New Orleans - November 2016 - Day 3 & 4

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Mardi Gras Tree - Tulane University

Again we ventured out early, this time we drove to the area that we were exploring – the Garden District.  Our first stop was the Tulane University to check out the Mardi Gras tree – a tree that is loaded down with Mardi Gras beads – quite a sight! Next we headed to the coffee shop, Still Perkin’, which was near where we were going to take part in another Free Tours by Foot tour. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the neighborhood prior to the start of the tour.  Originally, we had planned to take the streetcar, but my sister had really wanted to do a swamp tour and the time frame of the tour would have made getting back to get the car tight so we drove, which worked out okay since there was a decent amount of parking available in the Garden District.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Our tour guide for the Garden District Tour was Denver Mullican. The tour started with a visit to the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, which just happens to be the oldest of the seven municipal, city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans. The cemetery is a non-segregated, non-denominational cemetery, with immigrants from over 25 different countries. The cemetery was first planned back in 1832. There are about 500 sealed wall vaults along the exterior of the cemetery. The wall vaults were very important. A body had to lay in rest for a year and one day before being moved. Once a coffin or casket is placed into the tomb (or wall vault) it is sealed with brick and mortar for the minimum one year and one day. After the time period has ended the tomb may be re-used, but removing the seal, separating the human remains from what is left of the casket and then replacing the remains back into the tomb (either pushed to the rear of the vault or placed in the bottom). The casket is disposed of and the next body can be interned.  There are 1,100 family tombs and more than 7000 people buried in the single city block of the Lafayette Cemetery No 1. We also learned a bit about French law – lawyers with a law degree in the state of LA can only practice in the state of LA, those with degrees from other states are also not allowed to practice in LA. Finding who owns a tomb is a long tedious process since there are so many splits in the family tree. This is often the reason why the tombs become in disrepair. We spend about an hour of the two hour tour in the cemetery – it was very interesting! After the cemetery we walked around the neighborhood, where our guide pointed out some celebrity houses – Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Nicholas Cage’s old house, the home there Eli and Payton Manning grew up and parents still live.

Manning House

We grabbed lunch nearby at the VooDoo BBQ & Grill. It was tasty, it is a local chain place.  Then we headed to the Cajun Encounters for the Honey Island Swamp tour we had scheduled. If you drive to the swamp tours are $29 for adults and $19 for kids under 12, there is an AAA discount available and there were also $5 coupons in the visitor guide books. They offer pick up from New Orleans, but those are substantially more expensive. The boats they use carry 22 people.  It was cloudy outside so there was not much wildlife other than birds. My sister really had her hopes set on seeing an alligator. 

Cajun Encounters Tour

Cajun Encounters is pretty close to the Mississippi state line was we drove across so now we can say we visited the state – looked pretty much the same as Louisiana. J

Once arriving back to the rental house, we headed back out to Frenchman Street for some more music.  We ended up going back to The Maison. The first band (Royal Street Winding Boys) that was on we liked but then the next one (Leah Rucker) we did not really like.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Baton Rouge Capitol

My sister had to get an early start on the day since she wanted to drive back to her home in MO before dark.  She dropped us off at the airport, where we picked up a rental for the day.  We have been visiting a lot of capitol buildings (we are now up to 22!) so we headed up to Baton Rouge to see Louisiana’s. The capitol building was really tall (34 floors), the 7^th tallest building in Louisiana and the tallest capitol in the United States. The capitol has been in a few places before being at its current location. There was a park next to the complex that included an old armory building. On the other side of the complex,  were some barrack buildings. There really was not a lot to do in Baton Rouge – a lot of museums were closed on Mondays. The old state capitol building is not too far from the new one and we were able to view behind a fence.

Heading back to New Orleans, we stopped for lunch at a place called John Michael’s Good Eats in Geismar. They have a very large menu. I had the chicken fajita wrap and it was very tasty. We still had some time so we drove to the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center – park of the Jean Lafitte NPS. There were a lot of displays to look at and a few video options available. 

Before we knew it, it was time to return the rental car and fly back home. The flight home was not overbooked; however, once we landed we couldn’t find one of the suitcases. We had to file a missing bag. The airline delivered the bag the next day before noon.