New Orleans - Week One

It was a two-hour drive to our next stop, New Orleans RV Resort. This costly RV resort is located just ten minutes north of the French Quarter on Lake Pontchartrain. Since we planned to spend two weeks visiting New Orleans, this resort was very convenient to everything.

We figured out that parking by the downtown Visitor Center was just $5.00 a day. From that point we could take either a bus or streetcar for just 80 cents an entire day. This was our main means of transportation along with a lot of walking. 

CATHEDRAL-BASILICA OF SAINT LOUIS AND JACKSON SQUARE

The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. Since 1727 New Orleanians have worshipped in churches on this site. 

Jackson Square runs between the Cathedral and the Mississippi River. A statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback sits at the center of the square.

THE PRESBYTERE
Also on Jackson Square is the Louisiana State Museum, which contains the Presbytere. The first floor houses a history of the Katrina Hurricane and the second has a collection of artifacts focusing on the history and costumes of Mardi Gras. 

CAFE DU MONDE

Across the street from Jackson Square is the famous Cafe du Monde. 

We enjoyed beignets (ben yayz) and Cafe au Lait (ka-ˈfā-ō-ˈlā).

RIVERFRONT PARK

Mule drawn carriages sit out front for tours of the French Quarter.

We took a stroll down the Moonwalk in Riverfront Park, along the Mississippi.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG PARK
We picked up a muffuletta at Central Market and walked to the Louis Armstrong Park to sit for a while.

Louis Armstrong Statue

THE NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM

This top-rated museum is the number one attraction in New Orleans. We spent two days exploring this vast museum. We started our tour with the new 4D cinematic experience, "Beyond Boundaries," presented in the Solomon Victory Theater. The museum is filled with interactive exhibits, soaring aircraft and personal histories.

An exhibit about Disney's contribution to the war effort, including training videos, books and drawings. The Disney cartoonists donated their time to produce military squadron patches.

The Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center

Nosecone of a B-24 complete with a Norden Bomb Site

Sherman Tank

SBD-3 Dauntless Dive Bomber

B-17 Heavy Bomber, recovered from a glacier in Greenland where it crash landed.

Louisiana Memorial Pavilion

Dog Tag Machine

Higgins Boat Landing Craft

Campaigns of Courage Building

The entire first floor was Road to Berlin. The second floor was dedicated to the Road to Toyko.

Howitzer

Walking back to our car, we passed one of the unique New Orleans Cemetaries in which the dead are buried above ground.

Plantations Along the Great River Road

Sugar cane was a massive and lucrative agricultural industry, along the southern Mississippi River. It was called "white gold", because of the large profits on the backs of slave labor. Plantation country, as it is known, is mainly along the west side of the Mississippi River running between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi. Many of these homes were destroyed during the Civil War, which ended that era. Some remain, restored to their former glory. About forty plantations are now open for public tours. We stopped at five of these plantations along LA18, River Road and toured two of them.

 

OAK ALLEY PLANTATION

Oak Alley is known for its distinguishing feature of 28 southern live oaks trees planted 800 feet apart. The trees are estimated to be between 220-250 years old.

The "Big House" was completed in 1839 by the first owner, Jacques Roman, in Greek Revival architecture.

The 1920's formal garden, referred to as the East Garden.

The second-floor balcony/porch presents a view of the vast sugar cane fields and encircles the entire house.

Pictures were prohibited inside the home.

The back side of the home is almost as beautiful as the front.

On the back side of the home an oak lined path led to the slave quarters and blacksmith shop.

Old kettles used for boiling sugar cane now provide ornamental landscaping features.

This plantation once housed over 200 slaves. Some of the slave quarters have been restored and contain artifacts detailing the lives of sugar plantation slaves. House, field, and craftsmen slaves resided in separate cabins. One of Oak Alley's slaves actually developed the technique of grafting pecan trees that resulted in today's paper shell pecans.

ST. JOSEPH PLANTATION

We passed by the St. Joseph Plantation along the River Road. Took a picture, but not a tour.

This is a Creole Plantation, meaning household speaks French, of Catholic religion, and are native born Louisianans.

