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Since these are the cool threads here,  I'll post mine.  Subaru is paying for my wife and I to fly to New Orleans for 4 days next week.  I get to Drive the new BRZ on at the NOLA race track, but I'll have some time to do some tourism stuff too.

Any ideas on what to do?

Get the head gasket repaired?  :why_so_serious:

Shitton of great places to eat.

Try Muspero's on Canal Street for fantastic po boy sandwiches. The aquarium is pretty cool. Of course you have to go down Bourbon Street at least once.

I was just down there for Jazz fest.

If you want to gamble, Harrahs has a nice casino there with decent minimums on the table games in the afternoons. At night, I think they ramp them up too much, but that may have been for the festival weekend. I love walking around the French quarter in the mornings before the drunks are up and having breakfast. The area around Jackson Square is really nice, and there's a restaurant called Stanley that I really enjoy. http://stanleyrestaurant.com/ (http://stanleyrestaurant.com/)

If you want to completely blow your diet and melt your face, they do a bananas foster french toast. Also, check out Bayona http://www.bayona.com/ (http://www.bayona.com/) which is a Susan Spicer joint tucked away in an awesome patio setting. She's an incredible chef and the menu shifts constantly. I highly recommend going there for a long lunch.

Acme Oyster House... A buddy and I went there once a month when we were at LSU. Sit at the oyster bar, hopefully they still drop the "runts" on the bar for anyone. Go grab a hand grenade from Tropical Isle and start walking the streets.

All I can say is dress light, walking around new orleans in spring/summer is like being in a perpetual sauna, it's that humid.  You're going to sweat, no way to avoid it. 

You thick blooded people and your whining about it being too hot...  :grin:

But yeah, it is Louisiana in the summer, humidity is a no brainer - but no worse than any other place in the South. And very few other places let you walk out of an air conditioned bar with an alcoholic drink in a plastic cup to drink on your way to a shop or, if you are doing it right, another bar/restaurant.

Anyone go on a graveyard tours here? I never did in the three years I was down there, but heard they were pretty neat overall...especially the midnight ones.

My NO-going friends insist that you have to go to Commander's Palace for a meal.

It's also good. Have the Bread Pudding Souffle. Order it with your entree because it takes longer. They puncture it at the table and douse it with a maple creme sauce.

 :eat:

I live in atlanta....NO is a LOOOOOOT worse.

Mostly good advice from everyone so far, but Commander's Palace can be an overpriced disappointment. You can get the same or better at nearly any smaller place. I recommend Magazine Po-boy on St. Charles for sandwiches or Coops' on Decatur for a broader menu. Coop's Rabbit and Sausage Jambalaya is amazing and I cannot recommend the Roasted Duck Quesadilla enough. It looks like a total dive but the food (and the prices) are great.

Take one of the donkey cart rides at Jackson Square - do a night/evening ride and you'll get better stories and a better driver. It's totally tourist cheese and it's beautiful. Ghost tours are a blast too if that's to your taste.

If you're gonna be here Monday the Chili Peppers are shooting a video in town. Join in or just go and watch. Info will be online at their site AFAIK.

Don't pay for the streetcar/bus $1.25 at a time. Pay $3 and ride streetcars and buses until 4:00 am the next morning. Saved my ass a few times.

Jasmine and honeysuckle are blooming right now, it's a great time to visit.

 :ye_gods: I sound like a fuckin' barker, but I love this town.

Any place near the Gulf Coast.  Inland is (slightly) better, as you say.

I can recommend this. My wife and I did this in December right after we got engaged and despite the cold (and the subsequent sickness she developed from being out in the cold and drizzly rain), it was a perfect couple thing to do.