NY'er Nights in Nawlins - A Crescent City TR:

[skyguy918]

Planning
Between my kids' yeshiva schedule and my wife's public school work schedule, we rarely have the opportunity to take vacations outside the time period between camp and yeshiva, except during peak (ie expensive) travel times. But with my wife on maternity leave (thanks NYC DOE, for finally enacting paid maternity leave!) we were on the hunt for a nice little getaway with just the new baby - primarily someplace warm. I had looked at San Diego, but decided I would actually rather do that with all my kids at some point. Then I looked into the Caribbean - focusing on Puerto Rico so we wouldn't have to deal with a passport for the baby on short notice - but ultimately sided we'd prefer something closer, cheaper, and more urban. We finally settled on New Orleans, having heard great things about it from a friend that had been recently.

I preferred to use JetBlue, having some points stored up from the post-Virgin America sale promo. I found what seemed like good enough prices at 16,100 points per person, which was something like 1.45 ppm compared to the cash prices - I was told anything above 1.35 is good enough to use points. We had a relative with Mosaic book us in case we needed to cancel (coverage for our other kids was up in the air even late in the game):

3/24 7:54AM JFK-MSY
3/27 4:50PM MSY-JFK

We planned on doing a fair amount of driving (plantations, minyan, food, swamp, etc.), so I booked a car rental and set up Autoslash to monitor prices. The final booking was with Hertz, through Priceline, for a category '(C) Mazda 3 4-door or Similar'. Total price for 4 days was $133.94, pay at the counter.

Choosing a hotel was a little trickier. There are lots of hotels, running a pretty wide price and hotel type variety, in both the French Quarter and the neighboring CBD. However, based on our itinerary, the need to factor in free vs paid parking, and trying to keep the cost down, we settled on the Best Western St Charles. Total for 3 nights was $420.87, prepaid via Priceline (with $17.19 ebates cashback), but with full refund cancellation until just before the trip. Looking back, I don't regret not staying 'closer to the action', though I might have chosen to either save even more via a cheap airbnb or go slightly more upscale if I had to do it again.

Flight and Arrival in New Orleans
Due to a late change in who was watching our kids, and Purim having just passed on Thursday, Motzei Shabbos was a mad scramble to drop off our kids by our siblings and finish getting ourselves packed and ready. Sunday morning we were up and out nice and early for our flight. I had tried to use UBERAMEX with a new Uber account for a free ride to the airport, but they must be wise to that trick because I couldn't get it to request a ride at all (with any payment method). Instead, I quickly downloaded Lyft and used that to get us to JFK ($25). We had TSA Pre from Global Entry. JetBlue gives you the option to get a text message with a link to one boarding pass for the whole group, but the person manning the start of the Pre line made us print separate passes so she could confirm we were all marked as Pre. The lines were short, but as relatively inexperienced travelers, we always end up with something in our bags that they then take forever to check. This time it was my wife's lunch - guacamole - which they made us throw out. We made our way to the gate, where they had just started boarding. I had hoped to daven before boarding, but since I didn't want to risk having them check our carry-ons due to lack of space, we boarded right away. We gate-checked the car seat/stroller and settled in.

They had the flight boarded and pushed back super quickly, and we arrived a half hour early. For car rentals at MSY, the car rental building is a short walk on a covered walkway from the edge of concourse D. With nice weather greeting us, we didn't mind the trek. The rental counters are all on the first floor, and then you take an elevator up to the second or third floor to get your car. I didn't realize this until later, but I probably could've cut my wait time by going straight upstairs, where they have a separate Gold counter. The rep asked for my AAA ID - claiming my rate had the AAA discount, which was weird since I booked with Priceline. Eventually I showed her the email from Priceline showing the same booking number, so she honored the price shown. We went upstairs and picked out a Sentra from our section (other options were a Corolla, Kia Soul, and some Chevy Cruzes), which we ended up being happy with. With that, we were on our way to our first activity...

