Pharmacy Museum, New Orleans

Thw last stop before leaving the darling city was the Pharmacy Museum, mostly because it's the closest to our hotel. It's an old pharmacy that also has its share of scary stories that was then converted to a museum. The tour guide was absolutely hilarious and highly knowledgeable not just of the items in the museum, but the circumstances of New Orleans living and culture in the past.

The first floor is full of old "medicines" and I use quotes on that because the state of medicine and pharmacy back then was appalling. As the tour guide said, dying was the culture and the look of death was the popular trend.

After this was the mad dash to get to the airport and not miss our flight back home. Other things not pictured was our night on Bourbon street, but that really shouldn't be put on public display anyway. New Orleans was so fun! I'm already planning to come back for Mardi Gras. I think I need to experience that at least once in my lifetime. Some photos by Ella.

New Orleans Museum of Art

Ella and I always make an effort to visit a museum wherever we go. The New Orleans Museum of Art is small compared to any of the Smithsonian art museums we have in D.C. but we figure it's because the Smithsonian is hoarding any of the good old art. Still, they had some pretty hilarious works of art, not to mention a pretty museum cafe.

We also stumbled upon a Chinese Lantern Festival that was going on. The Lanterns were placed in their botanical gardens, which of course we would end up in the botanical gardens. They also had performances. 

Most of the photos were taken by Ella but I took some from my phone as well. The lantern festival could be viewed during day but it is clearly much more beautiful at night. They also served Chinese food. We were there so late that we weren't sure if the trolleys would still be operating. Thankfully they were. This post is very picture heavy but this was such a fun event to photograph though! I'm glad we stumbled upon this.

Seeing the Swamp

On our third day, Ella and I woke up bright and early for our Swamp Tour. We chose the Jean Lafitte swamp tours and we went with the airboat one, which is more expensive but totally worth it. The swamp is a bit of a drive away from the city, but it actually isn't as far as I thought it would have been.

The swamp is privately owned by a family that has kept it for generations, apparently dating back to when their ancestor was a crew member of the pirate Jean Lafitte and was rewarded this land. This land is still mostly used for hunting. Our tour guide described to us what animals they would hunt, including how they hunt and help control the alligator population. We learned that all swamp animals apparently love marshmallows. Then our tour guide brought out his own baby alligator!

The tour was a good two to three hours. At some parts of the swamp, you could actually see the buildings at the edge of the city of New Orleans. Our tour guide also described to us how the swamp was when Katrina hit as well as the environmental problems that continue to plague them. The tour took up most of the morning but of course, Ella and I still had a lot to do for the rest of the day. All photos courtesy of Ella.