Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure-Part 4

Monday, April 3: We checked out and had to be on our bus first thing in the morning. After identifying our luggage in the lobby we boarded with our carryon luggage and went to the French Quarter for the last time. It was about a three block walk to the famous “Court of Two Sisters” for their amazing buffet lunch with local specialties from turtle soup to Bananas Foster and everything in between. Of course, they had me at the chilled shrimp. A jazz trio played right next to our table so it made conversation challenging but it was very nice. 

Shelby, ready to board the bus for the last time in New Orleans

Mary and Peggy outside the Court of Two Sisters

Our table for brunch was right next to the Jazz Trio

We had extra time before the bus was taking us to the World War II museum so the six of us decided to meet the Saint Charles Avenue street car and just ride for a while before returning to catch the bus. Everyone else was only 40¢ with transfers but I was $1.25 per ride so I bought a $3 all-day pass. We rode out for about 15 minutes and got off near Lee Circle, intending to catch the streetcar going back the other way.  But as our wait extended we realized that we were running short of time, and then we realized we were only blocks away from the World War II museum. So Ann called Sharon and told her we’d meet the group at the museum and I gave my all-day pass to a family waiting for the same streetcar on which we had given up. As we walked up to the monument at Lee Circle the streetcar finally came around the circle. 

Aboard the Saint Charles streetcar

The monument at Lee Circle

We arrived at the museum with plenty of time as the bus was caught in traffic and made it just in time for the award winning film “Beyond All Boundaries”, narrated by Tom Hanks. Afterwards we all got dog-tags for different people to follow through the museum. Marv and I split up as he went to “The Road to Tokyo” to learn more about the war in the Pacific, where his dad served, and I went to “The Road to Berlin”. My dog-tag belonged to a medic who served in North Africa and then Italy, just like my dad did, but then he went on to Berlin while my dad stayed in Italy. I learned a lot, including more about the Merchant Marines, with whom my Uncle Harry served and I didn’t know much at all. The museum is so well done and the two or three hours we had was only time enough to do the one part we managed before we had to leave. 

From "Beyond All Boundaries"

It was a short ride to the dock where we boarded the American Queen, our luxurious home for the next week. As some of the first to board we had plenty of time to settle in our state room and explore the boat before our first fabulous dinner followed by a musical performance in the theater by the cruise director, Alex, called “All Hands on Deck” where he introduced a lot of the crew members. Afterwards we went to the Engine Room Bar, just down the hallway from our state room, to watch UNC beat Gonzaga in the NCAA Championship Game.

Our journey for the week on the Mississippi River

Some of the furnishings were antiques.

 Our stateroom was the James Buchanan Room.
That's his picture on the wall.

There was a small pool on the top deck.

While we waited The Creole Queen,, where Hank and Janis
were married, came chugging upriver past us!

We spent a lot of time in the rocking chairs on the deck overlooking the paddlewheel.

Safety First! We had the obligatory drill first thing after everyone had boarded.

Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure-Part 3

Sunday, April 2(Happy Birthday, Dear Mom): After our breakfast buffet a retired riverboat captain, Doc Hawley, joined us to give a lecture on Paddlewheelers, packets, and floating palaces. He has probably seen more of the Mississippi River system than any other living boatman, having worked on nine rivers in seventeen states. His presentation was illustrated by photos often taken from old stereograms, which are the only pictures that were taken of the historic old boats. 

A stereogram of an old Paddlewheeler.

A railroad engine disembarks from a River Boat for the last time.
After this they would be taking the new bridge across the Mississippi River.  

Afterwards we departed by bus for a field trip to Mardi Gras World, beginning with a film that documents the making of floats. A guide took us through the huge warehouse to show us some of the amazing floats that have appeared in Mardi Gras parades through the years, and we saw where artists have already begun working on next year’s floats. We also had plenty of time to explore and take photographs on our own. 

A work space where Styrofoam blocks are covered with paper mache before painting.
Much of the carving of Styrofoam is now done with a robot arm that can work 24/7.  

This year's hot pepper could be next year's banana with just
a new coat of paint.

The warehouse is an incredibly colorful place!

Lunch was at a New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood chain restaurant, where, like yesterday, we had ordered our meals ahead so eating was expedited. The afternoon was free so the six of us split up to do things on our own as couples. Marv and I got dropped off back in the French Quarter and went to the Cabildo and the Presbytère, key components of the Louisiana State Museum system that flank St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. The Cabildo features artifacts of Louisiana and, especially, New Orleans, history and the Presbytère has a very moving exhibit on Hurricane Katrina which gives one the feeling of being immersed in the horror. Upstairs there was an exhibit on Mardi Gras but since we had such a good exposure in the morning we skipped that in order to have time to go to Café du Monde for café au lait and beignets. All of the experiences for the day were pre-payed and all we had to do was show a ticket from our packets, which was very liberating. 

The Superdome was very near our hotel.

Andrew Jackson statue with St. Louis Cathedral behind

Yummmmm! Beignets and Cafe au Lait at Cafe du Monde.

For dinner the whole group met back up at the world renowned New Orleans School of Cooking where local Chef Michael demonstrated preparation of traditional dishes that we then ate. He was knowledgeable and flamboyant and very entertaining and it made for a wonderful evening of gumbo, shrimp etouffee, pralines, and bananas foster, all washed down with the local Abita Amber beer. Once again we were exhausted when we returned to the hotel for bedtime and sleep came easily. 

Note the mirror above the stove so we could see everything he was doing.

Michael serving the Shrimp Etouffee.

