The first few nights we were in New Orleans, we stayed at the Rathbone Mansions Bed and Breakfast.

Our room was the one with the door slightly ajar.
 

Staying at the Rathbone allowed us walking access to the French Quarter, being that it was only a few blocks to the north of it, along Esplanade Ave.  As you walk along Esplanade, there are a variety of antebellum mansions to enjoy.

Here is the corner of Esplanade, and the street New Orleans is most famous for, Bourbon St. 

Looks peaceful during the day, but as soon as the sun sets, this street lights up and is crowded with people.  Every evening is Marti Gras on Bourbon St.  The people on this balcony threw beads to Patty, just because she waved at them, but there were others revealing much more for the beads than just their palm.

Also on Esplanade Ave is an old United States Mint building.

While Bourbon St. is definitely a huge attraction in the French Quarter, there are plenty of other sites and attractions to see as well (not to mention the variety of restaurants and cafes).  The French Market is the place to buy all your swag, if you are planning on taking home any souvenirs.  They have all the same stuff you could buy in most of the souvenir shops around the city, but for a fraction of the price, and most of the vendors are not above letting you haggle for a better price.

We actually brought home a few of those masquerade masks for our girls.
We spent a lot of time in the French Quarter, mostly to eat, but I really admired the architecture of the buildings.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of them.
 

In case you ever saw the movie Coyote Ugly, there is a bar in New Orleans (on Decatur in the French Quarter), and from the sidewalk, you can peak in, and they really do get up and dance on the bar.

Besides stomping around the French Quarter, we did a few other site seeing adventures.  One of those was a city tour, where the tour guide stopped at St. Louis Cemetery #3, and allowed us off the bus for a while.

It was interesting to walk among the above ground graves, or vaults.  We learned that while some families actually own their own vault, others actually lease one for a few years.  When vault changes ownership, and the new owner passes, they just push the old owners remains to the back of the vault and place the new owner in their.  That means that a lot of the vaults have multiple remains in them, from multiple people (even the family owned vaults).
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