New Orleans

Well this weekend we went to New Orleans.  We were able to get on the early flight there thanks to Bob and Helen giving me a ride.  The hopes were dim, the flight was overbooked, but tender mercy we got on! And got to sit by each other.  I'll have to warn you once again there are A LOT of pictures!  Thanks for reading.  Enjoy!

We made it New Orleans when it was still light out and took a taxi to the French Quarter to our hotel.  The French Quarter is the oldest neighborhood in New Orleans and is full of character from when it was under spanish rule.  We spent all evening walking around taking in the scene.  They have one street called Burgundy which is like Vegas... on steroids.  Just a sea of people partying.  It was absolutely crazy to see.  We got some spicy cajun chicken for dinner, explored more, and walked the beautiful Mississippi Moon River Walk with all the steamboats sparkling in the night.

Our hotel was a little questionable.....so we were up and gone first thing in the morning.  The morning was nice we were some of the few people out early.  All the street cleaners were out spraying and it smelled disgusting from the night before! Gross.  We headed to the famous "Cafe du Monde" to get beignets for breakfast.   SO DELICIOUS! They are french donuts with powdered sugar with some fresh squeezed orange juice.

Cafe Du Monde

heaven,

this poor joe and his friends must have been up all night and
then when he passed out they just left him and laughed
from outside waiting for him to wake up.  Poor guy!

After breakfast we went back to the Mississippi.  We also went to Jackson square a historic landmark that was created after a famous park in France.  It is so pretty and there are all these artists selling there were and playing jazz.  There is a huge cathedral, St. Louis we were able to go in and explore. 

handome joshua.

Jackson Square (:

mississippi!

Next we took a street car to the "Garden District."  This is an area full of old historic mansions.  We just walked all around with a guide telling us about each of the famous houses we went by.  We even went by the house Walt Disney stayed in when he went to New Orleans and found charming so he created the Haunted Mansion to look just like it.

Lastly, we went to the National WWII museum.. INCREDIBLE!  If you are going to New Orleans this is one of the two things you have to do.  This museum is full of model airplanes and jets, movies with real footage that do a great job of leading you throughout every stage of the war.  I love history so I may be bias but this was truly one of the best museums I have ever been to.  They have incredible technology they use to talk about all the different missions and battles of the war.  Now you may be asking yourself "Why in the world is this museum in New Orleans of all places?"  It's okay, Josh and I wondered the same thing.  Turns out that a man named Andrew Higgins created a boat that changed warfare.  These "Higgins" boats let the U.S. make amphibious landings right up on the shore so they could quickly attack.  So interesting.  Never knew.

'Merica!

Here is one side not Josh and I thought was very interesting.  WWII was when three tyrants teamed up together to basically rule the world, Japan, Germany and Italy.   These tyrants ruled by torture and fear. It was a terrible time I can't even imagine.  The United States did not want to be at war.  They did not think it was their fight but Hitler and his blitz warfare was quickly taking over Europe.  The U.S. eventually sent help to Great Britain in supplies but not soldiers.  They stopped providing steel and other resources to Japan.  Japan is an island and has a hard time getting these resources.  As you know eventually this all led to December 7 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

After Dec. 7 america became very afraid of the Japanese and these propaganda posters
became seen all over.  If you haven't heard about the Japanese concentration camps
in America during that time you should definitely look into it.   

Japanese had posters as well they believed we were mix blood monsters
and their race was "pure" this is of Roosevelt as a monster.

What we found interesting is how much the story of WWII testifies of the truth of the gospel.  Just as the prophets prophesied "Satan will raise up great tyrans and rulers over the people" [that's not word for word but basically] that is what happened.  Hitler, Japan and Italy's leaders were these terrible tyrants.  At this time American did not have a strong army.  Our army was ranked 18th in the world behind Romania and extremely small compared to the HUGE armies in Germany, Italy and Japan.  Yet, America prevailed and stopped the world from falling into the hands of these men.  At the beginning the U.S.'s army would not have stand a chance but everything happened to God's plan and he once again preserved America so the work of the church could continue to fo forth.  Just a little side note we thought was cool. 

WWII became a war that involved everyone.  Men went to war and women and people that
had been discriminated against before took their jobs to keep the US running.  Items were using
sparingly or not at all in order to provide for the army.  For example they started making cardboard
license plates so they could use the metal for the war.

We took the streetcar back to the French Quarter and explored a little more before heading to the airport.  What a great weekend (: