Places katherineplatt Wants to Go

A hurricane-stricken oak tree has been reborn as a beautiful chainsaw artwork.

This "second" cemetery represents New Orleans' attempt to keep cholera at bay.

The oldest operational cathedral in the U.S. has one shell of a way of projecting speakers' voices.

For 150 years one family has been producing the iconic hot sauce on a bayou island made of salt.

A 19th-century Gothic, castle-like statehouse by the Mississippi River.

A theme park that suffered massive flooding during Katrina was abandoned, and now proves irresistible to trespassing explorers.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

After the parade, students throw their beads on the tree hoping for good luck on exams.

This Birdsill Holly fire hydrant is the remnant of a very different type of hydration innovation.

This historic "City of the Dead" lies prominently in the center of New Orleans' famous Garden District.

This float factory takes the mask off of Mardi Gras and lets visitors see where the magic happens.

The greatest collection of New Orleans masking and processional traditions covering everything from Baby Dolls to Skull and Bone gangs.

The second oldest continuously operating bar in Louisiana.

Storyville was New Orleans' historic red light district and hotbed of jazz music, sometimes referred to simply as "The District."

The oldest cemetery in New Orleans, resting peacefully for over 200 years now.

The final resting place of New Orleans' most famous voodoo priestess.

A 200-year-old building in the French Quarter that was to be Napoleon's home in the New World.

According to one local tradition, the entrance to the Voodoo underworld can be found in New Orleans through seven gates scattered throughout the city's French Quarter.

The South's nickname was supposedly born at a former bank in New Orleans' French Quarter.

The only rotating bar in New Orleans has been slowly spinning since 1949.

A small park on Bourbon Street features life-size bronze statues of New Orleans musicians.

Dozens of padlock-trees along the Moscow River.

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.