News

It's not all beads and Bourbon Street

Despite its reputation as an all-out party town, New Orleans has plenty to offer to families and those not ready to brave the debauchery.

By MEL WHITE
Published February 6, 2005

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[AP photos]

For centuries a New Orleans landmark, St. Louis Cathedral towers above Jackson Square.

	Technically this is a leucistic American alligator: it has blue eyes and a white hide. This one and several others live in New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo.
	New Orleans is said to be the site of the nation’s oldest, continuously operating streetcar line. Here, two new cars move along Canal Street.
	It isn’t the only place to hear great Dixieland music in New Orleans, but Preservation Hall’s bands typically play to standing-room-only crowds.

If we played a word-association game, what would you think of when I said "New Orleans"?

For most, in about this order, it would be Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, raunchy bars, the French Quarter, shops selling peculiar items you don't find at the mall, drunken vacationers from Houston and Hattiesburg, and girls showing more epidermis than their mamas would approve of.

For better or worse, lots of people think of New Orleans as an R-rated place to party. The city is also famous for great restaurants and a lively music scene, but even these perfectly respectable attributes enhance the sensual, hedonistic ambience of the place known as the Big Easy.

New Orleans' reputation dates to its earliest days, when the seaport brought a cosmopolitan mix of people to the city. The wealthy, cultured, French-speaking residents seemed sinfully decadent to rural Southerners.

Mardi Gras, in its continuing evolution into an anything-goes celebration, has sustained the city's wild reputation. The date of "Fat Tuesday" depends on Easter, and so it varies from year to year, from February into March. This year Mardi Gras is Tuesday.

But the city has plenty of family friendly attractions, too. Here's a guide to the other side of the Big Easy.

Anchoring the southwestern corner of the French Quarter is the excellent Audubon Aquarium of the Americas 1 Canal St.; toll-free 1-800-774-7394 or (504 581-4629; www.auduboninstitute.org) a few steps from the levee that keeps the Mississippi River from drowning low-lying New Orleans. It's suitable for all ages (though the breeding habits of sea horses are a little kinky).

On entering, you walk into a tunnel through a huge tank of creatures from the Caribbean Sea, coming face to face with hammerhead sharks, angelfish, sea turtles and a spectacular array of other colorful species. It's quite wonderful to have large rays swimming serenely overhead.

Then it's upstairs to an exhibit on the Amazon rain forest, under the slanted glass roof that gives the aquarium its distinctive exterior appearance. Other displays include penguins, sharks, sea otters (the aquarium knows which high-profile critters are most popular with visitors), and a Mississippi River exhibit with white alligators. Don't miss some of the smaller animals. The several types of jellyfish could be floating abstract art, and the sea horses rate several minutes of marvel time (the incredibly camouflaged leafy sea dragon alone is worth the price of admission).

I overheard a fellow visitor say, "We can just breeze right through the frog exhibit." Wrong. From tiny poison-dart frogs to huge bullfrogs, it is as fascinating as anything in the aquarium.

For a favorite New Orleans treat, walk north five blocks on Canal Street to St. Charles Avenue and then west (the locals say "uptown") a half-block to a yellow sign marking a stop on the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar line (call the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, (504) 248-3900).

The oldest continuously operated streetcar line in the country, the St. Charles rattles along the center of the avenue, past the galleried mansions of the famous Garden District, making the ride as picturesque as it is historic. My conductor was a nonstop talker, offering advice about restaurants and trivia. When we got to Washington Street, he said, "Garden District, the cemetery. Dead weight off the car."

Leave the streetcar at Audubon Park, where a free shuttle van will take you to Audubon Zoo toll-free 1-866-487-2966 or (504 581-4629; www.auduboninstitute.org) Ranked among the country's finest, Audubon may be best known for its Louisiana Swamp exhibit (with more white alligators), which does a good job of re-creating and interpreting the bald-cypress wetlands that cover so much of southern Louisiana.

Enhancing the usual lions, elephants and monkeys and the not-so-usual Australian and South American exhibits is the zoo's pretty setting, with lush natural vegetation. On my most recent visit I headed straight for the Komodo dragon, to get a close view of the 9-foot lizard with its fearsome-looking claws. I moved on to the Reptile Encounter, with its huge anacondas and pythons, and the walk-through aviary, home to multicolored toucans, hornbills and pigeons.

