My husband cut this out and left it for me to find when he went away on a business trip.  Hhmmm -- not sure if he was suggesting that he knows better than to ask or that I should know better than to answer....

P.S.: I'll be joining my hubby in New Orleans this weekend. I've never been. Any suggestions (besides flashing my boobs, Valli)??

LOL and too true! Have fun in New Orleans. I lived a couple of hours from there, in Lafayette, when I was a kid. (Sorry, that was my pre-clubbing days.)

LOL on Hagar

BAWAHAHAHA!  on the other.  Hope you have a really good time Deb!

Hehe, we all know we'd chose the book don't we?

Well, if you aren't into flashing your boobs, there's really no reason to come to New Orleans, now is there?  LOL!  I can make some suggestions, depending on what you might like to do.  Here's what we did last time we went down there:

- WW2 Museum - Every time I plan to go to a museum, I think it's going to be boring and then wish I had planned on more time there.  This was no exception.  The display on the "home front"...rationing, Rosie the Riveter, etc...was more interesting to me than the other displays.  But it was all good and make sure to see the movie!

- Dinner at Luke - this is TV chef John Besh's less expensive restaurant.  If you've had enough of classic New Orleans cuisine (which we have) it's really good and a great chance to sample a big-name chef for not a lot of money.

- New Orleans School of Cooking - This was a fun cooking demonstration show where you get to eat what the lady cooks, so when you look at the prices, the food you get with it is definitely a meal.  Good local stories and some good tips along the way.  Plus they have a big store where they sell products used in the demonstration.  We picked up a container of dried sliced garlic and it is the most amazing thing I've ever had in my kitchen.  Can't cook without it now and I ordered gift baskets from here for all of my family for Christmas.

- Kupcake Factory - across the street from the cooking place.  yummy.

-Cafe du Monde - a must do!  If you want breakfast there, go early in the morning...like before 8am...or you'll have to wait in line.  Or wait and go at night for dessert.  It's open 24 hours.

-Jackson Square - strolling around the square looking at all of the local artists' wares is so much fun.  When my DD gets married and has a place of her own, she wants to do a whole room just in art from Jackson Square.  Some of it is outrageously priced, but some of it is quite reasonable.  And it's a good place to walk off those beignets after you go to Cafe De Monde!

-Ghost tours - This is DH's favorite thing to do anywhere that we go!  I didn't go with them on this one.  There are several to choose from...they did the Vampire one and said it was fun.

When are you going to be in the NOLA airport?  I'm flying out Sunday afternoon...trying to stand by for an earlier flight but will likely be stuck in the airport for a few hours.

Deb!!! If you waited a little longer, Mardi Gras will have started! And you could flash your boobs without being considered a Ho. ;-)

There's just tons of fun stuff to do in NOLA! Maybe you will want to visit the home of the Hurricane; Pat O'Brien's. They have a great garden patio where you can rest after a long day of walking and shopping. You can sit on the patio and people watch, while sipping on your hurricanes. Fun!

If you want to shop, the French Quarter is filled with great shops, all different kinds. There's a good assortment of book stores in the quarter, too! Also, in the quarter you will find historic homes you can visit. Most of them are furnished just as they would have been back in their hey-day. I love seeing these homes! I'm going to try to find you a list of them because I can't remember where the good ones are.

Since you are mssing Mardi Gras, maybe a trip to the Mardi Gras museum....

Historic Home Museums

I've been to the Houmas House Plantation and it is just fabulous, but it is in Darrow, LA and I can't remember how far from NOLA that is. Any idea, Christa? You might not have enough time to travel far outside of NOLA, but I'd definitely recommend visiting some of the historic homes in NOLA; I really think you'd enjoy this a lot!!

I wanted to 2nd Christa's Cafe du Monde suggestion...you really can't go to New Orleans without having beignets there!! It really is a must!!

Houmas House is about an hour from New Orleans.  It's actually closer to Baton Rouge than New Orleans. We (briefly) considered having The Wedding there, but it's on the wrong side of town....wrong as in the opposite side of town from where we live...not wrong as in wrong side of the tracks wrong.

And flashing boobs is not just for Mardi Gras any more.  People in New Orleans will flash boobs for just any old reason.

Deb - I thought that the plantation tours were fun and very informative - loved the Oak Alley (where they had mint juleps) and the San Francisco! And the guys liked these too!

