We had a bit a late start though. We HAD to find a Taco Bell so we could try their new Pacific Shrimp tacos. Great success! And Dan had to put our spare tire on. I guess somewhere along the way, we got a bald spot on one of our tires thanks to our sucky brake controller. That spare is ugggggggggly. We really need to upgrade that piece soon. And get that bald tire fixed too.

Before we knew it, we left Louisiana a.k.a “The worst roads in the US… yes even worse than in Los Angeles” and crossed over to Mississippi, the self-proclaimed birthplace of America’s music. Really? So I wiki’d it and found that it just might be the birthplace after all. I found out that Mississippi is where the Blues, Rock ’n Roll and Country music were born. From blues legends Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and B.B. King to the King of Rock ’n Roll, Elvis Presley, to the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers. But I think it should be called “Birthplace of America’s Music and Oprah!” Sounds much better to me. And I also found out that Mississippi is ranked worst in the country for picking up their roadside litter. I didn’t notice any litter off of the highway but I did notice people pulled over randomly off of the freeway. At first I thought there were lots of  broken down cars in this state but then I saw a dude dressed from head to toe in camouflage. Hmmmm. I think we will just drive right on thru, Mississippi. Nice seeing ya!

The kids did great in the car. Ava is content watching her little DVD player. And Mila is actually handling the car rides in the daytime a lot better. Maybe it has something to do with her advances (deliberate grabbing and sitting) combined with the slew of toys she can now interact with while in her car seat.  So after a bunch of miles under our belt, it was time to visit state #3 of the day. Alabama, the beautiful.

We decided to make Mobile, Alabama as our stop of the day. The Battleship Memorial Park to be exact. It’s actually our third day this week doing World War II stuff but I couldn’t find anything else on the way… so war stuff it is.

The warship here is the USS Alabama. Duh! But did you know how awesome this thing is? The USS Alabama saw 37 months of active duty during World War II, earning nine Battle Stars. The “Mighty A” as she came to be known, safely carried her crew throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean campaigns, and NEVER suffered any casualties or significant damage due to enemy fire.

As soon as we got on the ship, Dan pretended to shoot down enemy planes… with his purse man-bag in tow.

Then we were able to go onto the ship and were greeted by Captain Ava. Welcome aboard!!

You get to explore all the rooms of the USS Alabama on your own. Most of the rooms have props that allow you to get a better sense of how things looked during the war.

There were tons of memorabilia there too. Like this tattered 48 state American Flag.

They had a huge hanger filled with old planes and helicopters too. The damage suffered at the hands of Hurricane Katrina were pretty devastating but they did a great job with repairing these antiques.

There were lots of ooh’s and ahh’s from Dan. He could probably tell you something awesome about this plane but since today is my post day, all you are going to get is this… Look at this plane. The wings fold up!

But I did read the plaque about this guy. It’s an A-12. And it is literally faster than a speeding bullet. This sucker can fly 3800 feet per second.

The Battleship Memorial Park also houses a submarine. The USS Drum is the oldest American submarine on display in the world.

You get to walk through all the rooms of this thing too. But it’s even better for the kids because nothing is roped off. I’m not sure if that means you can climb up on things but we did. Here are the bunk beds, or as Ava calls them, up-and-down beds.

And here are Mila and I squeezing through the tiny doors of the sub.

And inspecting the engine rooms.

Check this out! A replica of one of the first submarines ever made.

And tanks galore.

Bye USS Alabama.

Thanks for kicking ass during the war!

Then it was off to find a place to eat some dinner. Driving through one of the tree-lined main streets in Mobile, we got to see beautiful home after beautiful home. Reminding me of some of the houses we saw in New Orleans’ Garden District but with a small town feel. It also feels like we are going to see Forrest Gump’s house any second too. I need to figure out where that movie was filmed.

We actually found parking a block and a half from the popular Dauphin Street and began our search for dinner.

We ended up at Heroes Sports Bar & Grille. The food is soooo good here. Dan ordered a burger and I ordered a pulled pork sandwich. Sooo good. Give it a try if you are in town. There was also a little old lady that sat next to us. She asked us which church we belong to. I told her that we were not from Mobile but were only passing through. She must of thought we were homeless or something because after dinner, she stopped by our table, wished us luck and tried to slip me $2. Oh boy. Maybe we should have showered today! Hehe.

Ava has been complaining of having “tired legs” when we walk around town. But if you ask her if she can run, she always says yes. Not sure what that is about. But this is how she gets a lift these days. On Dada’s shoulders. On the way back to the Airstream, Ava started to stare at a closed down restaurant. She told us all about how there is a party going on in there… with lots of people and kids…

…but when we looked in the restaurant, there wasn’t a person in sight. OUR LITTLE GHOST HUNTER IS BACK!! Yeah!!!!

