, but on Saturday we actually got to tour a bit of the Museum. It's got some really good exhibits, including the one shown on the right, here, that makes it graphically clear how out-manned the U.S. was at the beginning of the War. I want to go back sometime when it's not as crowded as it was on this weekend, and spend more time viewing its varied galleries.

On the left is a shot of one of the new sections of the Museum, the Stage Door Canteen, where they can have cabaret-type shows. It's designed to look like the canteens where GIs were entertained on leave and features photos of movies stars like Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall serving food and danced with the soldiers.

In the photo a large number of vets in our group were waiting to see the other new section of the Museum, the theatre which shows a Cinerama-type movie highlighting important events of the War. The movie was very well-done, and would be particularly good for young people (although not too young—there was some pretty graphic footage) or others not familiar with the War and its tremendous scope and impact. For WWII buffs, though, they left too much stuff out!

The primary reason we wanted to participate in the Historical Society's reunion is to meet some of our Dad's squadron mates, folks who have made contact with us after finding the Journal on the web. There was a large group of Marauder vets at the big meeting; I'm not surprised the reunion hotel put up the sign you can see on the left. The vets and their families looked to us like the only guests there!

The 455th Squadron group was much smaller, though, and we were so happy to get to meet Robert Mims, a good friend of Dad's who was shot down in early 1944 and spent the rest of the War in a German POW camp. Such a horrific experience doesn't seem to have stunted his outlook on life and his sense of humor, however, and we were delighted to get to visit with him. Here's a picture of him with Billy's kids. How we wish Mom and Dad could have been there with us!

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We didn't stay in the reunion hotel, preferring a funkier venue about 10 blocks away in the French Quarter. In my next posts I'll cover some of the fun we had in New Orleans in between reunion events.

Wordless Wednesday: Jackson Square in morning light