The National World War II Museum

We had a day here before Rebecca and Chris arrived, which we took advantage of. There is a World War II museum here that is amazing! It is very well done, and includes a film produced and narrated by Tom Hanks - Beyond All Boundaries. A short pre-film sets the stage for the film by explaining the background in Europe and in the US prior to the war. The comfy leather seats for the main film vibrate when tanks or planes come near. When you get to the Battle of the Bulge, snow falls from the ceiling and cool air blows through the theater. All throughout the film they use direct quotes from people who were there, read by people like Gary Sinise, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Garner, and Kevin Bacon. The film takes the war from the very beginning to the very end. It was awesome!

The museum does not allow flash photography in the main museum, so my only photos are from the temporary exhibit on the ground floor. From there, you start with the war in Europe as you go up. You cross over a walkway and learn about the war in the Pacific as you go down. All throughout the museum, there are booths where you can sit and hear about various topics from the people who lived it. The museum has a program for recording the memories of veterans.

The museum itself is a work in progress. There are currently three buildings - the main museum, the auditorium for the movie, and a building where items are refurbished for display in the museum. There is a gift shop, of course, with very interesting items. You can buy dresses in 40's styles, flight suits and Navy uniforms for kids, CDs of music, and the standard things like coffee cups, books, T-shirts, etc.

After the museum we did a little shopping at a Bed, Bath and Beyond. The coolest part was this - it was a 2-story store and had a small escalator for shopping carts next to the people one. I took a picture. Steve said it was "country come to town".

These landing craft were used in both theaters of war. Many of them were built here in New Orleans.

These landing craft could get in close because of the shallow draft. They could unload quickly through the wide door, with four people in full gear easily getting out at the same time.

An early "duck".

Note the artwork on the door.

This is what the completed museum will look like.

Hitler built walls like this all across France, using literally tons of concrete and steel.

These were above-ground bunkers for German sentinels.

My "country-come-to-town" photo. There were handy shopping cart escalators for up and down.

Mobile to Biloxi to New Orleans

Wow. It's been an amazing two days! We left Mobile in rain and light fog and traveled 60-odd miles to Biloxi. The weather had cleared up some by the time we arrived, giving us a chance to walk around a bit. There were quite a few casinos, which we skipped, but not much more within walking distance. One notable exception was a memorial to the victims of Katrina. The monument was beautiful. An oak tree destroyed by the storm had been turned into an amazing sculpture. Some of the buildings we saw were still bearing the signs of the storm, while others had been restored or built new. One block over from the casinos there were huge parking lots - no doubt from missing buildings.

The next morning we left early (0630) and headed out into the intracoastal waterway. The Gulf version of the ICW is not like ours... it is quite wide and is bordered on the south by thin barrier islands. We were less than an hour out before a fog descended. At times we could see maybe half a mile; at other times no more than 300ft. Steve said it was like flying IFR for eight hours. We had to rely on our radar and AIS to tell us where markers, buoys and other boats might be. There were shrimp boats nearby that we never saw. There were barges from time to time that we saw only when we were very close (we are very thankful for our instruments!). We had our fog horn set to sound automatically every few minutes - and we heard others as well. Not a fun day on the water! Around 2:30 the fog lifted and we arrived at our marina around 3:00.

Today we rented a car and will tend to errands and preparations for Becca and Chris. She comes in early Wednesday and he comes in very late. So excited!

A night heron visiting Gemini

A beautiful sunset at Mobile

Cocktails with Lacy and Dick, Betty and Rusty

Leaving Mobile in the rain

Low visibility, but at least it is visible

We've missed shrimp boats!

Lots of pelicans hoping for handouts

Not sure exactly what this is...

A closer view

This looked and acted like a ferry

Oil rigs?

The water was a little rough. This is the front of a barge going against the wind.

Coming into Biloxi

Lots of big casinos

Pelicans at our marina

Trees damaged by the storms

An old theater. Not sure if it's still open

A beautiful building that hasn't been renovated yet

Very cool art deco building

City Hall

Tree that is now a sculpture

Part of the Katrina memorial

Items found after the storm

Leaving the marina for New Orleans

It's overcast, but visibility not bad

This guy sat on the rail for a pretty long time

He let me get really close before he flew away

The visibility suddenly got worse

Our little friends showed up to play - they don't mind fog

There's a railroad bridge over there

I'm showing you photos of things we could see. Mostly we saw fog.

We came up behind this tow - this photo is from when I first saw him.

We talked to the tow captain to ask when we could pass. He directed us between his tow (ahead of us) and the stationary tow off to the right.

This was the tow on our right

Looking backwards between them

This is a levee wall being built along the canal. There will be a huge gate in the opening that can be closed if needed.

For some reason Ryder thought she needed to get on the table.

The fog finally lifted! We are in the canal leading to our marina

Seabrook Marina, New Orleans, LA