New Orleans War Museums

The next day we went to the Warehouse/Arts District of New Orleans, taking the scenic route into town, rather than the Interstate, seeing the back country of New Orleans:
Including the Bayous,

remains of another fort

and a Vietnamese Temple.


There, we toured the Civil War Museum and the World War II museu. Both were very interesting!!

The Civil War Museum is housed in the Confederate Memorial Hall and is the oldest operating Museum in Louisiana.

It was actually built by philanthropist in 1891 as a meeting place for veterans to reflect on their Civil War stories and to house and protect their relics, and that its collection might forever proclaim "how a brave people and their descendants hold the name and fame of their heroes and martyrs with adoration undiminished by disaster or defeat and with love unquenched by time." His wish has come true!
I love the arches!

The interior has ceilings with exposed beams, made from heart of cypress. It was really beautiful. A full picture of the room was all that was allowed, none could be taken of memorabilia, which included uniforms, flags, guns, shells, bullets, swords, mess kits, pictures and personal belongings.


While there, we asked for a recommendation for a good place to eat. Deanie's, a small hole-in-the-wall place, was the answer if we wanted New Orleans Style Cooking! We had the BEST Shrimp PoBoy EVER!! (But forgot to take pictures... we could not wait to dig in. We split one and were still too full!)


We then went to the WWII museum, where Paul got a discount for serving in Vietnam!!
It was three stories of displays of uniforms artifacts, pictures, and recorded personal accounts. It explained the whys, hows and effects of decisions made during each of the conflicts.
Boy, did I learn a lot there! From the jungle fighting on Guadalcanal, the battles of Iwo jima and Okinawa, the racism of the era, the atomic age, the women working on the home front, and the fact that 20,000 boats were designed and built in New orleans and used in all the amphibious landings of WWII.
I think what impressed me most was the magnitude of the D-day invasion. With a fleet of 5,000 ships and 11,000 planes, it must have been an amazing sight!! I have a hard time imagining that many! A movie produced by Tom Hanks was awesome as well. It was 4-D format and gave you just a tiny feel for what it was like.
I was so focused on reading and absorbing everything, I forgot to take pictures, other than in the main entrance!




By this time it was past "Ice Cream Time", so we decided to find some! We ended up having to go back to the French Quarter area, and had some at the Riverwalk, before heading back "home".