Our flight from San Antonio to New Orleans was again uneventful. The TSA seemed to be fully manned and security was a breeze. The “Schumer Shutdown” continues to have zero impact on our travels.
We arrived at our condo and soon met up with our first set of travel partners for Myra’s birthday. There would be 6 to start with, which would turn into 12 of us by the 3rd day.
We ate at the famous Brennan’s, which has been around since 1946. The food was pretty good, and the famous dessert “Bananna’s Foster” that was invented here was a must order! Here is a quick video as our host was preparing the dessert.
A shot of us at dinner. The interior of Brennan’s is beautiful, particularly when it’s being graced by this group!
Here we are on Bourbon street later that night. It actually looks cleaner than I remember, and definitely way less crowded than the last time we were here.
We had to walk pretty far down the street to actually find some jazz music. We ended up at “Fritzel’s Jazz Bar”, the oldest operating jazz bar in New Orleans. It’s located in a historic building from 1831, with the jazz bar opening in 1969. We spent about an hour listening to “Fritzel’s All Stars”, and damn were they good! Here’s a little snippet.
The next morning our group walked 15 minutes south from our condo to the National WWII Museum, an attraction that was built since we were last here in 2002. Anybody that knows me knows I’m a huge WWII history buff, and this is the best WWII museum in the world!
The museum starts with a rather hokey train simulator where you pick up a dog tag of a specific soldier that you can interact with in multiple locations of the museum. Not my thing, but the simulation was interesting.
Likely the most in-depth portion of the museum covers D-Day. The original intent of the museum was to only cover D-Day, but they ended up deciding to cover the entirety of the war. They definitely went out of their way to cover D-Day in exhausting detail. Below is a depiction of a pillbox overlooking Omaha Beach.
This diorama depicts the volume of aircraft and vessels involved in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.
The museum is full of interesting items, this one being “Rupert”, a dummy paratrooper that was dropped in various locations to throw off the Nazi’s as to the actual focus of Normandy. These were dropped complete with uniforms, boots and helmets, as well as with recordings of gunfire and exploding mortar rounds. A few actual paratroopers would drop with them and set off other effects such as flares and chemicals to simulate the smell of exploded shells. The allies really pulled out all the stops to ensure the Nazi’s had no idea where D-Day was actually occurring.
Another interesting item on display was this “Jap Hunting License”, a novelty item that was quite popular shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was actually used as a promotional item for several companies at the time, this one from a printing company in Oxnard, CA.
Below is an actual Western Union telegram sent to the family of Private James A. Sudecz, killed in action in Italy on July 12, 1944. These telegrams were sent out to far too many families.
In the center of the vast museum is a Parade Grounds with numerous statues and interesting architecture. Here is one of the major hero’s of WWII, particularly regarding D-Day, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I really liked the angular design of the various buildings as well as the “Canopy of Peace”, which hangs over the Parade Grounds. Below is Kelly, Myra, Kim and John.
Another view of the Canopy of Peace from the exterior of the museum.
Just outside the museum is this set of statues, called “Lest We Forget: The Mission”. The sculptor, Fredric Arnold, drew from his personal experience flying P-38’s, and was one of the few pilots to survive from his aviation class. Following the war, he vowed to convey the incalculable cost of war and pay tribute to the 88,000 U.S. Airmen killed during WWII. He completed this seven year project at the age of 94, just two years before his death in 2018.
After the museum everybody needed a cocktail and a snack so we headed over to the rooftop bar Rosie’s On The Roof at the adjacent Higgins Hotel. Rosie’s got nothing on Myra!
William got an excellent shot of the city from the rooftop.
On the walk back John decided he wanted to be photographed behind a “Police Line”. Here you go John! Power to the people!
That night we ate at one of the best restaurants in New Orleans, Dakar. It’s also considered the 6th best restaurant in the United States. From left to right; Kim, Tina, Vaughan, Myra, William, Kelly, John and yours truly.
We have to say, it lived up to the hype! It was absolutely amazing! If you come to New Orleans, make sure you book this two months out, when reservations first open up.
Coming up, we take a driving tour of New Orleans, Kim and I head back to the WWII Museum, we take a walking tour of the Garden District and a Ghost Tour of the French Quarter.
So fun!