[skyguy918]

Day 1 - Plantations
Visiting one or more plantations seemed to be on everyone's list for NOLA. Having done it, I would say that if you're short on time, or you're not getting a car, it may not be worth it, simply due to the relative locations. Otherwise, it can definitely be a nice and relatively unique half day plus activity. Most of the plantations are close to an hour from the places tourists are likely to stay. Because the airport is between the city and the plantations, we decided to make that our day 1 activity, straight from the airport. The timing of our flight and wanting to be back in time to eat and daven allowed for 2 plantation visits. I found a really comprehensive review of all the options here (https://independenttravelcats.com/louisiana-plantations-river-road-guide-baton-rouge-new-orleans/). We had decided that Whitney - with it's focus on the slavery aspect of plantations - would be one of them, and we ended up choosing Destrehan for the other. Most of these places sell tickets online. Whitney in particular seems to sell out a fair amount - we had to keep checking back finally before seeing availability for Sunday. They're all in the same price range: $20-$25. I think our total for 2 of us at those 2 plantations came to just under $100 after tax.

Destrehan is just about the closest of them all, being just 10 minutes from the airport. That was the main reason we picked it, in addition to the fact that it supposedly has various demonstrations. The tours are every half hour, and are given by guides in period costume. We were a little unlucky I think, given that our tour guide was very old and didn't hear very well. The 'big house' itself seemed nice (though I only have Whitney to compare to, and that was very small/not fancy), and there were a lot of gorgeous old live oaks on the property (no oak alley though). They have a letter from Jefferson (as president) and Madison (as secretary of state) to Destrehan asking him to help form the government of the new territory, but it's kept in a very darkened room (no photography), and a separate guide gives you a really short presentation, with basically no time to really take a closer look at the document and other artifacts in the room. The one bright spot was a small exhibit in one of the smaller buildings on site covering the 1811 slave revolt, which had a guide give a nice little speech about it.

[1] Front (river/road facing) of the big house; [2] view from the second story porch out towards the road and levee; [3] opposite side of the big house, with a sugar kettle (the really big pot) in view.

              

A selection of some of the more impressive live oaks on the property. Notice the ubiquitous Spanish moss draped over much of them, a recurring theme in the area.

              

View of the Mississipi from atop the levee just across the road from the plantation. The bulk of the river is obviously beyond those trees, but the water level was very high at the time.



With the time for our tickets coming up at Whitney, we headed back to the car, and ate lunch on the drive over. I found the area very interesting, especially the parts along River Road - seeing the kind of community that remains along what used to be an economic powerhouse of the region (and of the country) in the antebellum period. We checked in at the visitors center, collected our passes, and joined the tour. There's a video presentation in an old church that was moved to the property, detailing how the history of formerly enslaved peoples was collected from former slaves by the Slave Narrative Collection (part of Roosevelt's New Deal), and some history of how and why the plantation/museum came to be. The actual tour covers a memorial to those that were enslaved on the plantation, a memorial to all of the enslaved that died as children in that parish (county), some explanation of the growing/harvesting/processing of sugarcane, a walk through an actual slave cabin, a slave cage (taken from slave markets that used to be all over NOLA), various work buildings that used to be important on plantations, and the big house itself. The guide here was miles better than Destrehan, and overall we felt the whole place was structured better as well. If you're hoping for an oak alley, there's a relatively short and young one going from the front of the big house to River Road. There was a fruit tree (loquat or Japanese/Chinese plum) they let us pick, which was an added bonus for my wife. She still reminisces about picking various types of wild guava wherever we found it on Maui, so this brought back fond memories.

[1] Wall of Honor (every slave from that plantation); [2] Memorial to all people enslaved in Louisiana; [3] part of Field of Angles, with the names of every slave in Louisiana who died before the age of 3, with quotes from former slaves about their childhood.

              

[1] Small patch of sugarcane for demonstration purposes; [2] actual slave quarters original to the site; [3] slave pen that would've been used in a slave market in NOLA proper.

              

[1] The loquat tree; [2] view of the big house from the plantation side; [3] view of the big house looking down the (not original) oak alley from the road/river side.

              

[1] The former church and video presentation room for the tour; [2] a blue iris, which was blooming in a few places on the property;  examples of the 'Children of Whitney' statues scattered about the property, in [3] one of the rooms of the big house and [4] in a garden/fountain area at the far end of the oak alley.

