The Dang's: New Orleans Day 3: Museums, Christmas Lights, and Streetcar Frustration

On Black Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to Canal Street to get on the St. Charles Streetcar. We bought the one day pass as we would be taking it a few times that day (pays for itself after two rides).

The streetcar was already there, so we were lucky (we didn't realize this until later when we weren't so lucky), and took it over to the National World War II Museum.

This museum is done very well. We started in the Atlantic Theater section and learned a lot about the war in Europe including a huge section on D-Day and Victory in Europe Day. Throughout the exhibit, there were little side rooms that had short videos; we took advantage of most of these. However, there was so much information that by the time we got to the Pacific Theater section, we were ready to be done. We completely skipped the building with the Boeing Center and movie Beyond All Boundaries (cost extra and was over an hour long).

You may be wondering, as we were, why the National World War II Museum would be in New Orleans of all places. Here's why -

We were there from 9:30-12:30, and left just as it was getting crowded. If we had more time, it would have been interesting to check out the (Confederate) Civil War Museum across the street.

We took the streetcar back to Canal Street, and walked down to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. The aquarium was okay. It seemed a little rundown, and it didn't help that there were tons of running around screaming and getting fingerprints all over the glass on all the tanks (though they didn't look like they'd been cleaned in a while). We were only there for an hour, and could have skipped it.

We saw some huge catfish,

Lionfish,

"Nemo" clownfish and sea anemone,

and an Albino alligator!

I loved watching the penguins,

and the fish with bulgy eyes that reminded me of Chester.

By 2, we were quite hungry, so we walked over to have lunch at Johnny's Po-Boys. The place was packed with a line out the door. We stuck it out though, and were rewarded with delicious food. Johnny's almost has an overwhelming variety of po'boys to select from. Adam choice a fried oyster po'boy, while I had a fried catfish po'boy. Yum. We also shared fries and a rootbeer.

It was 3 by the time we were done eating. Since we couldn't find the shuttle bus anywhere, we ended up walking all the way down to Blain Kern Studios Mardi Gras World. It was quite the jaunt at 1.6 miles, but the sun was shining and we didn't mind too much. Most of the walk was along the ridiculously huge Convention Center.

We arrived just in time for the 3:30 tour. It started out with a 15 minute video about Mardi Gras and Blain Kern Studios. I was amazed to learn that there are huge studios like this that work year round making the floats for Mardi Gras. We couldn't believe what a huge business Mardi Gras is. There are many "krewes" with due paying members. They also pay for their "throws" (giveaways) with their own money. Each krewe has their own parade the week of Mardi Gras with multiple floats. There's usually a signature float or two that never changes for that krewe. Otherwise, the floats are all redone every year to go with their parade theme. It's crazy!

Crawfish costume worn for a Mardi Gras Ball in the 70's.

After the video, we were led on a guided tour of the warehouse space where the floats are made.

Then we were allowed to wander around and take photos,

These flowers were on a float for the super Krewe Orpheus which puts flowers all over their floats.

before jumping on the shuttle back into the French Quarter at 4:45.

Before heading up to our room, we stopped at Southern Candymakers to pick up some pralines and tortues. Yum.

We got traditional, chocolate and rum pralines.

We relaxed in the room for an hour and a half, which was a much needed break.

At 7, we walked a block over to Canal Street to wait for the Streetcar to City Park. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, after standing in the cold for an hour, the streetcar which was supposed to come every 15 minutes, arrived. We took it up to City Park, and then walked to the Celebration in the Oaks. It's similar to the Rotary Lights back home except you walk through the park instead of drive.

Unfortunately, Adam didn't really want to go to begin with, so combined with waiting forever, he wasn't in the best mood. A beer didn't even help!