This famously preserved museum is said by Rice scholars to be the model for the house on Rue Royal that was home to vampires Lestat and Louis in Interview with the Vampire. You can walk through the underwater tunnel in the Caribbean Reef exhibit and wave to finny friends swimming all around you, view a shark filled re-creation of the Gulf of Mexico, or drop in to see the penguin exhibit. A memorable way to visit the zoo is to arrive on the sternwheeler John James Audubon and depart on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar. You can reach the streetcar by walking through Audubon Park or by taking the free shuttle bus. During your visit to the zoo, look for the bronze statue of naturalist John James Audubon, standing in a grove of trees with a notebook and pencil in hand.
Few cities can boast a thriving float-making industry.
New Orleans can, and no floatmaker thrives more than Blaine Kern, who makes more than three-quarters of the floats used by the various krewes every Carnival season. Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World offers tours of its collection of float sculptures and of its studios, where you can see floats being made year-round. You can try on dozens of different costumes, wear a giant Marilyn Monroe mask, and even climb on some of the floats from last year's parades and pretend to toss beads, cups, and other throws into the crowd. On the grounds of what is now Chalmette National Historical Park, the bloody Battle of New Orleans was waged on January 14, 1815. Ironically, the battle should never have been fought, because a treaty signed 2 weeks before in Ghent, Belgium, had ended the War of 1812.