December 26, 2018
The WWII Museum was just half a mile from our hotel, so we happily walked there, enjoying tree berries and collecting Mardi Gras beads along the way.
Grabbing beads for his sisters!
Waiting in line at the museum, there was a train schedule that ticked down every time updates were ready.
We didn't take many pictures in the museum because somehow it just felt weird to. Irreverent, almost. It wasn't forbidden; it just didn't feel right. We rode the train, which showed us videos of new recruits riding on the train going to boot camp. Excitement, fear, anxiety. The kids were excited to use the phones after the train ride.
{Katie, Dancy, Thora, Samson, Tommy}
We went up to the second floor for the Bob Hope exhibit. Many military leaders said that the service Bob Hope provided--lifting spirits, inducing laughter, making light of grim situations, and reminding the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and nurses what they were fighting for at home--was greater than if he had enlisted to fight. He fought the darkness in their minds and souls telling jokes and bringing women. He gave heart to the heartless, hope to the hopeless. He would write letters home and his daughter said that it weighed him down so much knowing that many of the men would die. That weight never left him his whole life. Once he happened to add a South Pacific island to his tour itinerary, hearing that there were a lot of Marines there that could really use a morale boost. He went, performed a show, was thanked by the Marines for coming out of his way to visit them when they hadn't had entertainment in so long. Shortly after Bob left, the Japanese attacked and killed 2/3 of those Marines. Bob was devastated at the news. A long while later, he received a letter in the mail from a mother of one of those casualties. She said her son wrote her a letter just before the attack that killed him. He was so happy and excited that BOB HOPE came to lighten their load and give them some laughs. She thanked him for lifting her son's spirits before his death. Another time, he went to visit a hospital and met a Marine who had been on an island previously visited by Bob and Bob learned that after that visit, 90% were killed.
Then we walked through a timeline room that detailed soooo many events that lead up to WWII, starting with the WWI Armistice that crippled Germany. It was a heavy content room to walk through, but I managed to read and explain most of it to the kids, who at least had a foundational understanding of WWII from books and WWI from Wonder Woman.
Then to the weapons room. Every weapon you could think of that was used in the war.
Snack break outside.
Thora cracks me up!
{Me, Thora, Samson, Dancy, Katie}
In case anyone ever wonders where my kids get their sass from, this is what I do when I see Shad taking pictures. I yawn obnoxiously.
Back in the museum, we walked through a 1940s home setup. In the kitchen we opened drawers and cabinets to read explanations of how common household items helped the war effort. In the living room, we saw clothing and toy displays.
We sat by the radio for a fireside chat with FDR.
We took another break for a lunch and decided to go out for lunch rather than eat at the overpriced museum café.
{Samson, Dancy, Thora, Katie, Tommy}
I can't tell if Dancy is blinking or just not participating in Shad's entertainment while I searched for food.
We went to Cochon (that's French for "pig") Butcher, NOT to be confused with Cochon Restaurant which is right next door and twice the price. In fact, if you're going to Cochon Butcher, don't look for a sign that says "Cochon." Just look for "Butcher."
{Tommy, Katie, Samson, Thora, Dancy}
I don't remember what all we ordered, but there's a turkey BLT, pork belly sandwich, hot boudin (blood sausage), something else that was really good. Dunno. It was all good. Boudin (boo-DAN) was amazing with that mustard!
Again with the sass. It was a sassful day, I guess.
Did I mention that Thora is my daughter? She sassed Shad, too.
I said she needs to live in NOLA for the food, right? She loved that pork belly sandwich!
See the lamp?! It's the FRAGILE leg lamp from A Christmas Story and the kids got soooo excited because they knew what it was. THIS is why film education is a subject in my house. Made my day!
That ball above the doorway is the Death Star smashed into the wall. Or is it smashing OUT of the wall?
Back to the museum, we experienced the bridge of a ship.
They have a Bastogne room set up in the museum, but apparently no one knows what Bastogne is (pronounced in French (Bass-TONE-yuh) or in English (Bass-TONE)) unless you've seen that episode of Band of Brothers (arguably the most painful to watch). Fighting back the criticisms of "You work here and don't know what Bastogne is?!" ... "Battle of the Bulge. Which way to Battle of the Bulge?" Still no clue. Thinking back to what the poster in the elevator said..."Road to Berlin! Which way to that?" Got directed. Why was this so hard? Anyway, they had a whole room set up to be like Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge). I wish I had taken a video, but I was so absorbed in the immersion and again, it just felt wrong. Dusk in an evergreen forest, snow piled on the ground. Trees torn apart from shell and machine gun fire, stumps standing with the tops still attached at a point, fallen to the forest floor. Shreds everywhere. A light in a corner illuminated the silently falling snow. And then the lights started to flash as the Germans resumed firing shells, exploding all around us. Oh, it was a beautifully theatric immersion experience. Dancy has been saying, "Ah, nuts!" a lot lately, and I had explained to her previously why I liked hearing that. This room did that again and I got to tell her that this was where and why that quote was said. It was during the Battle of the Bulge that the Germans wrote to General McAuliffe demanding a surrender. McAuliffe's reply was, "NUTS!"
That was where we reached our limit with the museum for the day. We spent 6 hours there, including breaks. Kids were tired, feet were aching. We retreated to the hotel for rest. We absolutely recommend this museum, even with kids. It would take more than one day to see everything. I'm not sure we made it through half. Pro tip: We didn't find out til almost the end of our time that you're supposed to register for a dog tag at the beginning so that you follow a soldier's experience through the whole museum with check-in points. Would've made the experience a lot more personal for the kids. Why don't they tell you when you buy your entrance tickets? That was disappointing to hear we'd missed out on that.
After resting, we made plans to ride the streetcar to Café du Monde for beignets (ben-YAYZ)...and call that our dinner at 7 pm. But it was raining hard and we'd have to walk to and from the streetcar, so we cancelled that idea and just drove. Everyone was excited to try beignets! Again, thank Princess and the Frog for that. Beignets are fried, square yeast donuts covered in powdered sugar and absolutely delicious.
I think Katie was most excited of all! Thora pouted at first and said she couldn't because it was messy.
"I can't!" She's funny sometimes.
But then she tried it and loved it!
We found two penny cranks here--one for Café du Monde and one for New Orleans. The kids all cranked two pennies, despite the stickiness of the crank handle from other users who had eaten powdered sugar beignets, and all those 10 sticky penny souvenirs went into my jacket pocket.
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