National World War II Museum and Lafayette Cemetery

    The top place to visit in New Orleans according to TripAdvisor is the National World War II Museum.  Since Rick and I are both Baby Boomers we have a connection to World War II and this museum looked like it would be interesting if we had rain.  Today it rained, again.  But that's okay because the museum was terrific.
    I wondered why this museum is located in New Orleans and that question was answered by a display of a landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP) or Higgins boat.  This boat was a landing craft used in amphibious landings in World War II.  The boat was designed by Andrew Higgens, a boat manufacturer, based on boats used in New Orleans swamps and marshes.  Every film of the landings at Normandy Beach shows men walking off these boats.
     The museum consists of five large buildings including a massive theater which shows a movie introduced and produced by Tom Hanks.  The movie was on a huge screen and had many special effects to produce a sense of being part of a war zone.  The movie was attended by 40 young Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.  I wondered what they thought of pictures of hangings, shootings, concentration camp victims, thousands of bodies on Normandy beach and the aftermath of two atomic bombs in Japan.  The ultimate  message was one of hope and victory, but also one which stressed the huge cost to the whole world.  I would have a very hard time explaining it all to my grandchildren if they had seen it.
    Another building of the museum is sponsored by Boeing and displays many planes, tanks, jeeps and other vehicles used in the war.  This was a big hit with the scouts (and Rick).
    We left the museum with sore feet so we did some driving to the Garden District to see some of the grand old homes in New Orleans.  The streets are really narrow, it was raining, and there were dozens of walking tours, but we enjoyed seeing the grand old mansions.  I am also fascinated by the many one-room-wide homes called "shotgun" houses.  After Katrina when many houses were rebuilt and new versions of the old designs were made to fit homes on the very narrow lots.
      We also stopped to walk around one of New Orleans old cemeteries.   New Orleans is built on a swamp so all the graves are above ground.  All these varied tombs give the cemeteries the nickname "Cities of the Dead."  They are really interesting places and we saw many walking tours.
    We got back to the camper in time for the rain to really start pounding.  I may have to rethink my assumption that the river won't breach the levee.