last day in New Orleans

Our last day in New Orleans and Oscar and John are sleeping the morning away.  It’s bizarre, Oscar woke up too early, but then ate something and while I’m now awake, they are both sleeping away.  And you can tell by the picture that they are related.  We are trying to make 

sure that we plan things right to get on several different types of transport in time to get to the airport and I finally decide that it’s not worth it.  We are going to check out, store our stuff at the hotel, go see the Louisiana state museum at the Cibaldo and have a nice lunch before 

 catching a taxi to the airport.  I love public transport and usually choose it over any taxi, hotel shuttle etc, but the streetcars are too unreliable, we have too much stuff to lug around and there are too many time tables to coordinate.  So, we’re going easy and expensive for today. 

Getting back on the plane to go home trumps making sure that you get on the plane to leave I think.  So, we put the luggage into the Sheraton which is now on my nice list again since they gave us wifi in the room for free since it wasn’t working in the lobby (which is the only reason

 you’re getting any of this blog before we get home) and a nice concierge that likes watching Oscar crawl around the lobby and gave him toys to play with.  After 4 days here, Oscar now recognizes the lobby and knows where our room is on our hall.  So, again, he starts to understand that while this isn’t home, there

   is a specific place in this new place that is ours which gives me hope that he’ll pick up on this traveling thing.  Also, one of the cleaning ladies gave him a box of lucky charms and I’ve been giving them to him some as treats after meals, but the kid has already figured out which figures are the marshmallows and will pick those out first and then hoot for more lucky charms in

 order to get more of the marshmallows.  So, while he refuses to say one damn word that you can understand, the kid ain’t dumb.    We head into the French Quarter again and hit Southern Candymakers that are giving out samples or their pralines and we just get samples and move on from there.  I have officially chosen Laura’s as my favorite in the city and John doesn’t really have one, but liked the Creole one from Laura.  I’m still going 

with mom and dad’s pralines over any of the ones that we’ve tried here.  So, with the praline testing over with, we go to the Cabildo where Napoleon’s death mask is kept.  At least there is a reason for this relic to be here in this city unlike the other things that we keep running into.  We’ve already been past Napoleon’s house in the quarter which someone built to house him and had sent a speedy yacht to get him off Elba 

 and bring him to safety when he died.  So, there were hard core fans of his in this city.  Again, the Bean is having none of this museum crap.  He starts to fuss and yell as soon as we are slowly walking through the place.  As long as the stroller is going at a good clip, he’s 

fine, but when you slow down and meander, he’s having none of it.  He’s not screaming his head off or anything, but when you’re in a museum, you might as well be in a library and every little squeak and squeal of his is echoing and annoying.  So, after trying for a couple of attempts to fake him out, he and I head out into Jackson Square to check out all of the tarot card readers and psychics.  I didn’t know that druids were indigenous to New Orleans, but 

apparently I could have had my future told by one.  John finishes up the museum and we head off to the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen that John has been wanting to go to since we saw it on our first day.  I remember that it is across from the US Mint, but John doesn’t remember how far we had walked that day and is shocked at how far away from the hotel we

are when we finally sit down to eat.  Again, you’re probably thinking pizza and Louisiana?  I was and I figured it would be weird stuff like crawfish on pizza, but they had pepperoni bacon.  Not a bacon and pepperoni pizza.  But pepperoni that had been baconized and was in strips.  It was absolutely delicious and a salad to split with it made the perfect ending meal.  Also, the Sheraton was giving out pralines off this awesome Southern Belle get up.  They were made by the chef there and pretty good.  Frankly, for the price (free) they were the best we had.  Even mom and dad's pralines come with having to travel or paying the post office, or emotional cost....