Meandering Magazine Street -- shops, shops, shops

You restless like me? Maybe it's the cool weather blowing in.

Look. If you've got a couple hours, I got just the place to cure your Fall's a falling blues. Let's go run down Magazine Street in New Orleans. We can window shop and explore the stores to our hearts delight.

Magazine was holding on before Hurricane Katrina hit. After the storm, it was one of the few commercial corridors that was not flooded and that caused a boom in shops along the busy street. Lately, a few vacancies have been cropping up. Much of that seems, though, to be in newly renovated space.

Magazine is mostly little shops -- some store fronts from the 40's and 50' era and earlier, but also a lot of old homes converted into stores, and galleries. Did I say galleries? Plenty of them. Lots of antique shops and assorted boutiques, too. Some coffee shops, a hardware store or two. Good eating places. A menagerie, as it were, that is just waiting to be explored. One of those fund things to do if you just visiting for a few days and don't want to do the crowd magnets.

Let's start right here. Bella Nola Home Decor. Can it get much more N'Awlins than that.

Come on, this is going to be fun. Wait till tomorrow and you see what I found.

-- steve buser