A Few Days in New Orleans

Last week I went to a work conference(!) and spent five days in the Big Easy. I had this trip planned for months and months, and it’s hard to believe it’s actually over.

 

I flew in on Sunday morning and checked in early to my hotel. I had packed lots of food with me and thankfully my hotel provided a fridge in my room. My room was on the 23rd floor with a view of the Mississippi River, including a steamboat landing, which charmed me immensely.

 

After dropping my things, I walked to the National World War II Museum and spent about 90 minutes there. It was amazing and could have taken me way longer but I was still a bit foggy from the early morning flight, so I chose to focus on only a few exhibits. From there I walked across the street to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art which I could have probably skipped because I’ve spent so much time in art museums at home, but I enjoyed seeing the Southern landscapes.

 

Then I walked to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience which I loved because it gave me the warm fuzzies to be in a Jewish museum in New Orleans (I had a faintly homesick feeling my first day). I spent about an hour at the museum, then I walked back to my hotel. I should add that it was absolutely insanely hot and humid out and I was SO grateful I had bought sunglasses for my trip (which I normally never wear) and smeared myself up with sunscreen.

 

I met up with a colleague and we hung our posters and set up our organization’s table in the exhibit hall. After that I hung out a little in my room and rehydrated, and then I went for a walk in the French Quarter(!). Love Royal Street, so charming! I went to bed early and slept more than eight hours straight.

 

On Monday I got up early to daven and then went down to the conference. It kicked off at 8:30 AM and I spent most of the day at lectures and workshops. Around mid-morning I decided to try and squeeze in a visit to the Garden District, so I got on a streetcar(!), which then got stuck behind a police car which was parked across the tracks. So I spent a half hour on the streetcar deciding not to get off in case it got going again. When that eventually happened, I had just enough time to take the streetcar a ways down St. Charles Avenue, then cross the tracks and take the car back in time for my next workshop.

 

That night I Ubered to Kosher Cajun to pick up supper – so fun, it is basically the one-stop shop for everything Jewish in New Orleans (makolet, wine store, restaurant, Judaica?).

 

On Tuesday, I had to be on duty at our exhibit table at 7:30 AM, so I got an early start to my day. I spent most of the day at workshops (the conference had a PACKED schedule, and the networking was amazing). Lunch was provided as part of the program, and the conference had wonderfully arranged for a double-wrapped meal from Kosher Cajun to be available for me. It was really interesting to sit at a tableful of Southern social workers eating gumbo, and unwrap all that foil! In the afternoon, I stopped in at the Historic New Orleans Collection to see the exhibit on the history of the French Quarter.

 

Wednesday was the last day of the conference and began for me at 7:30 AM. Lunch was another double-wrapped meal from Kosher Cajun ;). I had a class that evening which I joined from my phone, and then had time for another walk around the French Quarter.

 

The next morning, Thursday, was my last in New Orleans. I checked out and the hotel held my luggage for the day. I had paid for a seat on a van to Oak Alley Plantation, about an hour out of the city, and the van picked me up from the hotel and dropped us off at the plantation for a two-hour visit. (Visiting antebellum plantations is obviously a controversial issue, so everyone should do what feels right to them). After a guided tour of the “Big House,” I went to the slavery exhibit. After years of learning about slavery and the Civil War in American history class, nothing compared to seeing slave cabins in person. It was extremely impactful and blew my mind to think that there was ever a time in the history of the United States that slave labor was acceptable. (The cabins at Oak Alley are actually reproductions because the original cabins fell apart over the years and were torn down. But I also saw slave cabins along the road to the plantation. Again, mind-blowing).

 

When I got back to my hotel, I ate lunch in the lobby. Then I took a streetcar back to the Garden District, and this time I had time to get out and walk around, and woahhh, the Garden District is a must-visit! I used this self-guided walking tour as a general guide (because it came up when I googled — but I ran into a guided tour group when I was roving around and kept meeting up with them at different houses so I must have been doing something right).

 

I got back to my hotel area and took one last walk around the French Quarter, then I picked up my luggage and ordered an Uber to the airport. I was back in my house around 12:30 AM. Thankfully I got Friday off of work 😉 .

 

If you got to the end of this post, congratulations and thank you for reading about my trip! I would love to go back to New Orleans with a sister or friend as it was a bit lonely from time to time to be touring alone. Next time, I’d like to try: a bayou tour, a riverboat ride, Laura Plantation, City Park, maybe the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, maybe some jazz. I’m grateful to my job for paying for my flight, hotel, airport Ubers, restaurant, and the conference! It was a real privilege to have a paid-for trip!

 

I hope you have fun adventures planned for this summer, whether farther afield or closer to home!