New Orleans - November 30, 2017

We started our morning quite early with a 7:00 a.m. flight, layover in Atlanta and arriving in New Orleans around 12:30 p.m.  We took the 202 Bus (Airport Express) to a stop about 3 blocks from our hotel and checked into the Hampton Inn.  Our room wasn't ready but we were able to drop our stuff in our parents room, who had arrived the day before.

The hotel is in a great location, just one block west of the French Quarter.  Our room is really nice.  It is a corner room with a sitting area and king bed.  Breakfast in the morning includes a lot of variety.  There is a nice fitness center on the 14th floor.  The Wifi is incredibly fast (faster than any speeds I have experienced at home.)

We had a good dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., checked out a Vieux Carre Wine & Spirits for some wine to drink while here and to bring on the ship, and stopped in a bakery (Sucre) for some macaroons.  Before the end of the trip, we would make one more stop at Sucre and then pick up more macaroons made by Sucre from an airport shop on the way home.

New Orleans - Friday, December 1, 2017

After a great breakfast at our hotel, we started our day with a New Orleans Walking Tour by Free Tours by Foot.  We had the luck of the draw of getting a tour guide who is a High Priest in Louisiana Voodoo and Haitian Voodoo.  His name was Robi (pronounced "row be") and he was excellent.  He made us part of his slave family and walked us through the myths, realities, and rituals of voodoo.

The biggest take away from the tour was that Hollywood has really glamorized Voodoo into something that it isn't at all.  It is actually a monotheistic religion (believes in one god).  They have certain human figures (ancestors) that after they passed, their god elevated to a status above man, but below god.

They don't sacrifice babies, dance naked in the moonlight, dance with snakes, or any other crazy thing you may have seen in movies and on TV about Voodoo.  There are actually a lot of parallels with catholicism.  Here are some photos and video clips from our tour:

Outside Louis Armstrong Park where our tour began

Congo Square - The location where slaves often danced on Sundays, their day off

Statute at Congo Square

The symbol drawn during a ritual - this symbol is unique to the family drawing it and the symbols mean specific things about the family's ancestors.  This drawing only goes back 3 or 4 generations where typically they go back 10 generations.

 There is a lot of conflicting, unknown, misinformation out there about Marie Laveau.  She was a "catholic" as all slaves were back then when Voodoo was illegal.  She gained her freedom and was a hairdresser for many of the wives of politicians.  Through her job as a hairdresser, she learned so much gossip which she later used to "encourage" politicians to make Voodoo legal.

The house that now stands where Marie Laveau used to live - her house was "accidentally" burnt down after her death.

After our tour we stopped at Conjure New Orleans, one of only a few stores that sell truly authentic voodoo stores.  The other two stores our guide recommended were Voodoo Authentica and Carmel and Sons Botanica.

We then caught a short Christmas parade.

From there we went in search of lunch only to find out the southern half of the French Quarter was experiencing a power outage.  After walking a long way, we finally found a Jimmy John's for something quick.

After lunch we headed to Jackson Square where we had a few minutes to enjoy the square before our next tour so we stopped and listened to this street performer who was really entertaining.  I don't recall what the name of the instrument was that he was playing.

Here are some photos of Jackson Square:

St. Louis Cathedral

Our next tour was the French Quarter Walking Tour by Free Tours By Foot.  Our tour guide Kayla was very knowledgeable.  She gave us a history of how they first where ruled by the French who sent all the criminals, prostitutes, non-productive citizens to initially settle the colony.   Then eventually the Spanish took over for a short period although the citizens refused to speak Spanish and stuck to their creole roots.  The French took over once more but only for a very short time before the US gained control via the Louisiana Purchase (giving Napoleon $15 million to acquire the Louisiana Purchase - the area west of the Mississippi).

Row houses along Jackson Square

The symbol on a house where the owners regularly donated to the fire department - these houses the firefighters attended to first in the event of a fire.