LAURA PLANTATION

This raised brick basement Creole plantation house was built in 1805. Originally named the Duparc Sugar Plantation, the name of the first residents.

The Parlor

An electrical fire in 2004 singed much of the back of the house as well as destroying the entire kitchen wing. Much work went into restoring this beautiful home.

Here is what remains of the kitchen wing burned in 2004.

Formal Gardens

Restored Slave Quarters

EVERGREEN PLANTATION

This plantation tour is temporarily closed. 

Evergreen Plantation is the most complete plantation complex in the south. Twenty-two slave cabins, gardens, and many outbuildings remain on the property. 

Morgan City, Louisiana

We left the Rio Grande Valley on April 21st, with a quick stop in Victoria, Texas, before heading toward Louisiana.

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA

We made a two night stop just east of Lake Charles at the Blue Heron RV Park in Iowa, LA. 

Since we were in Lake Charles for two nights, we had time for the 129-mile Creole Nature Trail Circle Tour. The scenic byway passes through four national wildlife refuges and includes a ferry crossing at the Calcasieu Ship Channel. Along the way we passed many towns that had been wiped off the map by hurricanes, leaving only cement foundations. On many of the foundations, we saw RVs apparently parked by the owners to replace their homes.

We took the loop in the clockwise direction and ended up in Lake Charles for dinner.

The two-mile Pintail Wildlife Drive was very interesting. We saw many birds along the way, including glossy and white-faced ibis, teals, stilts, purple gallinules, herons, egrets, coots, grebes, phoebes, warblers, red winged blackbirds, and a number of alligators.

The Ferry across the shipping channel took just minutes.

MORGAN CITY

On Monday we traveled 133 miles to our next stop in Morgan City. We stayed at the Lake End County Park and Marina on Lake Palourde. 

We had a quiet back-in spot just over the berm from the lake and marina.

International Petroleum Museum and Exposition

Morgan City is well known for its petroleum and shrimp industries. We found the Petroleum Museum very interesting. Our tour guide, Virgil, gave us a private tour of "Mr. Charlie", an authentic offshore oil drilling Rig. This drilling rig is retired and sits on the shore of the Lower Atchafalaya River. It is now used for education and training. Mr. Charlie was the first offshore drilling rig for depths up to 40 feet of water. From 1954 to 1986 Mr. Charlie drilled hundreds of offshore wells off the gulf coast.

The drilling rig had accommodations for a crew of 58 men.

This is a retired unmanned production platform, used to pump oil from well heads after the drilling rig had finished its work.

This basket is lifted by a crane down to the deck of a ship to load or offload workers.

View of the over 100-foot-tall oil drilling derrick. 

Southwest Reef Lighthouse

For over 70 years, since 1859, this lighthouse stood at the passage into the Atchafalaya Bay. It was retired in 1916 and now sits at this site on the Lower Atchafalaya River across from Morgan City.

The "Great Wall" runs for miles to protect the river communities from flooding. Floodgates can be closed as needed.

Nottoway Plantation

Prior to the civil war, more than half of America's millionaires lived between New Orleans and Natchez. Nottoway Plantation is the south's largest antebellum mansion. It was closed on the day we were in that area, but we did stop for pictures.

Completed in 1859, the 53,000 square foot mansion has 15-foot-tall ceilings.

View of the formal gardens in the rear of the mansion.

BATON ROUGE

Louisiana's Old State Capitol

This Gothic architectural building served as the state capitol for over 160 years until 1932.

The grand staircase provides great views of the beautiful stain glass dome.

The House of Representatives Chamber is now used for presentations. The building also contains an exhibit documenting Louisiana's political history.

Louisiana State Capitol

In 1932 the new State Capitol opened about ten blocks from the old state capitol.

On the front lawn of the capitol this statue marks the gravesite of the controversial governor, Huey Long, who was assassinated while in office in 1935. 

We took two elevators to the 27th floor observation deck. From there we could see all of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River. Just as we were about to board the elevator to return to the main floor, a waterpipe burst and the observation deck was closed for the rest of the day. Glad that was our first stop. Timing is everything.

House Chamber

Senate Chamber