It looks like we are going to get to experience a hurricane here first hand.
The news has been full of coverage on Hurricane Nate which is scheduled to make landfall later tonight.
There is even a curfew set for tonight so looks like we will be spending the room in the hotel tonight.
We had the whole day wide open though so first thing we did was look for a place to have breakfast.
We walked down to a little place Stephen (our tour guide from Monday's tour) had told us about.
Saw this place on the way.
Looks like a very old building.
Croissant D'or.
This is the place he told us about, it's a little coffee place that sells French pastries but is run by a Vietnamese couple.
It was nice inside
I really liked the fancy moldings - I don't know that I've ever seen molding painted like this.
It was nice and clean, I like the tile work and the arched doorways.
They had lots of goodies to choose from.
Everything looked so pretty.
I don't like marzipan but I do like these little pigs and mice.
I also don't like meringue but these little ducks were cute too.
They had savory options too.
We tried an almond tuile.
My Honey had a ham & cheese pastry.
I had a salmon baguette.
Everything we tried was so delicious that I went back for an almond croissant and a cheese danish.
Both delightfully good as well.
We were super happy with Stephen's recommendation.
Before we left we also bought a pecan tart and a tourtiere to go.
Maybe he does?
We walked over to the French Market so I could check out the stores a little.
I was thinking I wanted to buy souvenirs for my family but I didn't end up buying anything.
This puppy's owner told him to stay and he was such a good boy and listened so well.
Must be break time for the waiters.
Random statues around the market.
This one was a little tricky, from a distance, it looked like a real girl sitting there.
I had to get my picture taken with her.
More awesome light fixtures.
Just a normal street in the French Quarter.
We thought today would be a good day to go do some indoor activities because of the hurricane that was headed this way so we decided to go to Mardis Gras World and the World War II Musuem.
Mardis Gras World has a free shuttle that picks up at random spots in the city.
One of those spots was Cafe Du Monde so we walked over there and called them for a pick up.
We had a bit of a wait before the shuttle was going to arrive so we did some people watching.
There was a band playing right outside Cafe Du Monde and this little girl was digging the music.
She was so cute.
She was having so much fun - her mom got in on the action too.
The sun was shining and it was so nice - hard to believe a hurricane was heading this way later today.
It's hard to see, but there were fleur du lis hanging from the tree that lit up at night.
The shuttle arrived after about a 20 minute wait and we headed over to Mardi Gras World.
When you first walk in, one of the first statues you see is Elvis.
And of course, a jester.
You can see there is lots of float stuff to look at, but you can't get to it all quite yet.
This is what My Honey was taking a picture of in my shot above.
She's looking like she needs a bit of a touch up on her hair.
We went into the gift shop to wait for our tour to start.
We had about a half hour so we were able to just explore that area a bit.
These were costumes from actual past Mardi Gras parades.
Love this crown coach.
Mardi Gras queen I am assuming.
She was our tour meeting spot.
Another jester but a much creepier version.
They had a nice area in the back for hanging out
It liked right out onto the Mississippi.
It started raining though by this time so we opted to wait indoors.
The tour started with a documentary type movie.
It was all about Mardi Gras and the company that makes the majority of the floats for the parades.
They treated us to some King Cake.
It is a traditional mardi gras thing. Reminded me of a cinnamon roll kind of.
Then we got to go in and tour where the artists work.
Normally we would have been able to see the artists at work but because of Nate, they had all headed home for the day.
Looks like this one was getting some updates or repaired.
Most of the big figures are made out of styrofoam and papier mache.
This one was just starting to get some papier mache applied.
This is a wider view of the work station.
Our tour guide.
Another character in the works.
Most of the characters start out as drawings and these are the "plans" that the artists work from.
After they are created out of the styrofoam and papier mache, they head over to get painted.
They look so life like.
See some princess there and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz too.
They keep all of the characters they make, they have warehouses full of them, not just at this location.
Sometimes they rework them a bit so they become something else.
Not sure if this is a new guy or a rework but I like it.
This guy was used in an old parade and now he is being altered to become a new character for this years parade.
Another float plan.
This is one of the cats that will end up on that float.
Another plan/drawing......
brought to life.
Looks like this guy is just beginning the paint stage.
Thing One and Thing Two.
Just look at all that detail.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
Had to get our picture with Kiss - may not get another opportunity.
So many interesting characters.
A roman goddess.
Charlie Chaplin
Not sure who this fellow is, like the colors on him.
Maybe is the Wizard of Oz?
A dutch cow sporting some wooden clogs.
One of the characters from Where the Wild Things Are.
It was so well done - amazing.
They also had an automated sculptor inside a room.
It had a huge glass window so you could see it at work.
Unfortunately it wasn't working while we were there.
A lady straight from the wild west.
Batman himself.
Not sure if this is Puss in Boots or just a fiddling cat?
Cool mask.
This reminds me of one of the ghosts from Scrooge.
They make these huge flowers out of wire and card stock paper.
All these floats will get stripped down, sprayed down with white so they can start over again next year.
A fancy skull
This float looks like it had a dragon theme.
It is one of the larger floats, there are three levels the folks on the float can stand on and throw beads and treats from during the parades.