The left building has a balcony (no posts to the ground).  The right house has gallery (supports to the ground allow for a larger "balcony").

This is one of the only houses in the old style.  The owners were able to build very quickly after the fire in the late 1700s, before regulations were put in place by the Spanish requiring the use of bricks in building.  We tour this house the next day.

The spikes are "Romeo spikes" to discourage young men from visiting the owner's daughters bedroom.  They say they would go up as Romeo and come down as Juliet.

New regulations after the fire in the late 1700s, required houses to be built up closer to the road so fire trucks could easily reach them.  This meant the front gardens became patios inside.  The courtyards/patios are really beautiful!

Old Ursiline Convent - the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley

Bourbon Street (the quieter end)

House where William Faukner wrote his first novel

The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for Fourth Circuit of Louisiana

Here are some photos from walking around the French Quarter:

Dinner was just take out Chinese for me and take out fried chicken for my husband which we enjoyed in our hotel room before relaxing before dinner.

New Orleans - Saturday, December 2, 2017

We started our morning at Mardi Gras World.  They have a shuttle that runs through the French Quarter and through the Canal Street area.  You just call them up and they come pick you up at one of their designated spots.  We picked up the shuttle across the street from this neat Cathedral:

The Mardi Gras World has tours through their warehouse where they build and store many of the Mardi Gras floats that are used in the 54 parades that occur the two weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday (i.e. Mardi Gras).  Plus they do a lot of props for Disney and all the cows for Chick-fil-A.  Each parade during Mardi Gras is planned by a Krewe.  A Krewe is made up of New Orleans citizens who pay to be members and pay to ride on the floats.  They have annual dues plus pay for all the gifts they throw.  Some of the floats can cost as much as a million dollars.  

The tour included a 15 minute video about the history of Mardi Gras and then about 1.25 hours walk through their warehouse and "secret" event space.

This prop is probably made out of fiber glass, considering it is kept outside - this is a more expensive process and so not used for most props for parades.

The brown is paper mache that covers the strofoam.

This prop is in the process of being covered with paper mache.

This baby Kong is a prop used year after year and each year, they need to repair it with new paper mache and new paint.

This elephant is being modified to fit a tea party theme - the woman is adding paper mache to the sleeves that have been recently added.

Another prop in the paper mache stage

Most props are made out of layers of styrofoam.

They often put new heads on old bodies to make new props.  Most props are modified from older props.  Only a small percentage are made from scratch.

These leaves are made from tag board (and metal wires on the back of the leaves to give it the veins that also help the leaves keep their form).

We have now entered the paint station.  They use both air brushes and traditional brushes to do the painting.

Chick-fil-A cows

a digital machine that carves some props with the use of computer programing

Then our tour guide showed us their event space.  It used to be the waiting room for a casino when they only allowed gambling on the water (i.e. steamboats).  It had a plantation theme with bars and areas to relax.  This is all indoors.

We then walked down by the river and had lunch at the Riverwalk Mall at Mooyah, which was really good!  As we were eating (inside), there were others sitting outside eating when a flock of seagulls descended on them, swooping their heads....  It was quite entertaining.

Our next stop was the French Quarter.

We visited the Madame John's Legacy museum which is one of the only wooden houses in the French Quarter.  This is the house where the owners had the means to build immediately after the fire in the late 1700s before the city could enact regulations requiring all houses be built out of brick.  It is one of the last houses built in the creole style.

Then we checked out the 1850 House Museum which is a row house on Jackson Square.

We then checked out St. Louis Cathedral which sits on the north side of Jackson Square.

Then we headed back to the hotel and ran into the end of a Christmas parade.

The people in neon green in the background are the clean-up crew that follows the parade.

Dinner was at Deanie's Seafood which was very good, after they remade my food to comply with my allergies.  At least our waitress was really good and fixed any errors that came out of the kitchen.

Before heading back to the hotel we went looking for some more wine at Vieux Carre Wine & Spirits which has a great selection of wines.