The kids were then put into their pajamas as we hit the road again. Next stop Florida! This is the state line picture. Trust me. I worked hard to get this black picture. Hehe. It’s my best one yet

the end,

marlene

We drove the 10 miles into town today and found a nice place to eat some breakfast before we started our day. Most of the restaurants don’t open until 11am since they don’t serve breakfast. The place we ate at happens to have a great breakfast menu and we stuffed our faces with jambalaya and pulled pork omelets while Ava had a short stack of pancakes with real maple syrup that tasted like it was made out of beignets. Yum.

We headed over to Jackson Square because we were determined to take Ava on a horse carriage tour. She is less interested in the tour than she is in riding in a carriage like one of her favorite princesses Cinderella.

Right in front of Jackson Square is where the carriages line up and takes people on hour-long tours that is actually very informative and educational on the history of the city.

Jackson Square is named after Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States.

Before he was the president, he was the governor of Florida and the commander of the battle of New Orleans. The Battle of New Orleans was the final battle fought of the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain.The British troops had intended on invading Louisiana which the United States had acquired from France with the Louisiana Purchase a few years ago. The battle actually took place after a peace treaty had already been signed but as they didn’t have Facebook or Twitter back in those days, they did not get the news until months later.

The tour we went on was a hour long and took us through pretty much all of the French Quarter and also the Catholic cemetery.

One of the most famous voodoo women in the history of New Orleans is a woman named Marie Laveau. She is rumored to have been buried in one of the the tombs in the cemetery that the Catholic church owns near the French Quarter. Legend has it that if you visit her tomb and draw three Xs on it and make a wish, through the power of her voodoo, it will come true. If you wish indeed comes true, you are then obligated to come back to her tomb and leave a gift. People usually bring things like flowers, bottles of rum or even cash. It had gotten so out of hand and the city has since banned the practice.

Since this cemetery is owned by the Catholic church, only Catholics are allowed to be buried here. Even so, you can only be buried here if you already belong to a family or a society that has an existing tomb. This one here is owned by the Italian society and has something like 3,500 bodies buried in it over many many years.

The only way for someone to get a new tomb built here these days, is to donate a ‘sizable’ amount to the Catholic church.

Which is what actor Nicolas Cage apparently has done. He is in the process of building a pyramid-shaped tomb here as his eternal resting place. I guess he was really pleased with his performance in National Treasure that he thought it would symbolize him in the afterlife.

Unfortunately someone else did not thing much of his pyramid. There was an empty bag of Doritos someone had left him as a souvenir.

Nicolas Cage at one point owned a couple of the biggest mansions in the French Quarter. Through some shady accounting and probably poor records keeping, he racked up a bill with the IRS of over 7 million bucks. They eventually seized the 2 mansions from him and sold them at auction to cover his back taxes. One of the mansions is said to be the most haunted building in town. The originally owner had tortured many of her slaves in the top floor and their spirits have lingered ever since.

Near the cemetery, is the area called Storyville close to where Jazz legend Louis Armstrong was born and raised. It was the red-light district of his days. During the first World War, the government shut down its brothel operations because many of the navy servicemen were going AWAL amongst a number of other reasons.

Most of the buildings in the French Quarter are of Spanish Colonial design and made of bricks. Even though many of the original buildings were wooden and of French origin, much of it burned down during some of the major fires in the late 1700′s. This building here is the only surviving building from the French era. During the ghost tours, it is said that the third floor of the building is where the vampires live. That is if you believe in that kind of thing.

As we wound down towards the end of the tour, we drove by this house. Most of the houses in the French Quarter consists of the main house, the courtyard in the back and the original slave quarters behind it. Back in the day, the streets were often so filthy that houses looked into its own courtyards rather than to the street. if you paid attention to the houses in town, most of them have carriage ways that look right into beautifully decorated courtyards right inside of them. This one is no different. The only difference is that this is now owned by the celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie along with the 10,000 children. OK, maybe it’s only 7 but who’s counting. They were not in town during this time because there were no bodyguards in the front of the building which is the telltale sign of their presence.

Another interesting thing about the horse carriage tour is that New Orleans has outlawed the use of horses on these tours. The summer seasons are too hot and too inhumane for horses to endure the labor so now all of the tours are done by mules who are better suited for the job.

Here is our tour guide showing Ava how to give the mule his favorite food, the carrot.

