living free...National WWI Museum

Thursday I chaperoned one of the best field trips I have ever been on with my kids.

The National WWII Museum

I will be the first to admit I am not the history buff that I wish I were or my husband is, but this is a must see if you ever get to the New Orleans area (preferably without small children).

John and I visited about five years ago with four children in tow....maybe not the best idea of the century but we saw some things then toured the city a little. My favorite trip there was only a couple of years ago, John and I brought my uncle C who fought in D day and oh my it was amazing hearing first hand stories from a veteran. I highly recommend bringing a vet when you go if you know one....what a perspective you will gain.

I wish I could have taken a picture of all the many photos, you really see how blessed we are to live in a free country.

One of the men in the museum told us to take a look at this photo of the soldier with the flag, he told us "This was the best souvenir the soldiers could ask for."
These are a couple of photographs taken as our men prepared for war. The photo in the bottom left breaks my heart....a soldier writes a simple message to his loved on that he was sorry he had to go. It brought up a number of questions, this simple photo of a tent. Was Jean his wife? Did he have children? Did he ever come back to hug Jean one more time? The simplicity of the pictures are much more than what they seem.

After touring the museum we went across the street to view the most amazing video about the war and how it came about. Put this on your things to do when you go to the museum. The last time we visited it had not opened so this was my first time seeing it.

We had a little more than 2 1/2 hours to freely walk around the museum. We found a cute little retro cafe next door to the museum which I think we found within two minutes. We got our coffee pick-me-up as did the kids and walked around some more. My group and two other friends groups took our girls to Lee Circle then later we walked there with the entire 6th grade class for little history lesson.

top right clockwise: Ragan and friends in the cafe with their history/science teacher looking at her new baby pictures. The little girl she adopted is named Ragan (how cool is that?), Ragan in the museum, an old library we found walking to Lee's Circle with great architecture