               

Back at the visitor center, we spent the last half hour or so before they closed walking and reading through the exhibit there on slavery in the New Orleans area. It was very well laid out as well, if you don't mind a bit of reading. Once we'd had enough, we headed out for the drive to Metairie, where the kosher food is.

The restaurant part of Kosher Cajun closes at 3 on Sundays, so we went to Casablanca. The ambiance in the restaurant is distinctly middle eastern, with interesting decor on the walls (hookahs, instruments, knvies, rugs, etc.). We had the Harira soup, a Koufta Kabob plate with rice, and the Chicken Marrackech with fries - more or less sharing everything. The house salad that the entrees came with was pretty good, though it was too heavily dressed for my wife's taste. Overall I'd say the food was good, and decently priced. My only complaint was that the pita they gave us seemed to be the really bad, thin, store bought type - disappointing considering some of the best pitas I’ve had have come from similar style restaurants.

From there it was a short 5 min drive over to Chabad of Metairie for mincha/maariv. Shout out to @joey89 for the welcome, the only DDF'er I know of in NOLA. I don't know if this is reflective of all year round, but it was a bit of a struggle to get 10, though we did eventually have a minyan 2 of the 3 nights I was there.

On the way to our hotel, we stopped off at a Target to get some snacks and other foods for lunches. After that, we made our way to our hotel and settled in for the night. The Best Western St Charles was on the small side (maybe 40 rooms on 2 floors), and the rooms were nothing special - but it got the job done, and the location and price were right. Parking is free - there is a small gated parking lot which they give you something like a garage door opener to get in and out of. Breakfast is free as well, and came in very handy for us. They had a selection of pre-packaged bowls of cereal, apples/bananas/oranges, yogurts, bottled juices, small milk containers, etc. (all non-CY obviously). This made for pretty filling breakfasts for us, as well as some extra snack throughout the day. I took the little servings of Smuckers peanut butter and jelly to spread on packaged bagels we had picked up for lunches.

[skyguy918]

Day 2 - French Quarter
The only weekday shachris in town is 7AM at Chabad of Uptown, which was less than a 10 minute drive away. That gave us an early start, even with plenty of time to sit down at the hotel's breakfast and to pack ourselves up for the day. With the hotel being right on the St Charles streetcar line, we knew we wanted to ride the streetcar at least once. We booked a 10AM French Quarter tour with Free Tours by Foot (they also have cemetery, Garden District and other tours) and hopped on the streetcar. We paid with the NORTA app, which also shows real-time update on the timing/position of the next car. It's $1.25 per ride, so round trip for the 2 of us was $5. We got out at Canal and walked the rest of the way to the meeting point (Jackson Square), but we probably could've saved some walking with a transfer to the Canal streetcar. Along the way we noticed all of the trees and power lines strewn with bead necklaces and other 'decorations', leftover from the Mardi Gras parades that make their way down St Charles. I don't know if it was because it had only been a few weeks since the end of Mardi Gras, or if it stays like that year round.

The tour itself was pretty good. It was a big group, but the guide handled it well. It wasn't super comprehensive (lasted just under 2 hours), but definitely imparted a taste of the history and culture of the place. It's pay what you want - we ended up giving $30 for the 2 of us. At this point I realized that I had made a mistake - the main other activity I had planned was the Louisiana State Museum sites in the area (Cabildo, Presbytere, 1850's house, Jazz Museum), but they are all closed on Mondays. I should have swapped our Monday and Tuesday itineraries. Oh well. We walked over to Decatur St and went up to Washington Artillery Park for some really nice views of Jackson Square on one side and the riverfront on the other. With no shade there, we walked back into Jackson Square and ate lunch on some park benches. With no museums to occupy us, we spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering around, listening to street performers, peaking our heads into interesting shops, and just taking in the sights. Of note was New Orleans Musical Legends park, which has place to sit, bathrooms, and some musical performances intermittently.

I realize the French Quarter is the beating heart of tourist NOLA, and one of the main reasons to visit, but it really didn't appeal that much to me. We had actually been told about a self guided tour via an app called New Orleans Slave Trade - which is a little more up my alley - but I was a bit frazzled with my initial plan (the museums) falling through and didn't remember about it until later. I had also been looking forward to the Katrina exhibit at the Presbytere, but that was my own mistake that made us miss it.