We took a riverboat cruise on the Natchez with dinner included, and really liked that. This was the only time we ate anything other than seafood! (Coming from inland states, you really crave good seafood.)

Breakfast at Brennans was superb!

When we went, this past year, Deb, we ate our way through New Orleans and didn't find a bad restaurant, but then our friends from NO and Lafayette steered us right!

Genie - we had a great time in Lafayette. Friends have a "camp" on the gulf and we had a fabulous meal at PreJean's!

Whatever you do, Deb, you just can't go wrong and you will love it! I gotta tell DH that I want to go back - and soon!

Oh yea...the riverboat cruise is fun.  We did it with DS's cub scout troop many moons ago, so I bet the dinner one is way better.

I love it!  My Dh's late Grandfather (may his Memory be Eternal) loved Hagar, and I always think of him when I see it.

I would definitely choose the book....especially if I got to, er, choose the book, KWIM?!

re NOLA--wonderful wonderful place! I always think of it as close to a European city as one can get w/o leaving the country but that almost does it a disservice---there is no place on earth just like it!

definitely a bayou or plantation tour---you get to feed marshmallows to little alligators, too cute!

definitely Cafe du Monde and Jackson Square, and add in a streetcar ride out to the Garden District.

I'm not sure if it's still there but my all out favorite restaurant there is one of Emeril's lesser-priced more comfortable places called NOLA--it was right downtown, Decatur St, I think---i ate the best pork chop of my life there!

walk, walk, walk...go see the cemetary--plots are different there, they are all above-ground vaults because of the low water table---walk down the back streets and find lovely antique stores, used book stores---it's just a wonderful place!

I think you were pretty sneaky clever, Deb, to suck us into this thread with a title like Hagar the Horrible ... when all you really wanted was some free travel planning advice! I think you should post a wishlist book to each of us who have given of her time & experience to help you in your hour of need.

We just lived there a year & that was a long time ago - but I absolutely second the trip to Oak Alley. As I recall, it isn't too far out of the City & is one of the more famous of NOLA's historic plantation homes.

We also loved the architecture throughout the City; N'awlins has some amazing gardens & I agree about a trip to the cemeteries. They are quite fascinating all in themselves.

The people are warm & friendly, the food is not to be believed & the natives' accents are great fun.

Hopefully the weather will be cooperative ... look down as you are flying into the City. You should be able to see Lake Ponchartrain & also see that NOLA sits down in a bowl - below the level of the Lake. Which is a very neat thing to see in itself. The bridge across the Lake is 26 miles!

A couple of lessons we learned the hard way ...

• Don't be frustrated when you start trying to navigate & find that you can't make a left hand turn. There are so many canals and traffic is so tight, that legal left hand turns tend to be scarce.
• When you order a Po'Boy ... and you should ... beware that what the locals call "gravy" is their word for sauce; and "dressed" means with lettuce, tomatoes, etc. The first time Bil ordered a meatball Po'Boy, he was asked if he wanted that w/ gravy. "Uhm, no, I don't want any gravy."  "Would you like that Po'Boy dressed? " Nope. Don't want that, either."  What did he get? Bread & 3 meatballs ... plain ... dry ... no marinara, no cheese ... bread & meat. 
• The accents can be quite thick ... and somehow down through the years, the letter "R" got dropped from their entire alphabet. We had been there less than one month when Jennifer (then only 6 years old) came tripping down the stairs and said, "Good mahwnin' Daddy."

Have fun & stay safe,

Kelly

I think you were pretty sneaky clever, Deb, to suck us into this thread with a title like Hagar the Horrible ... when all you really wanted was some free travel planning advice!

As much as I try, I can never put one over on Kelly.  But I really appreciate all the travel advice from you all -- if only I were gonna be there more than 2-1/2 days!

Genie - we had a great time in Lafayette. Friends have a "camp" on the gulf and we had a fabulous meal at PreJean's!

You know, I was thinking (uh-oh), that was so long ago. I was there during the Civil Rights Movement. I was very young - about 3 or 4 when we moved there and 9 or 10 when we left. But I remember having a black friend who lived on the other side of town. And I never understood why she could come visit me. My parents always had to take me to her house.

It's shocking how recent our equality history is.