owlfan12000

My wife, son and I are going to drive from Tulsa to New Orleans for the New Orleans Bowl on Friday, December 22nd. We'll be there until Sunday morning. We're looking for ideas on what we can do with my son.

Just to be clear, we don't want to take him barhopping but my wife and I would like to take in some of the French Quarter nightlife without leaving him at the hotel. We'll let him see R rated movies so I'm not too concerned if he happens to get exposed to something unsavory while we're traveling down Bourbon Street. My wife and I will sometimes have a margarita or two when we are out to dinner so we'll probably sample the Hurricanes but alcohol isn't the focus of our activities.

As far as musical tastes go I generally listen to classic rock while he and his mom are into more modern rock with some rap. Mom recently bought a Fergie CD that we all discovered was more graphic than the radio version. That being said nobody reached to eject the CD.

Hopefully someone will be able to give us some ideas that will entertain all of us.

I would also like to take a tour of the Katrina damage. My son was in a Current World Issues class when Hurricane Katrina hit last year so there was a lot of discussion about that. I don't think that any of the kids in the class had any real sense of just how difficult it is to rebuild an entire region. I'd like to have a tour that could explain some of the tough decisions that have to be made in the rebuilding effort. For example, it seems callous for a landlord to evict someone that has lost everything but the landlord has a bank that is looking for his mortgage payment. The last thing I want is to spend hours listening to someone bash the politicians without any context.

BayouGal

Do have all your reservations made?? If not, hop on that right away. I'd recommend trying to stay in the FQ if it's an option for you.

Have you looked at these sites yet?

http://www.nola.com/
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/

Keep in mind that bowl games bring in tons of tourists. Tourists usually exhibit more of the behavior they expect to see on Bourbon than is normally there, plus Bourbon gets VERY crowded at night when there's a bowl game in town.

BayouGal

Here's a couple of things your family might enjoy:

Celebration in the Oaks, www.nocp.org

Hurricane on the Bayou, IMAX theater, http://www.auduboninstitute.org/.

finetuning

I would also suggest checking out The Rock N Bowl with your son. Great shows/live bands with dancing, good bar, and if you feel like it, you can bowl a set or two. On weekends or school breaks, there are usually groups of that age there. Other live music clubs are all along Frenchmen.

Dan

The New Orleans Bowl isn't a huge game so the crowds won't be anything like Sugar Bowl. It will be the first bowl game since 1961 for Rice, however, so I expect the Rice contingent to be somewhat large!! I'm sure you're thrilled the Owls made it.

As long as you watch your son on Bourbon Street (and it's probably nothing he hasn't seen/heard, Fergie's CD being a case in point) I doubt much will surprise him. He may enjoy the Aquarium of the Americas/IMAX, the universities (Tulane/Loyola), Audubon Park and Zoo and the National World War Two Museum, which is EXCELLENT. Even people who think they "aren't interested in WW2" leave in awe.

Lexma90

Our favorite music place in New Orleans is Snug Harbor (http://www.snugjazz.com/), which is just outside the French Quarter. It's a jazz place that is part a restaurant (never had dinner there) and then, in another room, has the shows. Really good local musicians, great music, and a great, not-too-boozey atmosphere. In fact, on our last trip to N.O., my husband took our then-10-year-old son there for their early show (I stayed at the hotel with our younger child). Snug Harbor does allow kids, though my son was the only kid there for that show (though I've occasionally seen other kids there). My son said it was the best thing he did in N.O. If you go to the website, you can see who's playing when you're there. (Charmaine Neville is great, as are any of the Marsalis family, naturally.)