[1] St Charles Streetcar; [2] Madame John's Legacy (green building), part of the Louisiana State Museum and one of the oldest houses in the FQ; [3] Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the US.

              

[1] View from Washington Artillery Park of Jackson Square (statue of Jackson on his horse right in the middle, St Louis Cathedral flanked by the matching Cabildo and Presbytere; [2] The square was originally a military plaza in the French and Spanish colonial eras; [3] Live oak in Jackson Square, with the upper Pontalba building (l) and Cabildo (r) in the background.

              

[1] A gas lamp shop, which seems to be very popular in NOLA, both in the FQ and in the wealthy areas of the Garden District and further Uptown.; [2] Antique shop with old weapons and rare currency; [3] Three wise monkeys

              

[1] Musical Legends Park; [2] Street musicians; [3] View from Washington Artillery Park toward the riverfront, with Canal streetcar passing by.

              

Once we'd had enough wandering about, we headed back toward Canal St to pick up the St Charles streetcar back to our hotel. On the way, we tried to find packaged ice cream, eventually finding some Haagen Daaz bars in a Walgreens. The streetcar took forever to come, and was really crowded, so the way back wasn't nearly as pleasant an experience as the way there. We got changed at the hotel and got in the car to head back to Metairie for dinner and davening. This time we went to Kosher Cajun. This place is interesting - peak OOT. It's a restaurant, kosher supermarket, and Judaica store for the community. The food is mostly NY-style deli, with some kosher versions of local specialties thrown in ('kosher shrimp' po-boy, gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etc.). My wife had the grilled boneless chicken breast plate (with salad and spicy fries), I had a 1/4lb roast beef sandwich on club, and we shared a small chicken and sausage jambalaya. The food was very good (especially the spicy fries) and pretty cheap for a filling meal. The jambalaya was pretty good - not something I'd be likely to order/eat often, but interesting to try.

After dinner, we had a few extra minute before davening, so we decided to drive a few blocks up to see Lake Pontchartrain. I luckily picked a block with a footpath up the levee at the end of it, so we just parked and walked up. We could see the Pontchartrain Causeway (longest continuous bridge over water in the world) and snapped some nice pictures with the sun setting. (Most of them had us in them so here's what was left):

           

After davening, we drove back to the hotel, stopping again for some random shopping (my wife is incapable of passing by a Ross without going in )

[skyguy918]

Day 3 - National World War II Museum
Repeat of day 2 morning, with shachris, breakfast and an early start. We both very much enjoy history, and were therefore looking forward to visiting the WWII museum. This place opened just 20 years ago, as the D-Day Museum, before being designated and rebranded as the official National World War II Museum. The primary reasons for it being in NOLA are the fact that Higgins Industries and Stephen Ambrose were both in NOLA. Higgins was the company which manufactured the LCVP's (small boats used to land troops on the beaches of Normandy, and countless Pacific islands - they were actually known as Higgins boats) and PT boats (patrol torpedo boats). Stephen Ambrose was a historian and author of many WWII books (including Band of Brothers), and pushed for the creation of the museum. The museum is located in the CBD, a block away from Lee Circle. It's very much accessible from the streetcar, but I initially thought we might drive around after to see more of the area, so we drove and parked ($10 for 8 hours in the Residence Inn's lot a block away). They are apparently constantly expanding this museum, as there were several construction projects ongoing within the 'campus', in addition to the 4 or 5 existing buildings of the museum.

I had been unable to find any discounts, so we just bought when we got there. Base tickets are $29.25 after tax. You can go back for a second day for $7, and there are 2 different 'extras' for $7 each - a '4D' movie narrated and produced by Tom Hanks and an interactive submarine experience. We spent the entire day there (~9:30-5:30, they didn't seem to be in a rush to kick people out at 5) and didn't even see all of the free exhibits. Part of that was due to taking breaks for the baby, but there's also just a lot to see. If we'd had 1 more day in NOLA, I would've strongly considered spending it at the museum as well.

