Days Four and Five: Museums, Magazine St., and My Super Smart Wife

Greetings, gentle readers, and welcome to the final installment of the Curmudgeon and Long Suffering Wife's trip to the Big Easy -- New Orleans! Sorry it's taken so long to post, but I've been up to my cranky keister with some exciting new developments in Curmudgeonland, which I shall duly inform you about in due time, but for now, it's on to Days Four and Five!

The first half of day four was spent at what was arguably my favorite stop of the trip: The National World War II Museum. Originally created as the D-Day Museum, which honored not only the men who fought on 6/6/1944, but also the Higgins Boat Company: headquartered in New Orleans, the company made the iconic landing craft we all associate with the invasion, so it made sense to locate the D-Day museum in NOLA. After such a positive response, the museum's scope grew, and it was eventually designated the nation's official WWII museum.

Museum/WWII geek porn

I won't go into detail or bore you all with the dozens of photos I took inside, but a few pics should illustrate what made this museum such a moving experience for me, an avowed WWII-phile and budding museum professional. First off: a shot of one of the aforementioned Higgins boat/LCPs and the LSW, who is just viewing the heck out of that text panel.

The LSW appreciates one of the collection's showpieces

One of the more interesting and (I thought) impactful displays was the one that showed the relevant strength of the Japanese, German, and US armies prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. Rather than throw cold numbers in your face, the museum chose to create this display, which used plastic army men, each representing 2,000 soldiers. It really puts the disparity into pretty sharp focus, don't you think? Also, this was voted the "Display Eric Could Never Be Responsible For, Owing To His Enormous Man Hands and Clumsy Disposition" by the LSW and myself.

Installations Eric should never create: Exhibit A

The museum does an admirable job covering not only the course of the war, but also life on the homefront, propaganda on both sides, personal stories/oral histories, and a slew of artifacts. One of my favorite shots is below, of a crate filled with Hershey's chocolate packaged up and ready for the G.I.s.

Mmmm, chocolaty!

Perhaps the coolest installation was a replica of one of the German bunkers that studded the Normandy coastline. You could stand inside of it and get a feel for what the defenders saw as they looked out over the beach that fateful June day.

How the other half saw D-Day

Overall, we had a really good time at the museum, even the LSW, who is not normally all that excited about WWII and its attendant artifacts, memorabilia, and husband-related obsessing. I highly recommend stopping in if you're ever in the New Orleans area. Even if you don't consider yourself a big fan (is that the right term? "Fan"? Like, "Dude, I've got to rush out and see WWII when they're in town next week!" That sounds kind of weird, right? Moving on.) of World War II, you owe yourself a visit.

The rest of day four included shopping on Magazine Street, something which several travel guides and magazines had said would be a world-class experience with plenty of fun for all. Friends, let me burst your bubble a little bit: magazines and travel guides lie. When they say Magazine Street shops have lots of "unique items," "wonderful antiques" and "friendly people," they really mean "crap," "expensive crap," and "crappy people."

Now, I can hold my own in an antique shop with the best of them, and I don't mind being in stores where I know it would take a year's pay to buy the cheapest item, but there was no excuse for the attitudes we received from 90% of the shopkeepers on Magazine. Ranging from bored indifference to outright condescension, I think the worst was the store we entered where we were greeted only by the shopkeeper's dog. That's right, his DOG. He didn't even bother to look up from his computer to address the ONLY CUSTOMERS IN HIS STORE. At least the dog didn't nuzzle my crotch or anything; that would have added insult to indignity, right there.

For dinner, we decided to splurge a bit and try the Red Fish Grill, and lemme tell you, are we ever glad we did. We both ordered their signature grilled red fish, which was excellent, but the crowning jewel of the night (and, in my opinion, the culinary experience of the week) was the double chocolate bread pudding. Yes, I said double chocolate: a dark chocolate-based pudding covered with a toffee crust, almond bark shards, and melted white and milk chocolate. Folks, this thing was decadent in a way I'm not capable of describing, and it was absolutely to die for. I have dreams about this stuff, it's that amazing.

We topped off day four with a viewing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I enjoyed far more than I was afraid I might. As a huge fan of the franchise, I was afraid it would disappoint, but overall it was well worth the ticket price.

Day five found us jonesing for something other than the (admittedly tasty) continental breakfast at the hotel, so we moseyed ourselves out to -- you guessed it -- Cafe du Monde! As usual, it was crowded, hot, fresh, delicious, and slap-your-momma good times for all.

Our fellow gluttons

Pretty in pink (and, later, powdered sugar)

After breakfast, I got a few more shots of Jackson Square, this time with some better views of the statue of Andrew Jackson, as evidenced below.

Horsin' around with Old Hickory

As a nice cap to the trip, a friendly young fellow took our picture as we overlooked Jackson Square. Despite the fact that it looks like I'm wearing the world's skinniest band uniform sash, I think it turned out quite nicely, don't you?

Touristas!

On the way back to the hotel, I was grifted out of $10 by a fast-talking kid with a thick creole accent who "cleaned" my sneakers with a mystery liquid I suspect was probably dish soap and human sweat. He hooked me by saying he could guess where I bought my shoes just by looking at them, a statement I found so ridiculously impossible that I stupidly returned his boast with an, "Oh, yeah?" which then led to his fast-talking me into shining my shoes. He then attempted to extort $10 PER SHOE out of me, but fortunately, the LSW is much smarter/craftier than myself, and she convinced him we only had $10 cash left on us. He took it grumblingly, and I've never been prouder of the LSW than I was when she hosed the grifter in N'awlins. That's why I married her, folks.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to New Orleans, and I'd recommend that if you haven't been, you find a reason to go and just do it. You won't be disappointed, and if the best thing that happens to you is a warm, delicious Cafe du Monde beignet, consider yourself to have lived a full life.

Some non-NOLA-related postings to come soon, but until then, enjoy yourselves out there, and keep an eye out for smooth talking Cajuns. Adieu!