Meanwhile, I was on my way to get my favorite food from New Orleans, The Shrimp Po Boy. And Johnny’s makes the best po boys in town.

Marlene could not be out done by me and proceeded to hunt down another delicacy of her own.

The mint julep. She had been wanting one ever since the beginning of our visit and it was the last item to check off of our list before heading out of here tomorrow.

On the way back to our campsite, we stopped to check out a place our friends Claire and Daniel had told us about. It was an RV Resort within walking distance to the French Quarter called the French Quarter RV Resort. I know, they really took a chance there with the name.

It is nice but pretty much what you would expect. A fenced-in parking lot with RVs inches away from each other. Even though it does have some nice amenities like a spa and a club house, we just could no justify the $70 a night or $400 a week we would have spent to stay there. It just doesn’t make sense since we will not be taking advantage of the night life in town and we actually enjoy being away from the action to relax and soak in the nice weather this time of year.

When we got back to the campsite, Ava got a call from her Uncle Deets (Marlene’s brother David) who played her favorite song via Skype that she learned last year during her swimming class at the YMCA: The More We Get Together.

Tomorrow, we pack up and head across 3 states to Florida.

over and out,
dan

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t worry. There were no tears. I over packed the van for days just like these. The girls hung out in the bedroom playing with the baby jungle gym.

Art supplies were scattered all around the floor. Mila got to practice her sitting skills. And post cards (from Arizona!) were finally sent out. Better late than never.

Ava also got to use the dust buster much to her delight. It’s so strange but this kid loves cleaning. I can not take out any cleaning related items without her asking to help out.

And last but not least, we got to enjoy the lovely Bayou Segnette State Park. The weather surely did change with the rain. It actually warmed up! And the humidity kicked in on overdrive. I felt like I was on vacation today. The weather. Oh the weather. I could not love it more.

And we walked on the these wooden planks through the swamp. Or is it a marsh? Or wetlands? Maybe a bayou? Hmmmm. Let’s all agree to call it with what Ava calls it. A spooky forest.

At the end of the spooky forest path, there is a tall fallen tree that seems to have been this way for a bit. One of the ladies in the FREE! laundry room (did I mention it is FREE!) who happens to be a Louisiana native, told me that one of the major landscape changes she’s noticed in New Orleans is that a lot of the larger trees are gone. It makes me wonder if Katrina knocked this one down with her strong winds.

Lots of the trees here have their roots above ground. I’m sure it has something to do with the swampy conditions and humidity but I can’t tell you for sure. But it sure makes for a pretty picture. And sure adds to the ‘spooky forest’.

Nerd Alert. Bird nerd alert to be more exact. Say hello to the American White Ibis. Wading in the wetlands right behind our Airstream.

Once the thunder, lightening and rain let up, we wandered over to the seafood open air market adjacent to the state park. There were lots of different vendors to choose from, hocking all types of seafood: crawfish, crabs, shrimp, fish, and even a few more types of meat that I care not to mention.

Ava kept her distance from the booth but not because of the strong fish smell. But because lots of people like to decorate with scary crocodile heads. Dan was brave enough to walk up and pay for some fresh tilapia and shrimp.

And Dan made a fantastic meal for us. See. Food.

And Ava devoured half of the tilapia all by herself. Seriously.

Alright, time for Mila to take out the trash. Start them young, I say.

the end,
marlene

First stop, Lafayette Cemetery #1.

This cemetery is one of the oldest in the city limits of New Orleans. It is owned by the city and dates back nearly 180 years. This cemetery was used as a shooting location for Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire as well as many other movies shot in New Orleans. Since it is owned by the city, movies are still allowed to use it as a location versus some of the other cemeteries owned by the churches who have since banned filming in them.

All of the cemeteries in New Orleans have above ground tombs. Since most of New Orleans is either at sea level or below, it is actually a good thing. Apparently they learned this the hard way when caskets would push themself above ground after being buried.

In these cemeteries, there are no limit in how many bodies can be entombed inside each tomb. The only limitation is that each body has to wait 366 days before another one can be placed. Since it gets so hot and humid here, the city wanted to have the bodies go through at least one full summer for proper decomposition to take place before they can be reopened. These tombs are usually owned by families who bury generations of deceased into each one. Some other bigger tombs can also be owned by societies that might have upwards of hundreds, sometimes thousands of bodies in each tomb.

As we walked about the cemetery, we found some tombs to actually be empty. This one has either been emptied for some reason or is owned by a family who has yet to bury anyone in it.

This one on the other hand is in the process of getting the stone replaced that covers the opening. I peaked inside real quick and saw a casket. Unfortunately, no sign of vampires.