There was an exhibit featuring the art of a former French soldier and commando. Had I known what was what in advance, I'd probably have skipped this, but the exhibit did have a display of what happens to be all the guns I remember from Call of Duty 2 (Springfield, Bren, Thompson, Colt, some others I'm forgetting) . Arsenal of Democracy was a phenomenal exhibit, covering from the post-WWI period through the US joining the war. Some highlights for me include sections on the public opinion in the US in the isolationists/interventionists debate during the lead up to Pearl Harbor, the effect on the home front, and the role of American industry and technology (Manhattan Project and more) in winning the war. The D-Day exhibit was really good too, with sections detailing the Allied Command of the European Theater (they were not too kind to several British members of command), the role of counter-espionage and misinformation, a fantastic display showing the sheer scale of the invasion in aircraft and watercraft, and more. By the time we'd gotten through all that, we didn't have much time left, so we fairly quickly walked through the Merchant Marine Gallery and Road to Tokyo exhibits. We didn't even get a chance to step foot in the Road to Berlin exhibit.

[1] Exterior of the building that houses the Road to Berlin and Road to Tokyo exhibits; [2] C47 (transport aircraft) hanging over the lobby/ticket area, Spitfire (fighter plane) over the left wing, Higgins boat on the ground below the left wing.

              

[1] Warning system for gas attacks - same design as many wooden graggers; [2] For those Band of Brothers fans, a relatively tame treatment of Cpt Sobel (played by David Schwimmer in the series, arguably the 'villain' of the early episodes); [3] Sign above the entrance to the section about the Manhattan Project (nuclear weapons).

              

[1] Inflatable tank, used to trick the Germans into thinking the invasion was being staged in a different area; [2] Specialized glider craft that was used to airdrop jeeps and other heavy equipment; [3] Visualization of the scale of the D-Day invasion in terms of ships and aircraft.

              

From there we went straight for dinner. I hadn't realized Waffles on Maple (more on this in day 4) closes at 3, so after stopping there, we went back to Kosher Cajun for dinner (thankfully it wasn't to big a detour time-wise). This time I had a 1/2lb burger and fries, my wife had a 1/4lb roast beef sandwich, and we shared a small red beans and rice with sausage. Everything was good again, except for the fries (I should've asked for the spicy instead of regular). Unfortunately we didn't end up with a minyan that night, so I davened mincha in the shul, and then maariv later at the hotel.

[skyguy918]

Day 4 - Swamp and Garden District
After shachris and breakfast we packed up and checked out. I saw a lot of mentions of swamp tours as a major NOLA area tourist attraction. I found that Barataria Preserve, which is ~half hour south of NOLA proper, has a ranger led nature walk that's free (10AM Wed-Sun). We actually prefer that to sitting on a boat, so it was a no brainer. On the way, we stopped at Anshei Sfard, the last remaining historic orthodox shul/congregation in NOLA proper (read some interesting history of orthodox Jewry in NOLA here). Unsurprisingly, we were unable to go inside, but did take some pictures outside.

From there it was a nice half hour drive to Barataria Preserve. It seems like the wetlands walk can cover different parts of the park each day, so while days earlier they told us on the phone to come to the visitor center, when we got there they sent us out to another parking lot (Bayou Coquille) where our walk would begin. The path in this area was all well-kept dirt/gravel paths or boardwalk, so we brought our stroller. There was a bridge with a few steps up and then down we had to carry the stroller across, and then a larger when at the end of the path we didn't bother with (just took turns going over for the view and then back). The trail is not a loop, so you essentially walk back the way you came. With a large group, and an older ranger, it was a bit slow, but he was very informative and we enjoyed being out and about in nature with such good weather. He talked about marshes, swamps, the role of the wetlands in the geography of the area, the plant and wildlife, etc. We got to see a few patches of wild blue irises in bloom, some small snakes, a bunch of lazing alligators, a great egret, and a river otter. Overall it was a very pleasant experience, covering a little less than two hours.

(apologies for the terrible quality of the 'zoomed' photos, which is what happens when you only use a cellphone with no manual zoom)

[1] Giant blue iris; [2] Pink moss (or lichen? don't remember which) growing on a dead tree; [3] River otter munching on the dense vegetation that covered much of the canal.

