New Orleans: Warehouse District & the National WWII Museum

I finished my last post about my great adventures in Italy last week, so I’m moving on to the next adventures I had recently! 🙂 You may have seen my post over the summer where I announced that I’m on a quest to visit all 50 states by the time I turn 30, and I had already been to 39 states. I was planning a visit to my family in Florida in August and I happened to find really cheap tickets to New Orleans. I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans- mostly for the food, which did not disappoint! Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were on my list of states to visit, so I decided to lengthen my Florida trip to visit them! (And yes, I visited New Orleans in the hottest part of the summer, and yes, it was incredibly hot and humid!) My mom joined me so we turned it into a long girl’s weekend before going to Florida.

Our first stop was the New Orleans Warehouse District. We stayed at the The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery, which was a beautiful hotel in an old chandlery and warehouse. It was within walking distance to the French Quarter, so we could easily get to the main sights while getting a good night’s sleep away from any noisy nightlife.

Like I said before, I was mostly excited for the food in New Orleans, and the first restaurant we went to was the St. James Cheese Company right near our hotel. As you probably got from the name, it serves cheesy sandwiches and other food with cheese, so it’s not your typical New Orleans fare. But if you like cheese as much as I do, you NEED to go! I had one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had, and they did not skimp on the melted cheese. 

After getting our fill of cheese, we wandered through the Warehouse District towards the National WWII Museum. There weren’t many people around, so it was nice to have a relaxing walk around some beautiful buildings.

I found a Julia Street!! 🙂

We made it down to the National WWII Museum, and I was impressed with how big it is- and they’re still expanding it! If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why on earth the National WWII Museum is in New Orleans, and that was the first question I asked the guides. They told me that New Orleans had a large factory that designed and manufactured boats that had a big impact on the war. After the war ended, a museum called the D-Day Museum (since the boats were used for D-Day) was created about the vessels made in the city and New Orleans’ participation in the war. Later, historian Stephen Ambrose realized that there was no national museum about WWII yet, so he helped turn the D-Day Museum into the National WWII Museum. So there is a reason why it’s in New Orleans!

The museum is pretty big, and it probably took us about two hours to go through it. It was a very interesting museum, and I loved that they had exhibits about life in the area during the war and the different parts everyone in the area played. They had a lot of interactive exhibits, like a snowy area portraying the winters in Europe and a jungle area to show what the war in the Pacific was like.

I found a fellow Dent!

I highly recommend walking through the New Orleans Warehouse District and visiting the National WWII Museum! It was unlike anything else I saw in New Orleans, and the history was fascinating. I’m a history enthusiast (I’m currently taking a graduate level Old Norse class if that tells you anything), and there was a lot of information about WWII that I hadn’t learned before. And I would love to go back once they finish expanding! 🙂

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