1. New Orleans 2007

2. Our Hotel We chose our hotel for its location near Jackson Square & parking, which isn’t easy to find in the French Quarter.

3. Irene’s Cuisine This was our first meal in New Orleans -- our birthday dinner -- and it was fantastic in every way!

4. NPS Walking Tour of the French Quarter The National Parks Service gives free walking tours of the Quarter, providing a lot of architectural, historical, & cultural information.

5. Oldest Buildings in the Mississippi Delta Three buildings, all of which date from the 1700s, claim to be the oldest building in the French Quarter, perhaps even the oldest in the whole Mississippi Delta. They are: the Old Ursuline Convent, now serving as a Catholic document archive; Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, now one of the many bars on Bourbon Street; and Madame John’s Legacy, an old French colonial house named for its role in a short story written by George W. Cable, now serving as part of the Louisiana State Museum.

6. St. Louis Cathedral The cathedral is far more beautiful on the inside than the outside might imply. At night, the statue of St. Anthony casts a gigantic shadow across the back of the cathedral.

7. Jackson Square

8. Artists of Jackson Square There’s always something going on at Jackson Square. Actually, we were just passing through when...

9. Accidental Wedding Crashers …we heard what sounded like a festival in the square, and when we went in to join the party, we found out it was a wedding! We became accidental wedding crashers, but no one seemed to mind. They had a great second line jazz band.

10. Preservation Hall It’s not air-conditioned, they don’t serve any drinks, and there aren’t even any restrooms -- nothing about this place says, “come in and make yourself comfortable” other than the girl who takes your money at the door -- but despite its reputation as a tourist trap, the music is worth the experience.

11. Canal Street We took the streetcar up Canal Street to City Park, which gave us a glimpse of life beyond the French Quarter.

12. New Orleans Museum of Art The museum has a huge collection of pottery and glass art that is fantastic. These are just some favorites.

13. New Orleans Museum of Art The paint & print collections include a number of master works. These are just some of our favorite pieces.

14. New Orleans Museum of Art -- Fabergé The museum is noted for its collection of pieces created by Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé.

15. Quest for Beignets Café du Monde is an institution in the Quarter, so we went there one day -- nice music, but much too crowded! We found we preferred the taste and texture of the beignets at Café Beignet on Bourbon Street, which is in the back of Musical Legends Park, presided over by life-size statues of Fats Domino, Al Hirt, and Pete Fountain.

16. Laura Plantation Laura Plantation is unique in that it focuses on the business of plantation life from the perspective of both the plantation owner and the servants and slaves who worked there. The tour gives a more complete view of that world than any other plantation tour we found. This was a wonderful learning experience.

17. San Francisco Plantation With large twin cisterns on either side of the house, the San Francisco had enough running water for food preparation and to provide running showers for bathing in the main house. Showers were technologically advanced for the time.

18. Oak Alley Plantation Oak Alley is one of the most popular plantations. It was first restored in the mid-1920s and started the trend of historic plantation restoration along River Road. Mostly, people come here to see the 300-year-old oak trees.

19. Ashland Plantation This plantation, my favorite one, is no longer open for tourists, but we got to walk around outside.

20. The Natchez Riverboat We had a second birthday dinner before we left New Orleans, this time on the steamboat Natchez. It’s one of the last steam-powered riverboats operating on the Mississippi, and it still has a working (though severely out of tune) calliope on board. Note the steam under the orange flag -- that’s someone playing the calliope.

21. Fun Stuff Just a couple of fun pictures from the trip…