Today was day 2 (well, 1.5) in New Orleans, so we started at the Whitney Plantation. It's about 45 minutes from our hotel, but the drive is pleasant. I think we were the 3rd car in the parking lot. There's a lot of history connected with this plantation, and you start in a little museum which gives history on not only slavery and plantations in general, but also this specific one, and the families that held it. They had warnings about extreme heat posted and signs telling you to not only take care of yourself, but also watch for others who might be showing signs of heat exhaustion or dehydration. Let me tell you, I was looking forward to this.
Let me tell you - the signs were not wrong. It was very, very hot and humid, and I was quite sweaty before long. The plantation itself was beautiful, and they gave everyone a little audio guide to provide additional information and interviews at 14 different points of interest. We walked through the plantation house, saw the plantation store (which allowed plantation owners to keep workers indebted to them even after slavery was abolished), we saw the slave houses, the overseer's house, a jail cell, some of the sugar refining equipment, and a large number of monuments and sculptures dedicated to the thousands of lives lost to slavery just in the parish.
In stark contrast to the somber plantation was our next stop - the over-the-top, colorful world of Mardi Gras World! This was a "working museum" so to speak, as they have artists on site working on new floats and sculptures. We started our tour by watching a little video about the history of Mardi Gras, got a taste of King Cake (nobody found the baby), and then headed back to the warehouse. The family that owns and started Mardi Gras World still runs it and said that they create all of the Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans. Our tour guide said that it costs around $50,000 for them to create a float which then belongs to whoever purchased it, but they then come back to have them redesigned and decorated each year for a cost of around $20,000. They had an enormous warehouse full of old decorations they had created - some that had been used for parades for several years and some that had never been used for parades but instead were corporate advertising pieces. One of my favorites was "Buzz Lightbeer", who was used on a float with a large mug of beer in his hands.
Next, we went back to the French Quarter, because we couldn't get enough. This time, we parked in a parking garage to save on quarters, and we walked across the street to Jackson Square. This was a pretty small park with a status of Andrew Jackson on his horse in the middle. We didn't stay long, but instead walked through the Square and up to the St Louis Cathedral. I really do love old churches, they're so beautiful. This one was no exception, and their air conditioning was AMAZING. I was definitely in need of it. Sick of me whining about being hot yet? Haha. Anyway, the St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States, dating back to the 1700s.
Right next door to the cathedral was The Presbytère, a museum. We got there right before closing and had 31 minutes to make it through 2 floors of museum. Challenge: accepted! The second floor was dedicated to Mardi Gras and since we had just been to Mardi Gras world, we started there and flew through it. They had some fun decorations for for the bathroom, where they disguised them as port-a-potties. The main floor was dedicated to Hurricane Katrina / Rita which devastated the area back in 2005. It was very well done, informative, and sad, but the gravity of the situation was mostly lost on the younger kids who just wanted to play with everything interactive. Oh well, they're kids!
We had Popeyes for dinner, because its full name is "Popeyes Louisiana Kitechen" and, well, we were in Louisiana, so why not? I'm not a huge fan of fried chicken, but it was good enough!