From left: Chuck, Mary, Peggy, Marv, Ann, Shelby

Putting the flame to Bananas Foster.

Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure-Part 2

Sat. Apr. 1: After a full buffet breakfast at the hotel we boarded our bus with driver, Nate, who would be with us in New Orleans and part of the way up the Mississippi. On board we met our local expert tour guide, the very dynamic Ann, who gave a rapid fire and continuous commentary for an overview of the city of New Orleans. We began with a drive through the Ninth Ward where devastation from Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005) is still apparent. While the rest of the city has largely recovered, the Ninth Ward is a different story. 

Ann took this picture of Marv and me "hanging off the streetcar" in the
dining room of the hotel at breakfast our first morning.

Along Canal Street from the bus.

New Ninth Ward houses are raised and often have solar panels but
the new ones are few and far between. The population of the Ninth Ward
is greatly diminished and many people will probably never return.

One of the many canals that overflowed during Hurricane Katrina from
the massive storm surge on Lake Ponchartrain.

From there we drove through areas along Lake Pontchartrain, Bayou St. John, one of the famed and mysterious above-ground cemeteries where the departed are interred and City Park with its magnificent oak trees. We were supposed to take a self-guided walk through the sculpture garden there but found that there was a big fundraiser going on for the Museum of Modern Art, making most of the museum grounds inaccessible without a ticket. Instead we had time to walk the grounds of City Park a bit before we drove to New Orleans Superior Seafood for lunch. 

Saint Louis Cemetery #3. We learned how the bones of the dearly departed over time were
pushed to the back of and off a raised pallet to allow a new family member to be interred.

Perpetual Care agreements keep some of the tombs in pristine condition. When a family
dies out and no longer uses the tomb, an exhaustive search is made to be sure there are no
survivors who will want to be buried there. Then an elite member of a Creole caste ceremoniously
clears and reburies all the remains and the tomb can be resold to a new family to use.

Shelby, Ann, Peggy, Mary & Chuck under an old Live Oak at City Park

A contented turtle basks in the sun in a pond at City Park

After lunch we took a walking field trip in the Garden District (named in the British style of calling a yard a garden, not for the gardens in the sense of flowers or vegetables). Ann does architectural tours as well as general city tours so she had a wealth of knowledge about the styles used in the graceful mansions. One of the loveliest neighborhoods in the country, it was laid out in 1832 for incoming, well-to-do Americans who were not interested in mingling with native New Orleanians (The feeling was mutual!) Grand houses were built on large lots that encouraged the development of beautiful yards. We saw the three houses once owned by author Ann Rice, including the house where our sister-in-law Janis Long had her wedding shower 30 years ago (before Ann Rice bought it) that included family friends Cokie Roberts and Lindy Boggs.

An original, open-car street car on Saint Charles Street

Some of the magnificent wrought iron work in the Garden District

Dinner that evening was on our own so the three of us went to Chartre House in the French Quarter for some authentic New Orleans food. Afterwards we went to two jazz clubs on Bourbon Street—Fritzel’s and Maison Bourbon—for Dixieland Jazz. It was nearly 11:00 when we walked back to the Holiday Inn and fell gratefully into bed.  

St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square in the evening

Bourbon Street

Fritzel's Jazz Club

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club

Bourbon Street after dark

Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure-Part 1

At the Beginning: The only hard part of this wonderful trip, our first Road Scholar Adventure, was getting started. We drove down to Detroit Airport Thursday evening, Mar. 30, in heavy rain. Upon arrival Ann and Shelby met us at the door to tell us that the Knights Inn where we were to stay 1) wouldn’t accept our very low, confirmed reservation price that Ann had procured, saying that it came from the National site and they don’t recognize it, and 2) that they had given away our rooms because we didn’t arrive by 6:00pm. Luckily (??) they managed to find rooms at twice the price for us. Since we had to be at DTW at around 7:30 Friday morning we reluctantly stayed the night there and from then on things improved. The flight, for which we all had been given TSA pre-check, was totally uneventful and we arrived in New Orleans before lunchtime, where our rooms at the Holiday Inn SuperDome on Loyola, right downtown, were not ready but they would store our bags for us. Sometime in 2016 Ann and I had invited ourselves to go along with Chuck and Mary when they talked about doing this Road Scholar Trip that began with three days in New Orleans, followed by a week on the American Queen, the biggest steam powered paddlewheeler in the world. We arrived before they did, so we walked down to the French Quarter and had lunch outdoors at one of the Café Beignets. It was the first of ten perfect, sunny days and a great beginning to our trip. Despite being just 9 weeks out from surgery for her broken ankle, Ann managed to walk over two miles with the rest of us before we returned to the Holiday Inn. We got our room (on 17 of 18 floors) but theirs wasn’t ready so we all hung out in our room for a while so Shelby could get a nap. When Ann and I got antsy we explored the hotel, including checking out the outdoor pool on the 8^th floor, and then went down to see what was happening with rooms. Though they hadn’t called to let them know, Ann and Shelby’s room was available so we got their bags and took them up to our room for her to collect Shelby. She and I met at the pool while Shelby and Marv continued naps in their respective rooms. Chuck and Mary arrived and we attended the 4:30 Orientation Meeting, where we got our Whisper Boxes; met our “wrangler”, Sharon; and got more information for the trip in general, and our three days in New Orleans, in particular. Following our buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant we had a Dixieland Jazz Trio of clarinet, bass, and banjo that entertained us for an hour or so before we all hit the sack to be ready for our full Saturday.

Ann and Louie Armstrong pose with John Hesse's Tiger

The French Quarter

The view from Room 1727 at the Holiday Inn