The ferry terminal is directly across the Mississippi river from the downtown area of New Orleans. We caught the next ferry which was just half an hour later and took the short ride across the river. On the ferry we met a nice local man who came across the river earlier this morning for a good meal at a family owned restaurant. I had talked to my brother Brett last night who said we will probably run into people we cannot understand what they are saying and today came pretty close to that. Funny how the accent and unfamiliar terms can really throw you off but we managed through.
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| That is our ferry heading towards us from downtown |
We decided instead of following a Frommer's walking tour from the start we would start at the end which was at Cafe du Monde to have some Cafe au lait and Beignets. We got close to the restaurant and the line was a block long. Luckily it moved pretty quickly and we met a peanut farmer from Georgia in line. He said boiled peanuts were much better in early summer when they are first harvested. Hopefully I did not offend him saying they were not my favorite thing.
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The breakfast was a good one and we have another thing to add to our "we tried these" list. We started to take the walking tour backwards but quickly figured out we did not really care about the spots listed but just wanted to get a feel for the area. We looped back down into the French Market area and then decided it was early enough in the day we would go and visit the World War II National Museum which we had heard about from a gentleman we met aboard the USS Alabama earlier in the week.
The walk was over a mile and the kids did pretty good but were happy to arrive. We were not sure how appropriate the museum would be for the kids but we took a chance and paid the dues. The first thing we did was a film/documentary that Tom Hanks put together. It is shown on basically an IMAX screen but also has motion and visual effects to enhance the story. For example, when they talk about the tank warfare in Northern Africa, they show the tanks coming right at you and rumble your seat to make you feel like you are more part of the story. This was not Skylar's favorite thing with all of the loud noises but he did pretty good through it.
Afterwards we explored the museum. There was alot of great history in there and there were parts that were not appropriate for the youngest kids. I went ahead as scout and figured out which parts we should rush through with eyes covered. Brighton helped me out and he experience some of the horror of the pictures of war. He commented at one point that it was making him feel sick and I responded that I was glad he felt that way. If he did not and war images did not affect him then I would be worried. The museum has alot of text to read in the displays so we did not spend the time that we could have exploring but we got to see enough to make the visit worthwhile.
We walked back to the ferries stopping along the way in the RiverWalk mall and getting to see two big cruise ships that were docked and then left during our time on the downtown side of the city. We hopped the ferry back to the other side of the river and I had researched a spot to pick up some local type food. We stopped and Stacey got a Shrimp Po Boy and Brighton and I got Muffulettas. The rest of the family was not so adventuresome. We took the food back to the trailer so we could let Heidi out and feed her and then we ate dinner. I think the verdict was the Muffulettas were better than the Po Boy.
It was a good but tiring day. Hard to believe the weekend is already over!
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