Since we were here again in the Garden District, we were jonesing to go back to Juan’s Flying Burrito on Magazine street. Of all the places we have ate at so far in New Orleans, it stood out of one of the better lunch spots.

Marlene loved her Al Pastor burrito so much last time, she ordered it again. Me on the other hand, decided to try something new. The Kamehameha Nachos. It has everything you would expect on a plate of loaded nachos plus they added some flavors of the islands with delicious ingredients like mango chunks. We ate so much we almost had to be carried out of there again.

If you read yesterday’s post, you should know where we were headed next. World War II Museum. Except this time, we didn’t have to walk 2 miles to get there. It turns out that we made a wise decision to have our car here today. Rain was in the forecast and it had started sprinkling when we got done with lunch.

Outside of the WWII Museum, much of the brickwork that surrounds the building has veteran’s names engrave on them. I don’t know how many there are but probably in the 10′s of thousands of bricks.

The museum is a 3 story tall building that houses one of the largest WWII memorabilia collections in the world. It is set up into 2 sections separating the European/African theater of operations and the other side the Pacific theater. Many of the items in the museum have been donated by veterans of the war and some others are reproductions of the original.

Many people might wonder why the National World War II Museum would be located in New Orleans. I know I did. There are a couple of reasons for that. For one, the famous D-Day landing craft made so famous in movies like Saving Private Ryan that touched down on the beaches of Normandy were designed and built right here in New Orleans. Some people say that victory would not have been possible if wasn’t for them. Even Hitler was aware of the New Orleans native who designed the craft, Andrew Higgins. Hitler’s nickname for him was ‘The American Noah’.

The other reason is because one of the biggest WWII buffs in the world made New Orleans home. He is the founder of the museum and most of you would know him as the author of the book made popular by the HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers. Of course that person is Dr. Stephen Ambrose. He was a professor at the University of New Orleans and is considered the foremost expert in World War II history. Dr. Ambrose died in 2003 but his legacy lives on both in his books, movies, and as well as this museum.

The 88mm ground-to-air German gun is one of the guns what would have been used in D-Day to shoot down Allied planes bringing the paratroopers behind enemy lines. It was a fearsome weapon that was also used in disabling tanks in the field by the Germans.

The museum is designed to give the visitor a chronological view of how the war began for the United States. Even a bona fide WWII buff will surely learn a new thing or two through the exhibits.

Here is Ava checking out some steel pennies that were minted during the war in order for the government to save the copper for the war efforts.

Inside the museum you will find a full size replica of a German lookout tower that would have peered over the beaches of Normandy. A giant spotting scope was used in conjunction with another across the beach in order for the Germans to calculate firing position for the guns that pounded the Allied boys as they tried to make their way up.

From the beach, it looked just like a little concrete box with a narrow window spanning across the front. In reality, these lookout towers were over 4 stories high. The Germans built these defenses all along the Atlantic coast line in its occupied countries as they anticipated the Allied attack.

One of the things I did not know was the decoys that were used in the planning of the D-Day attack. As the Germans were anticipating an attack, the Allied forces placed inflatable trucks, tanks and boats along a secondary staging point in order to throw the Germans off of our scent. Even fake radio communications were sent out for the Germans to intercept. In the largest military operations ever in the history of warfare, Operation Overlord was a do-or-die plan that started the invasion of Europe.

In the other section of the museum, the war in the Pacific was the focus of the exhibit. This side of the war is often over-shadowed by the battles fought in Europe. Aside from the first atom bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima that ended the war, many of the stories about the Pacific War are not well known by many of the American public as compared to the battles fought in the west.

Some of the displays in the museum were designed to give the visitors are short but concise overview of the events it represents. The museum curators did an amazing job in making the exhibits interesting and engaging. Lots and lots of memorabilia are on display that really gives the visitors a hands-on perspective on what the soldiers would have used during the war.

Here is a display of what the American soldiers would have carried on them in the Pacific theater as compared to what the Japanese soldiers carried.

The exhibit also showed a much more gruesome part of the war in the Pacific that is so graphic, there are warning signs outside of the building warning the parents of the display. The Japanese military in WWII adopted a samurai style of battle named ‘bushido’ that created a violent style of warfare based in honor and loyalty. It is the root of the kamikaze style of fighting that put the Japanese fighter pilots on the map in Pearl Harbor as their suicide missions cause much casualties that fateful day.

The Japanese were so despised in America during the war, there were anti-Japanese posters such as this one above on display in many places that would never be deemed acceptable today.

The entire museum probably is a 3-hour ordeal if you wish to soak in every aspect of the exhibit. We got to there today around 3pm so we had to rush through towards the end as they close each day at 5pm.

