April 10, 2024

April 10, 2024

We wake to pouring rain in New Orleans. Mid-morning, we get a break, so we put on our raincoats and grab an umbrella from the desk clerk. One of the original streetcars still operates just outside our hotel. We buy a day pass and ride it to the French Quarter along with a group of French tourists.

We walk to Jackson Square and visit the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis. Named after the King of France, it is the oldest US cathedral in continuous use. It started raining again as soon as we left.

We walked quickly to the French Quarter National Park Visitor Center. For some reason this indoor facility is closed due to the rain. Suspiciously all six units of this park are also closed. They must do this often as the closure sign was pre-printed. I am sure all these government employees are getting paid during this extra vacation day.

With my well-oiled schedule worthless and needing something indoors to do on a rainy day, we Uber-ed to the National WWII Museum a mile away. It is privately run so of course it is open. The rain is coming down in buckets, and our lower half gets soaked running to the entrance.

We buy expensive tickets and begin our tour. The museum seems a little ramshackle and disorganized, but a very talkative docent told us that it started as a D-Day museum. A local entrepreneur, Andrew Higgins, designed and built the Landing Craft. Eisenhower once said Higgins was the man who won the war. Stephen Ambrose, author and local professor spearheaded the museum foundation. Over the years, with Federal money, the museum scope was expanded to cover the entire War. It now fills a half dozen interconnected buildings and continues to grow.

We started with the Prelude to War and the debate between isolationists and war hawks. The US has see-sawed between the two extremes for good reason. We have numerous examples of failed military interventions. The worst is WWI where our involvement probably led directly to WWII. We need to remember history but we often learn the wrong lessons from history. The one maxim worth never forgetting is that to avoid war, one must be prepared for war. We were woefully unready for WWII.

The next section was our role as the Arsenal of Democracy; unfortunately we couldn’t do it again if we wanted. We no longer have the means or ability. The next sections were on Pearl harbor and D-Day.

It is still raining and we are hungry, so we head to the museum restaurant, but there is an hour wait. Aimee has the bright idea to eat at the bar. I forgot that is our go-to MO now. We quickly get seats and had a delicious gumbo stew. The check comes with Tootsies Rolls, the candy included in GI rations.

After lunch we participated in the Final Mission venue. It is a hokey submarine-themed experience about the USS Tang, the most decorated sub. Hokey, until we learned we sank to the bottom of the sea on this final mission of destroying Japanese shipping. Incredibly of the 87 crew members, nine survived. Half were blown clear, while the other half used an escape hatch.

We then ran through the Road to Tokyo and the Road to Berlin halls. Each provides a great overview of that theater of operation.

The Museum has a new building covering some unique subjects. One covers the many art treasures that the Nazis stole and hid away. Hitler was an amateur artist and would tour captured art museums before picking his favorites.

There are also extensive sections on the extermination camps, the Anne Frank story, and finally the devastation and impact of this extended world conflict.

We were chased out of the museum at closing. This museum is huge. We have seen much of it before in all the museums and historical sites we have visited. Despite the repetition, it was well done. Unfortunately it is a complicated subject and very overwhelming. You need days to do it justice. Still it is a great spot for a rainy day.

It finally stopped raining so we walked back toward our hotel. We passed Harmony Circle that has a tall pedestal that once had a statue of Robert E Lee. This erasure of history is getting out of hand.

For dinner we stopped at the same pub as last night. Thankfully we are in time for Happy Hour and it is only a few blocks from our hotel. We really like our accommodations; it is roomy, with lots of pluses, a parking garage, and is situated in the sedate Garden Distinct away from the riffraff of the French Quarter, which is only a short streetcar away.