(If you just came for the pictures scroll down for slideshow)

I'll just cut to the chase and tell you my favorite thing about New Orleans. It's not just that it is completely legal to drink alcohol on the street (as long as your drink is in a plastic cup and not a can or bottle.) And it's not just that on any given night you can find a half dozen or more music acts, mostly rock and roll, the best of all the musics in my opinion. But my favorite thing about New Orleans is really a combination of those two.

You see, in most cases, if I want to explore a city and also have a couple drinks while I'm out, each time I buy a drink I'm essentially trapped in that bar until I finish it. Either that or I can leave and waste my $8+ drink. But in New Orleans when you order your drink you are not limited to drinking it in the bar it was purchased. You can carry your drink out and still enter a completely different bar. So, the way I enjoyed the city was I'd choose the first place that had some rockin' music, buy a beer, chill out for a couple songs, and move on to the next band just down the street. All the while carrying the same drink until I needed a refill. I was allowed to carry the same drink out of one establishment and into the next. I didn't have to spend a fortune. Bar hopping? Pfff... that's such a Northeastern thing to do. Down in New Orleans I "Music Hopped" as I like to call it.

Here I'm posing on the balcony at Prohibition. One of many bars located on Bourbon Street.

Louisiana is located in the deep south of the United States. Lying on the Gulf of Mexico and surrounded by 3 states; Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi on the East, North, and West respectively. New Orleans, nicknamed "The Big Easy" for it's laid back culture, is the second largest city in Louisiana after its capital, Baton Rouge. An addition to it's laid back lifestyle, New Orleans is also known for it's Creole Food, "Creole" is a name that has changed it's meaning over the years but basically refers to the historical mix of white Anglo Saxon, Black, French, and even Spanish. The creole food is known for its strong flavors and spice. The most common dishes I came across were the Turtle Soup (my favorite), Gumbo, and Jambalaya.

New Orleans is also famous for it's party scene, the center of which is located on Bourbon Street. If you've ever been to Bangkok in Thailand, Bourbon street is the closest thing I've seen to Kao San Road, but in America. It's pretty cool if you like beer and music; mostly cover bands. For better quality live acts head east to Decatur and Frenchman Street. If you find yourself having a bad time in Bourbon Street just deviate to one of the side streets where there's plenty more to find. Bourbon Street is located in the center of the French Quarter. The French Quarter is absolutely beautiful. I would basically advise that you spend the majority of your visit here. It just has the most going on. It's basically the downtown of New Orleans. I guess you would call the architecture in the French Quarter 'French Colonial?' It's distinct style can be easily identified by the colorful exterior and shutters on their windows and doors. Most houses have their shutters always closed and you wonder how they get any sunlight into the house as well as where is the front door?? I'd like to give a couple recommendations for food and drink; visit Port of Call for their burgers ( I was not a fan of their popular drink, the Monsoon but you can try it if you want to get wasted) and for a different, dark, rock and roll bar look for The Dungeon. It's very cool.

Lastly, about the French Quarter, I'd like to recommend you visit Frenchman Street as it is the less crazy version of Bourbon Street but with better music. Check out the Dragon's Den where I saw a female indie acoustic act downstairs and stand up comedy upstairs.

A woman walks past a house in the French Quarter. The houses here are distinct for their colorful exterior and window shutters.

As I mentioned, The French Quarter is probably the most interesting part of all New Orleans in my opinion, but the second most iconic area to check out is The Garden District. While the French Quarter is a combination of beauty and party, the Garden District is really just about the beauty. It's known for its large, picturesque houses and quiet streets. It's like the suburban part of the city, which I suppose is an oxymoron. But it is just another part that makes New Orleans great. It is street after street of houses that you can't imagine someone actually lives inside. They are just so beautiful and big and many must be worth close to a million dollars or much more. I find myself thinking about how, coming from New York City and the surrounding areas, you constantly notice wealth and wonder where all the rich people came from. And I thought that visiting New Orleans would be a way to get away from all that wealth. But no, there is lots of wealth here too. Both the Garden District and The French Quarter I'm sure have a high property value. Honestly, I didn't do any research on the matter but you can just tell. It looks expensive. I mean, half the city looks like a historical landmark.

