James Gaffney - Day Trips® from New Orleans

Audubon Louisiana Nature Center. In Joe Brown Memorial Park, Nature Center Drive. From New Age massages and stargazing to nature trails and catching butterflies, the Audubon LouisianaNature Center offers one of the most impressive rosters of year-round fun and programs anywhere in the city. Opened in 1980 and recognized as one of the top-five urban nature centers in the country, this facility is dedicated to helping people appreciate and understand Louisianas natural environment. During spring and summer youngsters of all ages can participate in solar cooking classes or join a Smell-abration olfactory rescue hunt with canines from the Covington Police Department.

Throughout the year the nature center hosts changing exhibits and discovery programs, as well as planetarium and laser shows. Visitors can check out a Discovery Kita canvas shoulder bag that includes binoculars, field guides, a bird call, a dip net, a magnifying lens, and an activity guide. The kit also includes an audiotape narrated by naturalist John James Audubon, who explains what visitors can see at various points along the centers three nature trails. The 1.4-mile Discovery Trail (approximate walking time: one hour fifteen minutes) and 1.2-mile Adventure Trail (one hour) are both ground-level trails. The 0.8-mile Wisner Loop Trail (forty-five minutes) is a handicapped-accessible elevated boardwalk. Trail guides are available for each trail at the information desk for those eager to learn more about the flora and fauna.

In the Interpretive Center kids can learn more about reptiles and amphibians at the Snakes N Stuff exhibit, visit the Discovery Loft for a touching experience, and hear more about the animals at the Birds of Prey program. Whether walking a trail and listening to the native sounds, enjoying a seminar or lecture, or participating in games and activities, visitors to the nature center connect with nature while having fun. Open Tuesday through Sunday. Fee. (504) 2465672 or (800) 7747394; www.auduboninstitute.org.

Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. 17158 Chef Menteur Highway. Even die-hard environmentalists would be hard-pressed to find a more suitable spot for teaching youngsters the importance of protecting and preserving natures unspoiled beauty and precious wetlands. As one of the largest urban wildlife refuges in the United States, Bayou Sauvage is still one of the best-kept secrets in New Orleans. (Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency that manages the wildlife refuge, estimate that two-thirds of New Orleans residents have yet to visit here.) Even if you werent born to be wild, youll quickly fall under the spell of this 23,000-acre refuges swamplands and marshes, easily explored on foot thanks to a series of wheelchair-accessible boardwalked nature trails. The trailslined with live oaks, red maple, hackberry trees, and sprawling fields of palmettosare dotted with signs identifying local flora and fauna. Plenty of parking and a pavilion with restrooms are additional creature comforts designed to make Bayou Sauvage user-friendly.

To help visitors experience Bayou Sauvage up close and personal, officials schedule a year-round calendar of events, including three-times-daily swamp tours aboard a sixty-passenger pontoon boat. Guided canoe trips are also available almost every weekend. Canoes, life jackets, and paddles are provided, and reservations are required. Children must be at least six years old to participate. In warmer months, moonlight canoe treks are scheduled during full-moon periods. Birding and bicycling trips round out the selection of nature outings. Open daily. No fee. (504) 6467544.

Six Flags New Orleans. 12301 Lake Forest Boulevard. Visitors and locals alike had long bellyached that the one thing missing from the fun-time vibe of the New Orleans landscape was a theme park. If for no other reason, the city needed Six Flags New Orleans (formerly Jazzland) to appease the old-timers who havent stopped bemoaning the closing of Pontchartrain Beach amusement park in 1983. With its roller coaster and other gravity-defying thrill rides rising high above the tree line of the surrounding swamps, Six Flags delivered on its promise to give the city a class-act theme park. From water log rides and sky coasters to bumper cars, Six Flags has left more than one theme-park thrillseeker soaked, scared, woozyand eager for more.

Seven distinct sections of the park include Main Street (with shopping and indoor music and entertainment); Pontchartrain Beach (a re-creation of New Orleanss historic amusement park); Mardi Gras (a taste of Carnival); Looney Tunes Adventures (a childrens area with pint-size rides and characters like Bugs Bunny and Tweety); and Cajun Country (a bayou full of Louisiana crafts, high-spirited Cajun dancing, and boiled seafood). Of course the rides are the main attraction at any amusement park, and Six Flags has plenty. The Mega Zeph is a 4,000-foot-long wooden roller coaster whose first drop from 110 feet high takes passengers to speeds of 65 mph. The Skycoaster hoists patrons up 170 feet; then riders pull a ripcord for a free-fall swing over the lake. Riders on the Frisbee sit on a giant spinning disk that swings back and forth over a lake. The Turbo Drop takes riders 185 feet up in the air and drops them (safely) to the ground, and the Inverter lifts 50 feet in the air and repeatedly flips 360 degrees. Days and hours vary depending on season. Fee. (504) 2538100.