Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 56

We started the day off with breakfast at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.  The only things on the menu are beignets and coffee with chicory and the line is always down the street waiting for a table.  The line moves quickly however, and we got a table and had our coffee and beignets, satisfying one of our New Orleans fixes.

We then walked down the street and stopped at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park Visitors Center.  It is a small venue that hosts musical and other related cultural events, there and at a second venue at the Old U.S. Mint building further down Decauter Street in the French Quarter.

The Central Grocery is across the street from the Visitor's Center; we went there to get a mufaletta (lunch meat, cheese and an olive spread on a special round roll) to eat later.  They are famous for their sandwiches and the line is usually very long around lunch time.  Since we were early, we got in and out with our sandwich (large, cut in quarters).  Judy also got a stuffed artichoke.

After walking around the French Quarter and Jackson Square for a little while, we drove to the National WWII Historical Museum, about a mile and a half away.  This was the 4th time we have visited the museum .  It started out as the WWII D-Day Museum under the guidance of Stephen Ambrose, the noted history author, who wanted to recognize the contributions of the local Higgins Boat Company.  This once local business was primarily responsible for the design and manufacture of most of the landing craft (Higgins Boats) used in WWII amphibious landings.

Since our first visit, the museum has expanded and is now the official National WWII museum.  More expansion is also planned. You have to see it to appreciate the scope of the effort and the impressive collection of artifacts, displays and AV presentations encompassing all aspects of the War.  A special feature is a collection of oral histories by participants in the various battles and experiences of the time.  If you are ever in the New Orleans area, it is a must-see attraction.  Trip Advisor rates it as the Number 1  attraction in New Orleans and the third best museum in the country.  Here is the link to their website that explains what they do:

National WWII Museum

We stayed until closing at 5:00 pm and still didn't see all of the new exhibits.  I guess we will have to come back again some other time.  There were a few WWII veterans  there today (they get in free).  They were mostly in wheel chairs and not looking too spry.  The museum is a fitting tribute to them and others from that time, now mostly gone, who gave so much to their country,  Hopefully, younger generations will visit the museum and perhaps gain some understanding of that terrible conflict and the sacrifices that so many made to ensure that our country remained free.

After returning to the RV  and resting awhile, we went to the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro for a jazz concert.  We saw a Latin/Cuban jazz fusion septet that was very good.  The setting was intimate in that maybe 25 people sat around tables in front of the stage with cocktail service provided.  The group was lively and heavy on percussion.  The band and the audience were all having fun and it was a great way to finish our short, but enjoyable New Orleans visit.

We have a short drive tomorrow to New Iberia, LA through Cajun country SW of New Orleans.  We will have two nights there to catch up on our Cajun experiences.  After that, no more fun and just long drives the rest of the way home.

Day 56 Pictures  

Spring Training Trip - Day 64

We left the RV Park in New Orleans about 7:45 am this morning and headed west.  We were on I-10 the whole way to Columbus, Texas, our stop for the night.

The trip was long but uneventful.  The roads were dry, we had a slight tailwind, and the traffic wasn’t too bad.  We did go through a lot of cities along the way, starting with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Beaumont, and Houston.

Columbus, Texas is a small town about 50 miles west of Houston on the Colorado River.  The first settlers arrived in 1832 and the town since then has a storied history, including the site of a battle in the Mexican American War in 1848.  Today, the town appears to be fairly prosperous with an economy based on rice farming, oil & gas, cattle, and sand and gravel extraction. 

The RV Park where we are staying is a relatively small mom & pop operation and is not really a destination RV park (except for a few permanent residents in a variety of travel trailer combinations). It has everything we need for an overnight stay however and is far enough off of the highway to minimize any vehicle traffic noise on I-10.

We didn’t bother to unhook the VW and after dinner we are both planning to retire early.  It is another long travel day tomorrow to Ft. Stockton, TX.  There are no cities to drive through, as we are approaching the more “expansive” section of Texas between here and El Paso.  It is a long drive across Texas with 880 miles between the eastern Texas Border and El Paso along I-10.

Date 64 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 63

We got an early start this morning; we were eating beignets and drinking coffee at Café Du Monde in the French Quarter by 9:00 am.  We had reservations for a tour at 10:30 am just a few blocks away, a house that was visited by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas in 1872 - 1873.  His mother had been an American and some of his American cousins lived there.  He spent about 5 months in New Orleans, doing many sketches and several paintings in oils and pastels depicting members of his family.  He went back to France, taking most of his paintings with him, and became one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement in Paris.

The house has been changed a great deal since his visit; it has been divided in half and moved from its original site.  Also, most of the surrounding land has been sold and developed.  Copies of many of Degas’ paintings are displayed in the house, which has been renovated and redecorated in the style of the 1870’s.