Also, half the city streets are lined in Oak Trees and it really helps give the city and the rest of the south a definitive look and feel. Do we have Oak Trees up here in the Northeast? If so, I've never noticed. But now I find them to be very easily identifiable. They're so cool and big. The branches grow very far out and often you worry that they're going to begin to grow inside the houses. Many Oak lined streets have a natural canopy that shades the entire street. And they're almost everywhere outside of the downtown area.

Some famous celebrities have claimed property in the Garden District including Sandra Bullock and John Goodman. Neither of which are New Orleans natives.

A large Oak Tree. One of many in The Garden District.

One of the first places on our list to visit was a restaurant in The Garden District called Commander's Palace. It was really nice and was the best food we ate during our entire stay so I highly recommend it. I had the Turtle Soup and Fried Oyster salad. The highlight of the restaurant is the 25 cent martinis which were delicious. Their formal dress code is not strongly enforced but do not wear shorts and flip flops.

The restaurant is conveniently located across the street from Lafayette Cemetery. One of several famous cemeteries in New Orleans. The city embraces the fact that their cemeteries are tourist attractions. So, of course taking photos is allowed and not frowned upon. We did see a second cemetery during out guided van tour which was a bit nicer. Although the tombs in Lafayette Cemetery were very big and beautiful we did not stay very long. In my opinion, our visit to the cemetery got old fast. Just enough beauty and fun to snap at least one cool photo. But, 100% you have to visit at least one cemetery anyway. They are pretty iconic. The cemeteries earn their fame because they are lined with above ground tombs. Most of New Orleans is below sea level. Needless to say it would be quite a mess during a storm if they buried their dead. However, I'm pretty certain that some graves are still in fact below ground, so I don't know. The graves can be very elaborate and it's hard to believe people would go through the trouble of creating such a grave. But hey, if you got the $$$.

Speaking of dead people, New Orleans has a big paranormal "scene." Lots of fortune tellers, tarot card readers, a history of voodoo, and just general beliefs of paranormal activity. One of our tour guides mentioned in a casual manner how ghosts and paranormal activity was greatly increased after Hurricane Katrina. There are lots of shops for souvenirs where you can buy spells and candles and even a voodoo doll. Ghost Tours are also available. A ghost tour sounded fun but I did not get a change to explore as much of the ghost scene as I would have liked.

Inside Lafayette Cemetery. No disrespect for the dead intended.

Melanie poses on an Oak lined street in The Garden District. Here we are just outside of Lafayette Cemetery.

So far I've described my favorite parts of our New Orleans experience. But I'd also like to share a little about some other things we were able to do and see. We took a tour out to the swamp lands with a company called Cajun Encounters. I would not strongly recommend it. It was a 90 minute tour in a swamp but from the time we left and the time we returned was about 6 hours. I did see a wild hog, alligator, and for some reason we all got excited about the raccoons. Was not too excited about the photos I snapped either.

We did a van tour around the city which was nice. I was glad to have someone drive me around and show me the city. It's good if you're lazy. And I never quite recovered from our early morning flight so my energy was feeling low. About $45 per person but you can get a $10 coupon at the tourist center.

We took a nice stroll through Magazine Street. It's a quaint little street with lots of independent shops and vendors including some cool record shops. Located on the western part of The Garden District it's worth a visit if you enjoy a nice walk for some coffee, a bite to eat, and a souvenir. It's pretty quiet. And it's in the Garden District so it's definitely pretty. And if you fancy a drink you'll find something to suit your needs I'm sure. It's all on one long street.

And lastly on our final day we had a few hours to see a bit more. I wanted to get a good wide shot of some oak trees and I decided perhaps Audubon Park might be a good place to get it done. We had nice sunny weather that day and the park was charming. I will say I never saw so many ducks in a lake. There must have been over 100 ducks in a fairly small section of the lake. I suppose they migrate to the south for the winter. Anyway, I wasn't feeling too inspired from the park until we arrived to the far end. Just on our way out I saw really nice alley of Oak trees. I feel I didn't have the right lens and the trees looked more beautiful in real life than the photo. You can see the photo below came out pretty cool anyway. But it's obvious you can't completely see the Oaks. Oh well, I'm saving up for the 16-35mm 2.8 lens. I truly hope you enjoy the photo as much as I do.

An alley of Oak trees in the south east corner of Audubon Park

Check out the slide show below for all my photos from New Orleans