New Orleans: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells

Before going to New Orleans, I had a few ideas in my head of what I thought the place was going to be like. I was pretty much envisioning it to be the drunken Facebook photos I've seen of people posing on Bourbon Street sign with their neck draped in Mardi Gras beads. I knew you could walk around on the streets with a beer in your hand. And, after doing Google research and hearing tips from friends, I expected some fun shops and restaurants. 

Pretty much all of this was correct.

All of the above, sans beads.

I loved wandering around in the French Quarter, because the sights truly changed from street to street. Bourbon Street was crazy, all the time. But just several blocks over was a more peaceful area full of art galleries, courtyards, and antique shops.

Just about everywhere we went, there was some form of live music streaming into the street, whether it was coming from inside a bar, someone sitting on a bench playing a saxophone, or impromptu parades with tubas and trumpets.

Now the smells. Oh, the smells. Never have I been somewhere where one second I would smell delicious seafood one second, be hungry for hot beignets the next, and then want to throw up from catching a strong whiff of trash, old beer, and pee. All within minutes. 

All part of the experience? Absolutely.

Stay tuned for more photos and stories from our vacation, folks. But until then, I leave you with a place that we most certainly did NOT visit while in New Orleans:

Why?