              

[1] Great egret; [2] and [3] Alligators hanging out in the water or on patches of dirt floating in the water.

              

We headed back into NOLA and made pit stops at Lee Circle and Lafayette Square, just to quickly see the sights and snap a few pictures. At this point we pulled up a Garden District map/tour (think it was this one) on our phones and started driving around the area, gawking at the houses there. We started out in the car, just cruising really slow, looking out the windows at the house, and eventually parked and walked around on foot. We also popped into Lafayette Cemetery. I don't view this as a must activity, but it was interesting, and I can see it being worth a proper tour if you have the time.

[1] Congregation Anshei Sfard (built in 1926); [2] Wednesday at the Square, free concert in Lafayette Square (unfortunately at night, after we left); [3] Communal tomb of a firefighting company in Lafayette Cemetery.

              

[1] Lee Circle, former site of a Robert E Lee memorial (notice the lack of statue atop the column); [2] Rice-Brevard House, former home of famous author and NOLA native Ann Rice; [3] Archie Manning's house, where Eli and Peyton were raised; [4] Sandra Bullock's house; [5] John Goodman's house.

                            

That's about all we had time for, so we proceeding back down St Charles one last time, this time pausing to show my wife all the things I noticed on my drives to Chabad each morning - like Touro Synagague (Judah, Isaac's son, was a wealthy NOLA resident), Tulane and Loyola Universities, Audubon Park, etc. We stopped for an intentionally late lunch at Waffles on Maple. Quick side note on kashrus here. We were initially told only to eat at LKC establishments (Casablanca and Kosher Cajun), which meant no Cafe Du Monde, no Rimon @Tulane Hillel, and no Waffles on Maple. Further research while in NOLA convinced me that we could eat at the original Waffles on Maple (but none of the other aforementioned establishments). I don't want to get into all the details, except to say that it's non-CY, and that no one should rely on me for this, as I was told the situation is pretty fluid and one should do their own research if/when it's relevant.

My palate is not very adventurous, so despite all the really interesting things on the menu, I had a plain personal pizza, my wife had one of the paninis (don't remember which) and we shared a brownie a la mode for desert. The pizza and panini were decent, but the brownie waffle was fantastic. We should've just scrapped any pretense of eating a proper meal and ordered all desert sounding waffles . We ate outside, once again enjoying the great weather.

With that, our time in NOLA came to a close. We drove back to the airport, filled up and returned the car, and walked over to the terminal. Somehow they apparently started boarding 15 minutes early, so when we got there just on time for when boarding was supposed to be, it was empty and we boarded to a full plane. That of course meant we had to check our carry-ons - not ideal, but it didn't eat up more than 5 minutes extra when we landed. Despite not seeing anyone in the middle seat between us when I had looked earlier that day, there was someone booked into it when we got on. Thankfully, this extremely kind Australian guy we met while we were boarding was in the last row, right behind us, all by himself. He offered us to switch (giving him our aisle now with no one in the middle), so we had the full last row to spread out. I discovered a new game for myself - trying to use google maps and satellite (thanks JetBlue for the free wifi!) to identify features in the landscape below. Mostly that meant bodies of water and metro areas, but I did manage to identify the Hyundai plant in Alabama. We landed, collected our things, and took a Lyft home (with a new account and $15 off first ride from JetBlue). All in all, not a bad time and place to visit.

[joey89]

From there it was a short 5 min drive over to Chabad of Metairie for mincha/maariv. Shout out to @joey89 for the welcome, the only DDF'er I know of in NOLA. I don't know if this is reflective of all year round, but it was a bit of a struggle to get 10, though we did eventually have a minyan 2 of the 3 nights I was there.

Pleasure meeting you. Minyan is a challenge most of the year, if anyone else visits it would be wonderful if you can join us for Minyan.

[ludmila]

Thanks for the detailed TR and pictures.

[marduk]

That's a good read and nice photos! You surely planned your trip very well.

[Denverite]

That's a good read and nice photos! You surely planned your trip very well.

+1 Excellent trip report! I’ve added to my next places to visit. Seems like a fun place to go also with kids (I’d skip some of your history stuff for them) but again thank you, great TR!

[jose34]

Is this on New Orleans Master Trip Report thread?