The French Quarter offers it all. Bars, restaurants, haunted houses and shops galore. I have been there twice, for a total of just about 2 weeks and I still feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.
We were only moving a little over an hour down the road from Baton Rouge so we felt like we had a lot of time to mosey around, have dinner and hit our first tour (the haunted tour) upon arriving. Boy, were we wrong! We wandered a bit, I bought a few things and then we were scrambling for someplace to eat. We found a popular place but I left hungry (shocking) so we found a phenomenal bar that also had tapas (yay for me!) and got ready for our haunted ghost tour.
Our tour guide was super funny and very impressive with his knowledge of all things haunted. There are so many haunted places in NOLA and so much history, I'm sure it takes a lot of studying to learn it all. We had a fabulous time and even got to stop on our "break" for a Hurricane! Yummy! Apparently "American Horror Story" bases their shows on stories out of the FQ and if that's true, I never want to see it! Yikes! ;)
The next day we took it easy and marveled at how being a tourist in a city while staying in a hotel room vs. staying in your home is much different. Being in your home you wake up, have a leisurely breakfast, peruse social media ;) and then finally get ready. Because of this we didn't get to the National WWII Museum until around noon. By then the lines were incredibly long, the 2 featured movies were sold out so we decided to wait until another day. Instead we went to Mardi Gras World which is the place where they make the floats for the various Mardi Gras parades AND they provide the cows for Chick Fill A's billboards. We learned so much from this tour. We used to think Mardi Gras parades only happened on Mardi Gras but we soon found out there is about a 2 week season called "Festival" that happens before actual Mardi Gras when all the parades happen . We have put this on our bucket list and will be back one day to experience the whole shebang.
The next day we did a food tour. We were so excited for this since it's food (DUH!) and because the last time we did it, it was phenomenal. We were a little disappointed in this one but we did learn a lot about NOLA since our guide is a native and never left NOLA for the first 40 years of her life. Can you imagine?? Did you know as the various ships enter into the port of NOLA there is a River Boat Captain that has to board the vessel coming in and navigate the bend in the Mississippi River that leads into NOLA? This is a job that has been handed down for generations from father to son and so on. I found it a bit odd that Navy Admirals nor Merchant Marine Captains can get this job, you have to be born into it. Especially at $400,000+/ per year. Definitely odd.
The next day we were looking forward to our cemetery tour and were not disappointed. They bury their dead above ground. The Catholic and VooDoo religions are very intertwined here thanks to a lady named Marie Laveau. We learned all about her on our tour and if you ever want to be heavily engrossed in a story, definitely look her up. She may end up being one of my heroes. ;)
Our last day was spent at the WWII Museum We had been before about 5 years ago but boy has it changed! They have added buildings and exhibits and stories and on and on. We could have spent all day there and still not have seen everything. They are in the process of adding even more and we look forward to visiting again and watching the progress of this spectacular place. It is only fitting that we honor those that sacrificed so much for the rest of us to enjoy a life of freedom that we do today. Being a from a Navy family though I still have to say, GO NAVY!! :)
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