After the house tour, we went to the grocery store to stock up for our trip home, which we will resume tomorrow.  After the food was put away, we left the VW with the RV and walked back into the Quarter.  We had a late lunch, gumbo and salad at the Café Royal Oyster Bar – great food and great service.  After that, we walked to the Old Mint to attend a demonstration of some of the roots of jazz; African, Creole and Cajun music and instruments.   It was done by two very talented National Historic Park rangers, both of whom played more than one instrument and sang.  The demonstration was very well attended - many high school students were there, as well as a large group of tourists.  We really enjoyed it, as did everyone else there.

After stopping for a drink and a short rest at the Bistreaux Lounge at the Hotel Depuy, we walked back to the RV, got a pizza for dinner and started to prepare to leave early tomorrow for the rest of our trip home.


Day 63 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 62

We had a major league rainstorm last night and this morning.  After we got back to the RV last night a deep line of large thunderstorms came through the area.  There was heavy rain, lots of thunder and lightning, and even a little bit of hail.  It continued all night virtually without let-up and into the mid-morning.  We thought we might be subject to some flooding, but the RV Park remained free of any accumulation of water.  The TV weatherman said the area received over 1½ inches of rain per hour through most of the night, and I can believe it most likely did.

We cancelled our morning plans due to the weather and didn’t start out until almost noon.  Our first stop was for lunch at the Central Grocery, home of the Muffaletta sandwich, consisting essentially of lunch meat, cheese, and olive spread on a roll.  It is a special New Orleans creation and very good.

After lunch, we visited the Old Mint, a beautiful old building that started out as an U.S. Army fort and was later converted to a U.S. Mint that operated until 1909.  The building is now run by the Louisiana State Museum in conjunction with the National Park Service.  There is presently an excellent exhibit celebrating 50 years of operation of Preservation Hall, the traditional jazz club venue we visited last night.  When the hall was opened in 1962, it became the hub for many of the old time New Orleans musicians, giving them a central place to gather, teach, and perform traditional New Orleans jazz.  Over the subsequent years most of the old timers have passed on but their heritage still lives on.  A new generation of musicians is performing the traditional music with their own interpretations yet maintaining the essence of a truly American music form.

While there, we also had the opportunity to listen to a piano player named Jim Hession play a variety of traditional jazz songs.  The performance was part of an almost daily series of programs dealing with the history of jazz by the National Park Service’s New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park.  The highlight of his performance was having people from the audience shout out the names of any song they wanted him to play. He wrote down the names of the songs as people called them out.  After awhile, he started playing a continuous medley of portions of each of the songs.  It was an amazing performance and very well done.  He called this his “musical gumbo” portion of the show.  We bought one of the CDs of his work that he had available for sale.  Both he and his wife are retired Disney World performers.

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After listening to the performance and visiting the Preservation Hall exhibit, we went to have a drink at Check Point Charlie’s, a bar/grill/laundromat/game room near the Old Mint.  The place is a classic “dive” that also features a wide variety of live music 7 days a week.  On our New Orleans Mardi Gras trip in 2009, we were intrigued by the military name of the place, especially after seeing someone outside the bar in a hand grenade costume waving to people as they drove by.

We then decided to take a trolley ride along the waterfront.  This trolley line is set up to carry people between the hotel district, business district, cruise ship terminal and the French Quarter.  We walked back from the far end of the waterfront area near the cruise ship terminal through a riverfront shopping mall (Riverwalk) then took the trolley back to the French Quarter where we started, east of Jackson Square. 

We had some time before our dinner reservation at 7:00 pm so we relaxed awhile in a restaurant/bar near Jackson Square where the usual mix of street people, musicians, fortune tellers, tourists, and others who just appeared to be “hanging around” made for an eclectic mix of urban activity that can almost always be found in this area of New Orleans.

Dinner was at The Palm Court, a famous New Orleans jazz club/restaurant that features traditional New Orleans Jazz.  The food was excellent as was the music.  The club features different local musicians each night usually backed up by house musicians (The Palm Court Jazz Band).  We stayed through two long sets of music and were back at the RV by 10:00 pm. Even with a late start today we got a lot done.

The weather has cleared nicely and the forecast looks good.  We haven’t fully decided what to do tomorrow, but we are gradually working our way through the list of things we wanted to do in New Orleans this trip.

Day 62 Pictures

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 13

We went to  Cafe DuMonde in the French Quarter for coffee and begneits before going back to The National WW II Museum to see what we missed yesterday.

Jackson Square and Breakfast at Cafe DuMonde







We spent another two hours at the museum.   It was definitely worth it go back and we still didn't quite see everything there is to see.  This a 2-day place to visit if you are interested in military history and WW II. They are also in the process of a $300 million expansion project that will extend their collections into four new adjoining buildings, the first of which will open in 2012.  It might be worth a return visit when the expansion is complete.

