We only had this morning and afternoon to wander around New Orleans on our own before joining the group for a Fireside Chat with Doris Kearns Goodwin this evening. We decided to stay close to the hotel, starting with a quick exploration of the three buildings we could see from our room.

The building on the left is Soule College, one of the first business schools in the country, established in 1856 to teach “practical business skills” rather than create MBAs. Google Maps shows it as “now closed” – it moved away from this spot in 1923! The building is now the Louisiana Bar Center and has some law offices in it.

The middle building is Gallier Hall, a former New Orleans City Hall and current event venue.

And the building on the right is the New Orleans branch of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank; they have a small exhibit and museum about money, trade, and commerce in New Orleans through the years. It was worth dropping in and seeing it, but it wasn’t very photogenic. Nor was the building.

We stopped at the hotel to drop off the packet of money that the Fed gave us (shredded, of course), and walked a few blocks to the French Quarter. I noticed the old United Fruit Company building on our way; I hope the renovation keeps it beautiful.

Speaking of renovations, our son Jeff warned us to beware of tilted sidewalks in New Orleans. They fixed up the ones in the French Quarter 40 years ago…it’s time to do it again.

We walked down Royal Street, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells (pleasant ones, unlike Bourbon Street early in the morning), en route to The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC).

THNOC has a permanent exhibition on New Orleans history, and a temporary exhibit space, currently devoted to Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art and Fraternal Organizations of New Orleans. We could have spent all day there, especially in the permanent exhibition. I didn’t know that Robert Moses had proposed building an expressway around the French Quarter’s waterfront – fortunately, locals rallied and got the Transportation Department to refuse to fund it!

The exhibit on Masonic and Odd Fellows folk art was fascinating, too, but somehow the only picture I have is one of an Odd Fellows’ Ark of the Covenant.

I’d asked one of the THNOC staffers to recommend a nearby restaurant for a nice but not extravagant lunch where shellfish would not be required and she suggested Napoleon House, a bit over a block away. It was a great choice; it’s been around for 110 years and is popular with locals, not just tourists. We had Pimm’s Cups and pastrami po-boys, along with Zapp’s Potato Chips, making lunch a real New Orleans experience. We sat, ate, and watched the rain come down in buckets; it was still raining when we finished, so we ordered a couple of cappuccinos, which kept us long enough for the rain to end.

Our next stop was the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (Jeff recommended we visit it). It’s small (two rooms) and crammed with voodoo facts and artifacts, like this African Voodoo Shrine Totem Pole, a display of voodoo dolls (with explanations), and a magic mirror (spirits live on the underside of mirrors and use them as portals to enter the physical world during rituals).

This banner is used in New Orleans Voodoo Cemetery Rituals to honor the Ancestors. It’s 100 years old and filled with Masonic symbols.

We left the museum and walked back to our hotel, stopping briefly at the Hilton across the street which had originally been built as a Masonic Grand Lodge.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Fireside Chat was quite interesting; she talked about how she got interested in history (baseball scores!), her time working as a White House Fellow for LBJ and getting to help him with his memoirs after he left office, her life with her husband (who had been one of JFK’s speechwriters), and much more. And then we got to have dinner with her in a small group; I think we were the only non-lawyers in the group! She was a great conversationalist, and I’m looking forward to reading her new book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s when it comes out next month. Somehow, the entire dinner passed without anyone taking out a phone, so we didn’t get a photo with her!

We’re in New Orleans for the first time since Jeff moved to Boston eight years ago; it’s the departure point for our cruise on the Lower Mississippi, starting Wednesday.

We got to San Jose Airport earlier than we needed, so, as usual, we walked almost the entire length of the terminal to burn off some calories. In the process, we discovered an extension at the north end (gates 30-36) that we’d never seen before this trip – I looked it up later, and it’s been open for more than four years!

