New Orleans can best be described as weird. And you can either love it or hate it, embrace it or reject it. When I visited (with my sister Tara along for the ride), it rained almost the entire first day, but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits.

Accommodations

We stayed at the Astor Crowne Plaza, which is located on the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. This was an excellent location for exploring the French Quarter, as well as for hopping streetcars that took us around the city. The hotel is higher end, but an older building that expanded into additional properties, which made for a bit of a maze in trying to find out room on the first night. The walls were extremely thin in the area where our room was (I can’t speak to the rest of the hotel), and we ended up having to call security twice to break up the very loud domestic fight in the room next door. Not cool, especially since I had to wake up early for a conference the following morning.

Transportation

Taxis to and from the airport are a flat rate of $41. So for two of us, and considering it wasn’t a variable rate dependent upon location, this was a good option.

While traveling around the city, we rode several of the streetcar lines, as well as the bus back from the Audubon Zoo. They were clean and well maintained, even if the operators were not always the most helpful with directions or guidance. We just purchased a multi day pass from a Walgreens in the French Quarter, as it gave us unlimited rides.

French Quarter

The French Quarter is best explored by simply meandering down the many streets, and enjoying the architecture and street performers. I loved all the intricate iron railings on the balconies. And the music, jazz of course, but really just that there is so much fantastic music everywhere, cannot be beat. We paused several times just to enjoy the talented musicians.

But smelly…very smelly. I couldn’t get over the constant smell (something like wet, rotting garbage mixed with sewer) throughout the French Quarter but stronger nearest to Bourbon Street. It definitely took away from the charm of the area.

On Bourbon Street, you can find Big Ass Beers, Daquiries and Chicken, and Daquiries and Pizza, but not much in the way of unique haunts. The daquiries are delicious, and you can probably get drunk on less than $20. The pizza at The Big Easy (we went to the one just south of our hotel) was quite good and very cheap. But be prepared for lots of wasted people, and homeless people. It was actually a bit depressing how much addiction and homelessness simply gets overlooked on Bourbon Street in the never ending party.

We did a haunted/scandal walking tour one evening. It was really interesting learning about the history of New Orleans and the French Quarter. And considering the age of the city, it seems quite likely that nearly every building has a shocking story associated with it. There are tons of these, so I recommend going on one, especially early in your trip, as I found it helpful in trying to navigate for the remainder of our time there.

On Saturday evening, we went in search of a sports bar that had the Big Ten Network, so I could tune in for the Husker game. We found The Jimani. It was a tiny little bar that apparently is known for having all kinds of college football games on. We met several people there to see the LSU game, as well as people watching a few others as well. The music was good; the beer selection was impressive (they even had Woodchuck!), and the bartender was friendly. And The Jimani apparently has some history of its own!

One evening we ate at NOLA, one of Emeril Agassi’s restaurants. It was so yummy! Tara and I split a bowl of gumbo, and now I definitely want to learn to make it. I had the salmon with mashed Yukon gold potatoes and Brussels sprouts. I had never tried Brussels sprouts before, and don’t really care to ever try them again, but the salmon and potato were wonderful. Tara had a pork chop with sweet potatoes, and it was probably the largest pork chop I’d ever seen. She said it was delicious. The bread selection (corn muffins and dinner rolls) were very tasty too. Although we were pretty stuffed after a phenomenal meal, we couldn’t say no to “filling in the cracks” with some Drunken Monkey ice cream, a house specialty. It was banana ice cream, with pralines and chocolate pieces, and was a fantastic end to an awesome meal. Be prepared for a spendy meal, but it is definitely worth the extra cost!

In the heart of the French Quarter lies Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral. The history of this area and the incredible imagery in the stained glass windows makes it worth at least walking through the Cathedral. And artists of all kinds set up in this area, so if you’re in the market for a new treasure this would be a place to check out. I bought a painting on vinyl, which is now proudly displayed in a conference room of my law office.

Faulkner House Books is right next to Jackson Square and the Cathedral. If you’re a bibliophile like me, then you absolutely have to stop in. It’s a tiny little shop, but has a pretty impressive shop. I purchased Station Eleven and Mosquitoes, and it was difficult narrowing it down to just the two books.

Also near Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral is Cafe Du Monde. We loved the beignets and hot chocolate so much that we ate there twice!  The beignets are delicious.  And the atmosphere reminded me so much of the many cafes that I visited while in France.

Audubon Zoo and Aquarium

One day of our trip, we rode the streetcar to the Audubon Park, and then walked through it to the Audubon Zoo. The zoo was under renovations when we visited, so some of the exhibits weren’t open, but the zoo still had a pretty broad spectrum of animals.

The animals appeared to be well cared for, and to have lots of room in their habitats. And it was fun to do something a bit wholesome after being surrounded by the drunken debauchery of Bourbon Street for a few days.

When we arrived at the zoo, we purchased a pass to go to both the zoo and the aquarium. When we purchased the pass, we mentioned that we would be visiting the aquarium the next day, a Monday. Unfortunately the gal that we purchased the tickets from failed to mention that the aquarium is closed on Mondays. It seemed like something that she should have explained to people who were clearly unfamiliar with the zoo and aquarium. It was quite a bummer, as we flew out early on Tuesday morning.

French Market

The French Market is not to be confused with the French Quarter. The French Market is an outdoor market area where vendors of all types set up their wares for sale. All kinds of things were for sale. One booth was even an author and filmmaker who was promoting one of his films. The food smelled amazing, but we were there between mealtimes and didn’t sample the options.

Cemeteries

We rode the streetcar up to the area  of the city with quite a few cemeteries, but didn’t wander around them, as it just isn’t really our thing. They are a unique part of New Orleans, so we thought it was worth a streetcar ride to see, but then we also thought the streetcars were exceptionally fun to just ride around on and see different parts of the city.

On our walking tour, we had learned that the above ground tombs are actually a part of the French and Spanish influence on New Orleans culture, rather than being related to the water level.  Apparently whole families are buried in the same tomb. The bodies are left in their coffins for 1 year + 1 day (so that the body decomposes), and then the bones taken out of their coffins and left on the shelves until the next relative dies, when the process is repeated, pushing the bones to the back or off the back of the shelf.

New Orleans certainly is an odd city, but Tara and I had a fun time visiting it. I’m not certain whether I’ll return, but I’ll remember it forever.