New Orleans is a special place, a unique place. Music is part of life here, not just a performance. It is everything and everywhere. Marti and Betty-Carol "support live music," as local posters encourage one to do, and are happy to share what they have learned and where to hear the music. And when you are not listening to music, and sometimes when you are, there is always eating (advice about what to eat and where to get it is freely available at the B and B, based on far too much experience). There is so much to see and do in New Orleans. Take a ride on the St. Charles Avenue street car and look at the gorgeous mansions built by the "Americans" in what was to become the Garden District when the French snubbed them in "The Old Quarter." Go to Audubon Park Zoo and see the best "swamp" exhibit around (better than the countryside where most alligators and birds hibernate from November to April—and tour guides never tell you). Get a "Po’ Boy" sandwich at Johnny’s in the French Quarter or a Muffelatta at Central Grocery and eat it sitting on the bank of the Mississippi, and watch and dream! Mint Museum, on Esplanade in the Quarter, has fine permanent exhibits that focus on Mardi Gras customs and jazz history. Madam John’s Legacy, on Dumaine in the French Quarter, has an important collection of contemporary American folk art. A new African American history museum has opened in the Treme neighborhood, and the Historic New Orleans Collection resides on Chartres Street.

New Orleans is always having a "special event"—at least one a month, often more. There is Jazz Fest (the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, to be formal), seven days of virtually nonstop music on the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May at the Fairgrounds. The French Quarter Festival in mid-April features New Orleans musicians and New Orleans food, in Jackson Square. The Tennessee Williams Literary Festival at the end of March offers panels of Southern writers—gay, mystery, literature, playwrights, history, the "Stella" and "Stanley" shouting contest, booksellers, and a great closing tea party. "Southern Decadence" happens in late August. The Christmas season sees bonfires on the bayou, candlelight caroling in Jackson Square, a fantasyland light display in City Park, and revillion suppers. And of course there is Mardi Gras, whose parades and other festivities start soon after January 1. These are just a few of the "special events" that attract many visitors. The Crescent City offers many diversions at any time. It is a real City with urban pleasures and urban problems too, rich in its mix of peoples and cultures.