Nawlins

We ended our cruise where it had begun: New Orleans, or - as the locals say - “Nawlins”. Before checking into our hotel, we took a tour of The Big Easy. We stopped at one of the interesting above-ground cemeteries.

   

We passed through the Garden District, skirted the French Quarter, circled Jackson Square (shown on the left below) and stopped by Lake Ponchartrain (on the right). Our guide pointed out some areas of reconstruction after damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. The lighthouse and yacht club buildings below had both been destroyed in the storm.

 

We stopped at a wonderful sculpture garden in City Park where we enjoyed interacting with some of the artwork.

 

After we checked into the hotel, we set out for lunch. I told Bill I wanted to try some local specialties, and he agreed. We ordered a po’boy and a muffaletta. YUM!

 

Believe it or not, we had room later for some beignets and coffee at Café DuMond!

There’s a lot we like about New Orleans: the neighborhoods, the music, the architecture, but especially the food!

Over the river and through the woods to Houmas House we go

The Houmas House is named after the Houmas Indians who owned the property that the house was built on.  The  300,000 acres of land was purchased from the Indians for $150. The land was first used to harvest the vast amount of Cyprus trees growing on the property. Once they were cleared sugar cane was planted and in 1857 the plantation became the largest producer of sugar in the U.S.

     

When the sugar prices fell during the great depression the owners of the plantation lost everything including the home.  It fell into disrepair until 1963 when it was refurbished and used for the filming of the movie Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte starring Bette Davis. As you can see below they did a fantastic job of restoring the home and it is decorated to the 9’s for the holidays.

Even the frog gets decked out for the holidays.

Cindy found a Christmas gift for me       : I think it will blend in with my natural hair!

The grounds were fantastic. It was the land where pigs fly:

                                               

and where the Expedia Roaming Gnome spends his off time

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After our tour we headed back to the boat for the Captains farewell reception and our last dinner on board.

A visit to the Big Red Stick

On Wednesday we stopped for a visit in the state capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge or translated Red Stick.  It was given this name by French explorer Sieur d’Iberville in 1699 when he saw a pole covered by bloody animals that marked the boundary between two Native American hunting grounds.

                                                

                                         This Red Stick memorial adorns the port of Baton Rouge.

It seems that Louisiana has a very colorful past when it comes to their politics and government. The state through its history was governed by France, Britain, Louisiana, the West Florida Republic, the Confederacy and the United States.

Our first stop was at the old capitol building, designed to look like a medieval castle.

       

The old capitol building is now a museum, replaced with a new capitol building in the 1930’s by Governor Huey P. Long.

Main staircase                                            top of the rotunda                                    second floor of the capitol.

Our next stop was the old Governor’s Mansion built by Huey Long.

                    

Does this look familiar? Huey Long found the best architect in Baton Rouge and told him he wanted him to design the Governor’s mansion. He pulled out a twenty dollar bill and said he wanted it to look like the building on the back of the bill (The White House). He said he wanted to be familiar with the house so when he became president he would feel at home. Huey did not suffer from poor self-esteem.

   This is the mural he put in the dining room of the mansion. It is hand woven and hand painted from France. Each strip is 18” wide and sells for $3000 a strip (It’s good to be king). Huey also wanted a new capitol building and he built the tallest capitol building in the world.

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Huey’s capitol over 30 stories tall                                                               Huey’s grave on the capitol lawn.

In 1932 while Huey was still governor, he ran for US Senate seat for the state of Louisiana and won. For two years he remained governor and senator. In 1934 the federal government  forced him to give up the governorship and just keep the job as senator.  In 1935 he announced that he was going to run for president against Roosevelt but before his campaign could take off he was shot in the lobby of the Louisiana state capitol and died two days later.  Who shot Huey is still a controversy!  Some say it was a Doctor who had a dispute with him, some say it was his body guards and some say it was a ricochet from one of the 61 bullets fired at the Doctor!

Our final stop was at the history of Louisiana Museum. We were running out of time but what we got to see was really interesting and well worth the stop.

  

Photos top L to R: Bond fire stack for Christmas eve to guide Papa Noel up the river, costume from a past Mardi Gras, and a tub of crayfish.

Bottom L to R: Confederate submarine found in Lake Pontchartrain, decorated lawn mowers used for Mardi Gras parades.

We would really like to come back to the Red Stick and see all the things we missed. 

Natchez: Land o’ Cotton

We spent Tuesday, another touring-perfect day, in Natchez, Mississippi. Prior to the Civil War, Natchez had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the United States, due in large part to the prolific cotton fields. The antebellum mansions are stunning, especially at this time of year with their Christmas decorations. We took the hop on hop off bus to three of Natchez’s magnificent homes for guided tours: Stanton Hall, which later became a school; Rosalie, which housed the headquarters of the Union troops during the Civil War; and Longwood Plantation, the largest octagonal residence in the U.S. These three mansions had distinctly different architectural styles.

     

Stanton Hall, built in 1857                                                    Rosalie, built in 1823

Longwood Plantation, construction begun in 1860

Longwood was the most unusual, not only for its design but also because to this day it remains unfinished. Only the 10,000 square foot basement was completed before the war, so the family, which included 8 children, lived down there. (Don’t let the term ‘basement’ fool you. It was very elaborate!) Tragedy struck when the husband died during the war, and the family’s holdings were lost. The home is designated a National Historic Landmark, so the upper floors will never be completed. The tour included a visit to the first floor, where our guide pointed out the beginnings of the fireplace in one room. The brickwork was to be covered with plaster. A display of blueprints helped us picture how the home was to be laid out. This blueprint of the Second Floor shows 4 bedchambers, each measuring 18’ x 24’ - plus balcony!

      

Walking through these homes, then returning to the steamboat, seemed to transport us back in time. When we reboarded the boat we were treated to Christmas carolers. What a nice way to end the day!

Lazy day on the Mississippi River

Wow, what a change we had on our planned river cruise. After we boarded our boat from spending a day in St Francisville LA we were advised that the boat was having one of its two generators repaired and our departure would be delayed several hours.  Later in the day the captain came on the public address system and advised the passengers of a 5PM meeting and one person from each stateroom should attend to hear some important information. Uh oh -- that doesn’t sound good.  We went to the meeting and the captain advised us that there was a crack in the main shaft of the paddle wheel and they could no longer use the wheel to propel us up river.  He said we have a small secondary engine that could move us up river but not at a fast speed. He also said for safety’s sake the Cost Guard is requiring a tow boat to assist us up river.  He then advised us that our next stop, Nachez MS, would not be reached until late Monday afternoon, not Monday morning as originally scheduled. This delay would cause us to miss the port of Vicksburg MS. So we chalked it up to just another missed port on a cruise.

                       

Tow boat pushing our Steamboat                                     Broken paddle wheel with tow boat in background

We did have a nice relaxing day cruising the river.  We got to see many things that we would have missed while touring in Nachez .  Such as:

   

a Coast Guard river patrol boat                                          and a tow boat pushing 35 full barges at once.

We also had a great talk in the river boat saloon about navigating the river by one of our river pilots.

              

and we had time to catch up on our reading and take a long stroll on the boat.

       

We are sorry that we are going to miss Vicksburg but are excited about spending a full day in Nachez.