National WW II Museum



 

We then headed back to the French Quarter for lunch at the Central Grocery, the original home of the muffaletta sandwich - Italian lunch meat, cheese, and an olive spread on a roll.  There was a long wait as the place is very popular, but we split a sandwich and ate it outside while sitting on a bench in a the French Market Park, just off of the main street, Decatur Street.

Lunch at Central Grocery Co.- Muffaletta

After lunch we passed a building that housed the headquarters of the New Orleans Jazz - National Historical Park.  We didn't know they had such a thing, so we went in to check it out. The park itself is basically a series of historical spots around town that commemorate the history of jazz in New Orleans. A walking brochure has been developed and a series of audio files are available at the park website for download.  As you visit each site, you can play the file on an iPod/MP 3 player to get a narrative description of each site.

The park headquarters is very small and is essentially designed as a performance venue.  There is a  stage and a small seating area.  As we came in, a local jazz group was setting-up to give a performance.  The park service regularly brings in groups (one or two a day) to highlight the extensive jazz heritage in New Orleans and they are open to the public at no charge. Also, most of the audience at the performance appeared to be locals.

The group was the University of New Orleans Guitar Ensemble.  The group had six electric guitars, A stand-up base, and a drummer.  They were excellent.  The University of New Orleans apparently has a world-class jazz studies program and this jazz ensemble is one of eight that performs professionally.  In fact, they played at the Jazz Fest last weekend.  They played for an hour and we stayed for the whole performance.  It was a nice introduction to the upcoming weekend of music at the Jazz Fest.

New Orleans Jazz - National Historical Park

After the performance we walked to nearby Jackson Square, checked out a small local book store housed in William Faulkner's old house in Pirate's Alley behind St. Louis Cathedral.

Jackson Square and Faulkner Book Store



We then squeezed in a short visit to the Louisiana State Museum in the square to view a retrospective exhibit of the Katrina disaster and its aftermath.  It is a very good multi-media exhibit that describes the event from a number of different perspectives.

Louisiana State Museum - Katrina Exhibit

Fats Domino's piano, which was removed from his flooded home in the Lower Ninth Ward.

After the museum, we found a grocery store, got a few things we needed, and returned to the RV.

The Jazz Fest starts tomorrow and we will travel to and from the venue (fairgrounds) a few miles away by a shuttle bus provided by the RV park.  There are 12 different stages with performances all going on at the same time.  There are also cultural displays, vendors, food booths, and daily Mardi Gras-style parades.  It should be an interesting adventure.

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 12

After breakfast at the RV, we drove to the nearby National World War II Museum.  We had visited the museum last year on our Mardi Gras tour but we didn't get to see everything there and we wanted to go back if we ever got the chance. 

The museum originally started out as a D-Day museum under the leadership of the author Steven Ambrose who lived in the New Orleans area.  It has since expanded and is now a first-class museum telling the story of WW II through exhibits, personal memorabilia, and recorded oral and video histories of many people who directly participated in the war. There is also a spectacular 4-D film, "Beyond All Boundaries," narrated by Tom Hanks.  The fourth "D" is smoke, lights, seats that rock, etc., and a host of other video and audio effects in an Imax format.  New Orleans was also home to the manufacturer of "Higgins Boats" during WW II.  The Higgins company produced most of the landing craft used in the war and played a huge part in the national war effort.  This local connection to the war effort was also instrumental in the establishment and growth of the museum.   

The National World War II Museum

 

After watching the Tom Hanks movie and touring some of the exhibits, we ate lunch at the restaurant in the museum, "The American Sector".  The restaurant  chef is John Besh, a local chef of some renown, a former marine, and a cookbook author.  The food was excellent, presented well, and reasonably priced.  The quality was not what you might expect at a museum restaurant and is a nice addition to the museum complex.



Lunch at the Museum - "The American Sector" restaurant



We continued touring the museum after lunch and still didn't finish it all before it closed at 5:00 pm.  The place is a treasure trove of history from the build-up to the war to its aftermath and the birth of the atomic age.  It is a unique presentation of history that essentially tells the story of the era through the eyes of those who were directly involved and impacted by the war.  It is a legacy for "the Greatest Generation" that should be be seen and appreciated by all.

More Museum



We relaxed back at the RV for awhile then went out to dinner at a famous French Quarter restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.  The restaurant is owned by the famous chef and cookbook author, Paul Prudhomme, who is still actively involved in the operation of the restaurant. The food was excellent .

We are going to continue touring in the area tomorrow and go back to the WW II museum to finish-up what we didn't see today.  The Jazz Fest starts on Thursday and will continue through the weekend.

Dinner at K-Paul's Restaurant