Our flights were mostly boring (which I think is the best kind of flight). We had nearly two hours to kill between flights and took advantage of Priority Pass to go to “The Club at DFW” – it’s in two or three disconnected rooms and makes The Club at SJC look like a palace. When we boarded the flight to New Orleans, they said that they expected a rough flight and that there wouldn’t be any beverage service; the seatbelt sign stayed on the entire time, but the flight was mostly smooth anyway.

This was our first encounter with the new New Orleans Airport; it’s a 21st Century airport (unlike the old terminal building, which left nearly everything to be desired). It still has a little personality, but it was mostly Yet Another Airport, at least for the short time we were there.

We took a Lyft into the city; the driver apologized for the car, telling us that it was a short-term rental. He’d been carjacked two weeks ago on St. Charles Avenue near Lee Circle, and was waiting for the police to declare that his car was gone so that insurance would pay for a replacement!

Now we’re comfortably ensconced in the Intercontinental Hote just outside the French Quarter, enjoying watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. My phone just told me the area is under a flood warning, but I think we’ll be OK here on the 9th floor.

When we awoke for our final morning on Celebrity Edge, the ship was docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. We had breakfast, complete with a stunning view of the Opera House, and then it was time to disembark.

The process was smooth (carrying our luggage ourselves saved a lot of time). We took the five-minute walk to the Circular Quay Railroad Terminal, bought our tickets, and were at the International Terminal about twenty minutes later.

We did a little last-minute shopping before going to the lounges. United doesn’t have a lounge in Sydney, so we had our choice between Singapore or Air New Zealand – we tried both. Singapore had much faster wifi and someone making coffee drinks to order (the mocha was great); Air New Zealand was a bit more open and modern and appeared to have a better bar. Both lounges were quite busy, probably because of Taylor Swift.

Our flight home arrived at SFO 30 minutes early, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, seven other flights arrived at about the same time, and it took about an hour before we got our bag. After that, it was a quick ride home, followed by a trip to the Farmers’ Market and Lunardi’s to restock the fridge for the next week.

We were supposed to arrive in Sydney at about 8am, but that hour found us about 30 miles offshore. The weather and waves were above the limit for a ship of our size, so they basically put us in a holding pattern until conditions improved; we finally entered the harbour a few minutes before 10.

We were on a tender not long afterwards, and in front of the Opera House at 10:30.

We walked over to the Sir Stamford Hotel to meet our guide for the day, Terry Rogan of Picture Me Sydney, who was taking us to the Blue Mountains to enjoy the wildlife and scenery. Our first stop was Calmsley Hill City Farm, where we had a date with a koala!

The farm had lots of other wildlife, including wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, and emu.

We left the farm and drove into the Blue Mountains National Park, stopping at Wentworth Falls. The fog and mist were pretty thick, but we enjoyed walking through the area.

We left the Falls and drove further into the Blue Mountains, stopping at an area where kangaroo roam freely.

We stopped at the Three Sisters, but the fog was too dense to see them.

We got back to Sydney just in time to catch the last tender to the ship so we could do our final packing.

Another day at sea, as promised. We kept busy with lectures, walking, anxiety packing, and eating.

Captain Costas gave a fascinating talk about the ship, how it works, some of its innovations, navigation, the ship’s org chart, and much more; it was booked for 45 minutes but he ran for nearly 90…and no one told him to stop. :-)

After that, Celia Garland gave us her last talk for the cruise, this one on Wild Australia (not everything there is out to kill you, but quite a lot is!).

In the afternoon, we went to the Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party in the Eden Lounge; the corridor leading to the lounge is…umm…interesting.

And then it was our last dinner in Luminae, followed by a show (“Colors of Life”) in the main theatre, which I enjoyed; the music was mostly recent rock songs, and the cast did a good job with it. The acrobats were good, too.

We anchor in Sydney tomorrow; we had intended to leave the ship with our luggage and stay at an airport hotel overnight, but the logistics started to get very complicated, so we’re going to come back to the ship after our tour and leave on Sunday morning for our flight home. I think I successfully cancelled the airport hotel. I hope so, because it was more than double what we paid there last year – Taylor Swift is here with the Eras Tour this weekend, boosting the local economy.