April 14, 2011
The Mighty Mississippi River has been inextricably linked with New Orleans since its earliest days. During the 19th century, when cotton was king, New Orleans was its most important port. In those days, the river was filled with steamboats of every description, carrying travelers on business and pleasure trips. Today the Port of New Orleans ...
April 13, 2011
New Orleans is sometimes known as the “City in a Bowl”. The original city, today’s French Quarter, is approximately eight feet above sea level. Much of the rest of the city is well below. New Orleans relies on a complicated system of levees and underground pumps to prevent it from filling with water after a ...
April 13, 2011
Just outside New Orleans, solid ground gives way to swamps and marshes. Swamps technically refer to water over land, while marshes refer to land over water. Southeast Louisiana has an eclectic mix of both. When New Orleans was settled in 1718, the wetlands provided a great deal of protection from hurricanes, slowing down storms as ...
March 16, 2011
New Orleans’ Jackson Square is a study in contrasts. Tourists surge through on their way to dinner reservations at Muriel’s on the Square as homeless kids known as gutter punks huddle in a doorway. Balloon artists delight children with intricate balloon animals as a young man painted silver stands motionless on a milk crate, a ...
March 15, 2011
New Orleans’ history is dotted with violence, disease, natural disasters and mysterious disappearances. Paranormal experts claim that the veil between the living and the dead is thinner in New Orleans, giving explanations that range from ley lines to voodoo curses. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, in New Orleans the truth is often stranger ...
March 14, 2011
Before we decided to travel full-time in our RV, Dad and I lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Living in the Quarter is so much different than visiting, as I would imagine is true for any extremely popular tourist destination. For example, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is a hugely crowded tourist bar on Bourbon ...
March 14, 2011
New Orleans Mardi Gras is known world-wide for its rowdy debauchery and anything-goes attitude for adults. Certainly no parent would want to take their child into the middle of such a scene, right? In reality, this perception, fueled by the popular media, reflects only the tiniest bit of what Mardi Gras is all about. At ...
November 15, 2010
In my previous New Orleans article New Orleans Family Attractions, I left you with images of giant Mardi Gras mermaids, ducks, boats and balloons from Blaine Kern’s awesome Mardi Gras float museum – and distant lunch time memories of Po’ Boy classic sandwiches. For us, it was dinner time, and local friends recommended the Palace. Located ...
November 15, 2010
New Orleans might not be the first spot you think of for a family vacation – but think of it now. What child won’t enjoy hot sweet beignets for breakfast and watching boats drift down the river on a lazy afternoon? And let’s not forget street cars and flaming bananas. Best of all, central New ...
