Our Travels
Things to see or do
Katrina downstairs, Mardi Gras upstairs
This museum was a real surprise. It only had two focuses but they were done very well. We used our Kimball Art Museum pass to get in free, but even and $10 a person it would be a good deal.
The building itself is fantastic. It had little to no crowd. It helped us to better understand what we learned during our city tour and tour of Mardi Gras World.
Katrina
Mardi Gras
The Presbytere – Louisiana State Museum
751 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70116
We used our Kimball Art Museum pass to visit the pharmacy museum. It was actually pretty interesting. The best part was the enclosed courtyard in the back.
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
514 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
We went back to the WW II Museum to finish the second half. It was super busy with school groups and tours. We picked Wednesday because it is usually a lighter traffic day.
Note the last picture that looks a lot Chris Evans….Captain America is real.
The National WWII Museum
945 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA 70130
We spent the day at the Mardi Gras World. It is a museum/company that builds floats for Mardi Gras. It was much more interesting than I thought it would be. It is one of several huge warehouses on the Port of New Orleans They fabricate the floats out of paper mache, foam and fiberglass. The Krewes (clubs) own the actual float trailer and they pay these people to create the decorations based on the krewe’s theme. The parades are sponsored by different krewes and there are multiple parades beginning on January 6th through Fat Tuesday. Last year there were 39 different parades. Some of the decorations are saved and reused in different ways on other floats in the future. They even gave us beads and King Cake.
While driving by, we decided to stop and explore the state park. It is built around the ruins of a sugar mill built in 1829. It is a 2,800 acre park that backs up to Lake Pontchartrain. Near the parking lot we stumbled across some small alligators that were floating in a sunny water spot. They were cute until we both decided that their was probably a momma gator near by and we backed away quickly. FYI…alligators move up to 35 mph on land and 20 mph in water. That is much faster that Jana and Mike. We stuck our feet in the water and it was pretty cold.
Fontainebleau State Park
62883 LA-1089,
Mandeville, LA 70448
This is the largest Southern Live Oak in the USA. It is estimated to be between 500 and 1000 years old. In 2018 the limb spread exceeded 153 feet and the trunk is 39.6 feet in girth.
Seven Sisters Oak
On Private Property
200 Fountains Park Blvd,
Mandeville, LA 70448
We took a road trip to the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain for the day. It includes the cities of Mandeville and Slidell. We crossed the lake on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge. It is the longest continuous span over water in the world at 23.8 miles long.
Wikipedia
Last week we took a large group (22 person) swamp tour and it was pretty good. I did not really like how they interacted with the animals by feeding them and getting really close. I think that nature and wild things should not be impacted by my presence. Part of our slow travel is to leave as small a foot print as possible.
We found a private tour company that does not feed or interfere with the swamp animals. They give tours of the Manchac Swamp. The area is protected by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries. Our guide was Terry and he is retired with a background in wildlife management. We used a small flat-bottom boat called a “Go Devil” that took us into narrow spaces that we had to duck under branches and avoid spiders.
We saw several alligators and birds. The trees and plants were beautiful. We often stopped the motor and drifted in the water enjoying the sounds of the swamp. We were so happy to share this experience with Mary Claire.
Our tour company was Wild Louisiana Tours.
Since Mary was here, we revisited the botanical garden. We got in free using our Fort Worth Botanical Garden pass. It looked very different this time. The first time was the Fall Garden Festival and it was packed with visitors and booths of vendors. Today Mary and I had the garden to ourselves. This garden felt strange because you do not always have a path and get to walk on the grass….a big no no at most gardens.
Finally found some camellias in bloom. There are still a lot of flowering plants for mid October. The butterfly and humming bird gardens were full of bees and butterflies. They were putting up Christmas decorations…it looks to be a magical place during the holidays.
New Orleans Botanical Gardens
5 Victory Ave
New Orleans, LA 70124
We hit the highlights from the first part of the sculpture garden we toured. Then finished the second half. Some of the art is beautiful and the other very bizarre. Not sure we fully understand what they were trying to express. We came across a swan that hissed at me. It has very large black webbed feet.
