New Orleans April 4

Today we headed out and made our way to downtown NO. We first stopped at the WW2 museum, a large complex with 4 buildings. First building was the Boeing historic centre where displayed were various WW2 aircraft including a B17 restored to its original condition. we viewed a 30 minute movie narrated by Tom Hanks about the total history of the American involvement. Somewhat emotional as it showed how the world landscape had been changed by the victory over evil (Germany, Japan, Italy) and its ruthless dictators. I stopped to speak with a WW2 vet; let him know my father served in the Dutch underground to help Jews escape to Britain; he was very excited and thanked me for his involvement. He had fought for 6 months on Iwojima!! He was 91 years old and still proud and good shape he could relay his experiences in the war. We visited 2 other buildings showing artifacts of the war; very interesting. We then drove into the heart of the French Quarter. we had planned to park and possibly walk around but thought we would drive the "beast" through the local streets. Took our time, got lots of looks as people were thinking "who is this idiot from Canada trying to manouver this big truck through these miniscule streets (lots of finger pointing at our license plate, and then smiles! we saw enough of the decay and smut in our 10 minute drive through this area and decided to head out of town to the plantation district. We first stopped by the Laura Plantation; very busy, too many tour buses and turned around in the parking lot and went to the one next door called St Joseph; took a 30 minute personal guided tour and received the history of the sugar cane era and the slave history of the area; very informative. We took the one hour drive back home and planned our tenderloin dinner; hauled out my new portable SS BBQ; what a feast! Seems to always taste better in the great outdoors (especially in 25 degree sunshine/Louisiana weather). BTW the day started out with some light rain but cleared up by early afternoon. Seems the clouds come regularly off the Gulf in the morning but burn off in the afternoon. We have found a PCA in Baton Rouge for tomorrow; interesting to see how "Reformed" this Church will be. Wishing all our family and friends a blessed Sunday.