the big easy

Above all else, go to New Orleans for the food and you won't regret it. Muffaletta sandwiches, Jambalaya, Cafe du Monde beignets and coffee.... I'm not ashamed to say I ate my way through the French Quarter.

Beyond that, it's a beautiful old city. Perhaps the American version of Venice: awesome and historic, yet sinking and smelly. And haunted. But unfortunately, the scariest part of our ghost tour was when a dark shape scurried past me on the sidewalk (I screamed, of course, thinking it was a rat, but it was only a pigeon who was too fat to fly).

We rode the street cars to the Garden District, where Mardi Gras beads hang like fanciful icicles from phone wires and peaks of million-dollar homes. Oh, to have a rich Great Aunt Gertrude who lived there!

And what trip to the Big Easy would be complete without an outing on Bourbon Street? We spent a chunk of time at this karaoke bar, Cat's Meow, with a bird's-eye view of the stage, where a Kid Rock wannabe sang one terrible song after another. All in all, highly entertaining.