You can buy a special ticket that lets you ride from the zoo to the aquarium (or vice versa) on the John James Audubon riverboat, which, with the streetcar, makes for a splendid round trip between two great attractions. The boat ride isn't exactly scenic - you cruise past shipping terminals and heavy industry - but it's fun to be on the Mississippi and see the skyscrapers of downtown rising over the Crescent City Connection Bridge. A word of advice: The riverboat runs only every two hours, so plan your day carefully to avoid having to rush to catch a ride or being stuck at one place longer than you want to be.

Back in the French Quarter, head to historic Jackson Square, a former military parade ground dominated by the tall spire of St. Louis Cathedral. The streets around the square are always full of an oddball assortment of street artists, musicians, tarot card readers, mimes, human statues, voodoos, hoodoos and weird hairdos. Hang on to your wallet and enjoy the show.

There's no better way to learn about Louisiana's early days than at the cathedral's next-door neighbor, the Cabildo (701 Chartres St.; (504) 568-6968; lsm.crt.state.la.us), one of several units of the Louisiana State Museum. Exhibits in the 1799 building interpret regional history from American Indian tribes to post-Civil War Reconstruction. On the other side of the cathedral stands the Presbytere (751 Chartres St.; (504) 568-6968; lsm.crt.state.la.us), a 1790s building home to a frenetic, entertaining museum dedicated to Mardi Gras. Displays on music, costumes, traditions, personalities and behind-the-scenes details help you understand all the arcane stuff about krewes, kings, balls and parades.

If you enjoy traditional jazz - if you're planning to stand in line later to hear the music at famed Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street - then walk east seven blocks from Jackson Square along Decatur Street to the Old U.S. Mint (400 Esplanade Ave.; (504) 568-6968; lsm.crt.state.la.us).

Another unit of the State Museum, the 1835 building minted coins for the federal and Confederate governments. Now it's home to a very educational exhibit on the origins of jazz and the critical role New Orleans musicians played in its birth. You'll learn about "spasm" bands of street kids, ragtime players and brass bands, all of which played roles in early jazz. You'll get acquainted with legends Buddy Bolden, Papa Jack Laine, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, who played cornet in a local boys home band (his first horn is displayed in a place of honor).

For a good overview of the French Quarter's history and diversity, take one of the walking tours offered at 9:30 a.m. each day by rangers from the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, French Quarter Visitor Center 419 Decatur St.; (504 589-2133; www.nps.gov/jela)

Free tickets, available on a first-come basis, are handed out beginning at 9 a.m., so get in line early. The walk lasts 90 minutes, and at its end you will know lots more about the city's founding, the fires that nearly leveled it in the late 18th century and the contributions of varied cultures to its heritage.

Several historic homes are open for tours. To me, the most interesting is the Gallier House (1118-1132 Royal St.; (504) 525-5661), built in 1857 by James Gallier, one of the city's most famous architects (he also designed the French Opera House). From the ornate cast-iron door to the intricate plasterwork, it's full of attractive, interesting decorative details; tour guides relate fascinating stories and trivia about upper-class antebellum life in the city.

From the uptown edge of the Quarter, take the Magazine Street bus or the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar get off at Lee Circle to visit the justly famed National D-Day Museum (945 Magazine St.; (504) 527-6012; www.ddaymuseum.org) in the city's Warehouse Arts District.

Though its focus is the historic invasion of June 6, 1944, which began the Allies' march to victory in World War II, the museum gives an overview of the course of the war, beginning with world conditions that led Nazi Germany and Japan to their aggressive policies of conquest and expansion. Interactive maps, video presentations and oral histories by soldiers from all countries make the museum far more than just a series of maps and artifacts. It vividly recalls the war years for succeeding generations.

One section examines the war in the Pacific, from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to the dropping of the first atomic bombs in 1945. The D-Day Museum is an exception to the G-rated focus of this article: Some of its images would disturb children, as well as many adults.

If you've got young ones in tow, be sure to stop by the Louisiana Children's Museum 420 Julia St.; (504 523-1357; www.lcm.org) More than 100 hands-on exhibits let kids pilot a Mississippi River boat, shop in a child-sized grocery store, anchor the evening news and other such activities. The museum's motto is "Please touch," and parents I know have given it great reviews.

For more information

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2020 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA, 70130; toll-free 1-800-672-6124 or 504 566-5011; www.neworleanscvb.com

Mel White is a freelance writer living in Little Rock, Ark.

[Last modified February 4, 2005, 11:03:08]

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