The only partying I saw while I was there was on and around bourbon st. I had to go just to "see the sites". It was pretty crazy though.
There are other things to see other than Bourbon st. The battles of New Orleans site was pretty interesting.
There is a little museum that is free and it has the entire history of NO. Then we walked into the back room and there was a woman that was cooking gumbo. She was a local Indian, and she explained their history, way of life, and how it was when she was a child. Her and her daughter showed how they made baskets. They had dolls that were made from Spanish moss. The dolls were black and they said that when the moss died it turned from gray to black.
The gumbo was not the traditional gumbo you'd think of from NO. It was made from file. Pronounced fele.
I also went to Cafe du Monde. It wasn't by choice though. It was on my wife's lists of things to do. She said she had heard that you have to go to Cafe du Monde. I had no idea what she was talking about. So I asked what it was and she said it's like a restaurant. I asked what was so special about it and she said that she wanted to try the cafe au lait and beignets. Of course I said "What the hell is that?"
She said it's like a doughnut. We got there and there was a line all the way around the building.
I told her there is no way I'm waiting in that line for a ******* doughnut.
I don't even like doughnuts. I told her I'd take her to Dunkin doughnuts when we get back home. She said it's not the same, beignets has powered sugar on it.
I told her that I'll buy some powered sugar and put it on her dunkin doughnut.
So I won that argument and we were walking down the street a little while later and I saw a sign that said "Beignets". More important there was no line at all. So being the nice understanding man that I am, I suggested that we go there and she can get the beignets. She told me it wasn't the same because she wanted to get one from Cafe du Monde. Of course I can't see the difference, so I told her that they had the same thing at that place and they didn't have the hour long line. I reminded her that there was no way I was going to wait inline that long for a doughnut.
So about 30 mins later we were back at Cafe du Monde trying to find where the end of the line is. That's when I discovered that the line was for take out and not for a table. I saw an empty table and we sat down. The waitress came over and my wife ordered a cafe au lait and a beignet. I was looking at the menu trying to find something to drink. All they had was different kind of coffee and beignets. I don't really like sweet things nor coffee. So I ordered the only thing on the menu that I did like, milk.
About two minutes later the waitress brought back my wifes cafe au lait, my milk and two plates of these doughy things covered under an ungodly amount of powered sugar.
So then I was stuck with a plateful of beignets. . The sugar melted and it was like a glaze. They weren't like a doughnut at all. I ate them and they weren't bad. I wouldn't want to go back for more, but like I said I don't like sweets, but they were pretty good.
Those swamp pics looks like the rivers here.