Much to Ava’s delight, we got the boot promptly at 5pm. She had enough of the place long before we were kicked out at closing time. The only other museums we had taken her to before this one were Children’s Museums where she basically got to play with toys. She hung in there with us for the most part but definitely spent a good amount of time on the floor bored out of her mind.

over and out,
dan

After awhile on the streetcar, our driver didn’t seem to be saying much. And then all of a sudden we were far from where we needed to be. And when she did speak up, it was to tell us that this was the end of the line and we needed to get off of her streetcar. Say what? Grumble grumble. So we all got out, watched her shut her doors and began waiting for a new streetcar. Not a minute later, the same driver opened her doors and yelled for us to get in. WTF. Someone needs a new job. So we start rolling back in the direction we came from and eventually got to our transfer point. I’m not even going to complain about how long she made us wait while she slowly walked to the store to buy herself some snacks. Don’t get me started.

As we walk towards our first destination of the day, the Lafayette Cemetery #1, we notice closed gates and people peering through them. Closed on Sundays. Ahhhhh! Today is not our day I guess.

We all had grumbling stomachs so we decided to check out this recommended restaurant, Commander’s Palace, which happened to be right across the street. But they were booked. I guess no mint julep for me today. Again. But it was probably a good thing because it looked a bit too fancy and Dan forgot to wear his sports coat today since it didn’t match his beloved flip flops.

So we walked and walked and got to see some truly beautiful homes.

We ended up back on Magazine Street just blocks away from our burrito destination from yesterday at a place called Gott Gourmet Cafe. And you know what? We picked another winner. Dan finally got some gumbo he’s been craving and Ava and I pigged out on sandwiches with homemade french fries.

And then we hit the road again. And passed beautiful homes after beautiful homes…

… here in the Garden District of New Orleans.

But the walk was not easy. The sidewalks sucked as much as the streets. Poor Ava almost flipped out of her stroller several times thanks to all the potholes and rough patches. Good thing she loves wearing seat belts.

We somehow made all the right turns to end up at the spot that Dan has been most looking forward to all day. The National World War 2 Museum.

And me? I wasn’t really looking forward to it… but when I walked in I was floored by this room. Hmmm, this might not be so bad after all.

There was a old veteran dude there that talked Dan’s ear off (much to his delight) about these landing crafts. And how he spent every Saturday for the past 3 years working on building it for this museum.

And then there was Ava. Who was expecting all museums to be Children’s Museums. The old veteran dude could tell she was getting antsy so he gave her permission to take the stage. And she gladly did.

Ava performed a dance show for everyone around. And for her little sister too.

And Mila ate it all up. Her shrieks and giggles echoed through the building.

And each performance ended with hugs… and a few giggles from the audience too.

We actually got to the museum a hour or so before closing time and decided that it was too much to see and take in with so little time left. So we just checked out this free bottom floor and decided to come back again tomorrow for the more intense stuff. So Ava got to run some more.

And Dan got to check out all the tanks and other war stuff that I know nothing about it. Correction: That I know a little about thanks to this museum.

After a few minutes, another little boy decided he had enough and needed to run. So these two ran and ran some more… while all the parents sat and sat some more.

We then walked back to the French Quarter to get a little snack. Can you say Cafe Beignet?

Finally. A planned activity that actually went our way today. Yes!

And within 10 minutes, the workers closed up shop while we were finishing up our treats. How’s that for timing! We couldn’t exit through the front doors when it was time to leave so we had to use the side entrance. And where did the side entrance path led us? Right to the front steps of the police department! LOL. Cops and donuts.

The sun was setting and we needed to get back home to our Airstream, the Mali Mish. We passed by some fabulous little boutique hotels.

And got a little reminder of the drink I have yet got a chance to try.

And back on the ferry, my kid showed us that she is not tired one bit after all that museum running. Oh wait a second. Maybe it was all that powdered sugar she just wolfed down for dinner. Bad parents!

Why are we so happy to be back at the parking lot? Because we see New Orleans in the background? Nope. Because it was a beautiful sunset? Nope. Because our car was not stolen? You got it!

Back at camp, we figured out that we actually walked four miles today. Wha what? And Mila has the red cheeks to prove it from the baby carrier.

Not sure if you’ve noticed but for the past couple days, we have had orbs on all of our pictures. Yup, ghosts. Like this one on our cat. But who am I kidding, it has to be scratch, right? WRONG! It’s not a ghost. It’s not a scratch. It’s POWDERED SUGAR! From the beignets! From like two days ago! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Awe. Some.

the end,
marlene