Not every human endeavor and purpose is always pointed at the heavens in a quest for morality and goodness. Even the most angelic of us has a need for being "lowdown" or "slightly devilish and decadent" at times. As proof: Why is there a Las Vegas, NV or New Orleans, LA?

As a tourist destination, New Orleans bows to no other American city. It sits comfortably on both sides of a huge bend in the Mississippi River. It is called the Crescent City for that geographical feature.

Another name for New Orleans is "The Big Easy." A walk down Bourbon Street on a Saturday night will give you the reason for that appellation. It is difficult to walk down this street, which is blocked off from vehicular traffic, but filled to impassability with human traffic. The Vieux Carre is the French Quarter and it rocks!

You can hear Bourbon Street before you stand on it. Some great New Orleans music-makers are Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Fats Domino and Harry Connick Jr.

Every bar has loudspeakers booming onto the street. Dixieland, Jazz, Rock 'N Roll blare out to capture the strollers. Front men try to pull you in with offers of "no cover charge" and "three-for-one price beers." Young black boys tap dance in amazing rhythm in the hope of some payment from the throng.

The French Quarter is famous for its grilled wrought-iron artistry. On the balconies men and women with beers in hand throw colorful beaded necklaces to the crowd below.

Music is everywhere. So are sexy gals trying to get you into their show. Cigars and beers rule! Even the seemingly most proper of women are seen strolling with cups and bottles of beer in their hand. It is all wonderfully good-natured.

As you approach Jackson Square, the historic epicenter of the Quarter, you are in the Tarot Card capital of the world. Every 10' sitting behind a bridge table with strange aromas emanating from candles, is a fortune teller, palm reader and tarot card interpreter. Voodoo is also a major industry in the French Quarter.

There is a Caribbean personality of laid-back feeling, carnival madness and eclectic cultural milieu that is common in port cities. New Orleans is racially diverse and seemingly everyone is at ease. Creole and Cajun are words used over and over again. The tour guide on the bus offered these definitions:

Cajun - the Acadian, Nova Scotian Frenchmen who refused to serve in the English Army were rounded up and shipped to America in the 18th Century. Many wound up in the bayous of Louisiana. Here they prospered and brought their native foods and music. Cajun is a corruption of Acadian.

The poem Evangeline by Longfellow tells this sad story.

Creole - In 1803 under Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase was made. Jefferson wanted only New Orleans, but Napoleon needed money and threw in the entire Louisiana territory. It reached from Canada in the north to the Dakotas in the west. The treaty was signed in front of the St. Louis Cathedral which is now Jackson Square. Anybody who resided in the Louisiana territory before 1803 and can trace ancestry back to those times, is a Creole.

As you cross the wide Canal Street and enter the Quarter, be prepared for the best culinary delights of your life. Arnaud's French Restaurant is regarded as number one. Chez Paul's Cajun cooking is also classic. Emeril the TV star has three establishments in New Orleans. Sunday brunch at Brennan's is a fixture on the local culinary scene.

Creole Gumbo consists of beef stock, oysters, shrimp, crab meat and sausage. It is heaven for soup lovers. The raw bar at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, called Desire, has the freshest oysters on the half shell. You can smother them with the usual lemon, horseradish, cocktail sauce and red-hot pepper sauce. I ate a dozen every day.

Next one should stroll to the French Market at riverside. Cafe DuMonde awaits with great coffee laced with chicory and served with milk. An order of beignets is also required. These powdered doughnuts are delicious. Two coffees and an order of three beignets (doughnuts) comes to $4.10. A real bargain!

We had Sunday Brunch at Midi in the Le Meridien Hotel on Canal Street. For $31.50 a person, you can peel and eat all the shrimp you can hold. Champagne, fresh orange juice and delicious coffee are the drinks. Gumbo soup, omelets of all description, roast beef, turkey, Eggs Benedict and lox are also served. Bread pudding swimming in a delicious sauce and flan and cakes and chocolate rounded out the feast.

The City of New Orleans is below the level of the Mississippi River. Levees or dikes hold back the mighty river. The city is "lowdown" geographically and you can get real "lowdown" on a wonderful Saturday night in New Orleans.

Just leave some of your inhibitions at home!