New Orleans, Baby!

This is the last post about my trip....finally!

The last two days of my trip with Jed were spent in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Here are all of us gals:

 From Left: Me, Katie, Kelly, and Julie

All the guys:

From left: Tony, Seth, Layne, and Jed

Having breakfast at our hotel:

Tony and Julie (they went solo during the trip but it was nice to meet up with them on a few occasions):

Walking into the historic French Quarter district of New Orleans (began as a French colony in 1718.)  I learned a lot of history about this area, which made everything so much more interesting to see.

How New Orleans began: New Orleans was founded in 1718 by a French Canadian adventurer.  The area was extremely hard to survive in so France took extreme measures of populating the colony by kidnapping and shipping jailed criminals to New Orleans.  They also imported massive numbers of African slaves as well.  One of the buildings we saw in New Orleans was strictly used to auction and sell slaves.  Local Indians were also absorbed into the colony.

In 1763, Spain took over the colony and was eventually taken back by the French.  So here in the French Quarter we saw both French and Spanish influences in the architecture.

We did A LOT of walking, which was really the best way to see the area.

Here is one building that I was interested in seeing:

This Blacksmith Shop and Bar is the oldest bar in New Orleans.  What makes it really interesting is that it belonged to the notorious pirate, Pierre Lafitte, who used the building as a front for his pirate activities, including slave smuggling.

One of the locals told me that this was also the place where if Lafitte wasn't happy with one of his crew members, he would chain them to a board and push their head into the fireplace and burn them alive. (Whether the story is true or not, it sure makes it that much more interesting.)

Joan of Arc Statue:

These photos are just for you, Aubrey.  We know how much you love Joan of Arc!

In line for some French "doughnuts."  (Can't remember the fancy French name for them.)

They were more like fancy scones with an inch of powdered sugar poured on them:

Try eating this stuff and staying clean at the same time!  Go Seth!

Got one of the pigeons to eat from my hand.  Take notice he didn't have any feet either, just little knobs for legs.  He was the only one brave enough to eat out of my hand though.

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The St. Louis Cathedral

We visited the oldest Cathedral in America, the St. Louis Cathedral, built in 1718 (it actually began as a tiny church, then cathedral, then a basilica):

We were able to go inside and look around:

A very beautiful place.

Joan of Arc is pretty popular in this city, here she is again in the Cathedral:

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The CabildoRight next to the Cathedral, is the Cabildo, built in 1779, which was used as the seat of government for France, Spain, the Confederacy, and the US:

It was also the place where the Louisiana Purchase was signed!  Cool, huh? 

The building is now a historical museum about the history of New Orleans, the wars, and ethnic groups that inhabited it:

We walked upstairs to the second-floor room where the Louisiana Purchase was signed back in 1803:

How cool is this??!!  We are in the actual room!  If you remember back in history class, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States.

Jed couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the old weapons used during the 1700-1800's that were displayed throughout the museum (he loves that kind of stuff.)

View from the window - which happens to be overlooking the oldest apartments in America, built in the 1840's:

Any guesses as to who took this picture?:   (These French swords were over 200+ years old:)

Painting of the French Emperor & General, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was the one to offer the land of the Louisiana Purchase to the US:

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Pirate Alley

Pirate Alley!  Pirate Alley is the alley right between the Cathedral and the Cabildo building.  This is where the pirates used to leave their ships and come hang out and openly sell their smuggled goods and get drunk along this fence line:

Pirates Alley is also said to be the meeting place of the Pirate Lafitte and General Andrew Jackson where they formed an unlikely alliance and planned the successful defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.  They chose to meet in this dark alley because it could be used as a quick escape back to their ships.  Lafitte was afterwards pardoned for all of his offenses because of his help during the war.

Buildings surrounding Pirate Alley:

Gardens behind the Cathedral.  This also used to be the traditional meeting place for duels and debts of honor to take place:

A different view of Pirate Alley and the Cathedral Gardens.  I bet the patrons of the church didn't appreciate pirates hanging outside by the fence and then people dueling and shooting each other on the inside of the grounds.  Kind of ironic, don't you think?:

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Jackson Square

Welcome to Jackson Square!  This area dates back to 1721 when it was used as a French military training field:

Statue of General Andrew Jackson, who later became the 7th President of the United States:

Great picture of the Andrew Jackson statue and the St. Louis Cathedral, taken by Katie:

Full view of Jackson Square, the Cathedral, and the Cabildo:

We laughed pretty hard at this:

Not because the statue is naked, but the fact that somebody put a speedo on it and no one has taken it off!  (That speedo isn't nearly big enough if you ask me, it should definitely be bigger.)

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World War II Museum

On our last day, we had just a few hours left before it was time to go to the airport.  So we headed to the World War II Museum.

 The museum is huge, and it's not even completed yet.  I learned alot going through there.  Our soldiers endured a huge amount of hardship and death.  It also made me sick at heart to see pictures of the innocent victims of war due to evil dictators and rulers of the time.  Women and children were killed ruthlessly.  In the Jewish concentration camps, thousands of human bodies (more like skeletons) were heaped upon each other.  It was an extraordinary time in our history, that's for sure.

Sometimes, boys will be boys...no matter what their age is:

 Really boys!  This is a museum!  :)

The museum store sold all sorts of stuff.  Helmets, empty grenades, anyone?

Heading back to the hotel.  I like this picture because it shows the 200+ year old portion of the city versus the modern day skycrapers:

To sum up my trip: it was absolutely wonderful! 

I had such a great time with Jed, and as a side bonus, learned so much about our American history in a close up and personal way.  It was hard saying goodbye to Jed again for the second time, but we tried to keep it short and sweet.  Just a few days later, Jed would be flying over the ocean to the big "sandbox" that he would be calling home for the next several months, but it was so worth it to be with him for those four precious days.  I wouldn't have traded any of it for the world.