They actually get tied on to the floats so they don't fall off.
They pay a lot of money to be able to ride the floats too and they buy their own goodies to throw to the crowds.
Another interesting character.
This guy looks creepy.
So much to take in everywhere you look.
Looked like some skeleton people down there.
Couldn't get to the front of this to take a picture so had to settle for a side view.
Characters everywhere.
A lego man.
Don't know who but cool just the same.
My Honey with Mr.Gorilla.
Looks like Donkey from Shrek too.
And me with Miss Gorilla.
They are in the parade every year but they change Miss Gorilla's outfit out each year.
They said she's had kinds of outfits including even a bikini one year.
This is one of the floats that has been sprayed white, ready to be decorated for this year.
Skeleton girl.
The rest of the band.
Cute puppy.
I love this - it is a scene from a masquerade ball.
Like a 3D painting.
Another jester - they are popular here.
And another jester - he has an uncanny resemblance to My Honey, ha ha!
Winston Churchill
I see Alice in Wonderland.
It was fun finding characters that we recognized.
McGruff the Crime Dog.
Yet another jester.
This devilish guy was scary looking.
Great hair and make up.
Creepy skeleton.
Another cool character.
After the tour we were allowed to mill around a bit.
Not for long though because we wanted to make it over to the WW II museum which was closing early today due to the storm.
The free shuttle dropped us off there and we had an hour and a half to check it out.
Higgins boat.
This is the boat they had when they landed on d-day (or one like it anyway).
They had planes hanging from the ceiling which was a neat way to display them.
A motor bike from 1940.
A wreath made by a German POW.
They had this display set up that was like walking through a home as it would have looked during the time of the war in the 1940's.
It was an awesome museum, so big and nicely set up.
I felt rushed a little, wanted to make it through as much of it as I could so I didn't linger long at any of the displays.
I would like to have a full day to take it all in and watch all the videos and read more of the information.
We did get a good sense of what was all in there.
I am not sure if this flag was meant to be displayed upside down of it it's how we took the picture.
They almost did.
They had a few different buildings that had these huge lobbies with these planes displayed.
It looked really good.
A view from above.
My feet were hurting by this point so I wanted to rest a bit.
My Honey wanted to get a better view of the planes from higher up so he went up a couple stories and took this picture.
He just happened to get me int he picture too, sitting on the bench in front of the stairs.
Sure enough, we ran out of time pretty quickly.
It was raining out pretty good by now so we hailed a cab.
We asked the driver for dinner recommendations and he told us about Mothers Restaurant which we had been wanting to try so we had him drop us off there.
We thought it was our lucky day as there was no line up there like we have seen the few times we've been past it.
Turns out the reason for that was they were closing early so their staff could get home ahead of the storm.
Thankfully the rain had stopped and we weren't that far from the hotel so we were able to walk back to that section of town.
We looked for a place to have supper that was still open.
We found the Creole House.
We had these...
They tasted pretty good.
My Honey had an oyster po-boy.
I had the roast beef po-boy.
It didn't look very appetizing but it tasted really good.
We shared a pecan cobbler for dessert and it was yummy.
It was just after 5pm and our plan was to pick up some snacks then head back to our room in time for the 7 pm curfew.
We were out of luck however, all of the little stores were closed at 5 so the employees could get home in time for curfew.
So we headed back to our room empty handed.
We saw people screwing up boards over windows and getting putting out sandbags, lots of hurricane preparation.
I wasn't really concerned for my life or anything but I was hoping that things wouldn't be damaged too much.
I ended up discovering an app that you could download that would allow you to watch any apps on your phone on the tv in the hotel room.
I downloaded it and we watched 3 episodes of Game of Thrones in our room.
We were expecting lots of wind or rain but the hurricane never really amounted to much.
Our total steps for the day were down a little because we had to retire early but still over 10,000 so I am happy with that.
I also browsed Facebook a little and 3 years ago today was the day we hopped on the train and travelled to Paris from London.
A Day in Paris - Oct.7, 2015.
We arrived there early in the morning and the first thing we did was jump on a hop on hop off tour so we could see the sights.
My Honey & I in front of the Arc du Triomphe
The Louvre.
Notre Dame
The Sienne
My Honey in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Moi and the Eiffel Tower.
You could take an elevator to the top or you could walk up the stairs to the mid section.
The line up was huge and we only had the day so My Honey figured we should just walk up the stairs.
It was really hard - I was so out of breath.
I made it though and the view was worth the effort.
I'm pretty sweaty though - you can see my hair is sticking to my face.
Trying to give it a shake.
He's so strong - I think I felt it move a little (ha ha).
We'd only driven by the Louvre so we went back to see it up close.
Again there was a huge line up to go inside so we made the decision to skip that otherwise we would have spent all our time in Paris in a line up.
I really wanted to try a croissant while we were there.
I did and I was a little disappointed because it just tasted like any other croissant anywhere.
We did come across a little bakery though that was selling baguettes.
They were skinny and super long and still warm like they'd just been freshly baked.
We bought two kinds and OMG - they were heavenly.
I ate a whole one as we walked back to the train station.
It was a lovely day and I know we will be back for a longer visit another time.
That is all for today, until next time, be happy.
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