Sip+Dip at Audubon Cool Zoo

It’s hot in the Deep South and sometimes you have to kick the kids out of the pool.

The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans is doing just that on Saturday, July 27, 2019, allowing adults-only after-hours access to its Cool Zoo, which includes the attraction’s splash pad and Gator Run lazy river. The Sip+Dip, which cost $30 per person, involves outdoor games, live entertainment and three complimentary drinks along with two light bite options. Additional drinks and a limited menu will be available for purchase. Tickets are available online.

“Audubon Cool Zoo is known as the hot spot to cool off for children and families during the summer in New Orleans,” said Audubon Nature Institute Vice President of Marketing Katie Smith in a press release. “New this summer, for one night only, we’re transforming it into the perfect oasis for adults to take a dip, sip a cocktail, and enjoy Cool Zoo after hours, opening-up a world of unique experiences for the kid in all of us.”

Cool Zoo splash park includes jumping waterspouts, an alligator water slide, spider monkey soakers and water-spitting snakes. The Gator Run 750-foot, three-feet-deep lazy river rolls by two sand beaches, lounge chairs, four water cannons, two water curtains and jumping jets. It takes approximately seven minutes to make a round trip.

Cool Zoo and Gator Run are located beside the Gottesman Family Endangered Species Carousel inside Audubon Zoo. This after-hours event is exclusively for adults ages 21 and over. 

Watch the Sip + Dip video here.

Banksy mural finds home at New Orleans International House

British street artist Banksy helped himself to several outdoor canvases after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. One of the 16 buildings he “embellished” with his street art in August 2008 (Katrina’s third anniversary) was a warehouse co-owned by hotelier Sean Cummings and actor-author HillHarper. 

The 10-foot by 10-foot artwork known as “Looters,” features two men stealing electronics and pushing the objects through a window from a  grocery shopping cart.

Cummings and Harper hoped to turn the warehouse near the Mississippi River into lofts and restaurants but the city denied their plans. Instead, the duo sold the property but saved the mural which has now found a home at the boutique hotel, the International House, located at 221 Camp Street in New Orleans' Central Business District. 

“Looters” has been restored after a five-year, $50,000 restoration to remove graffiti and paint and installed in the hotel adjacent to a room that celebrates the artist with Banksy quotes, photographs, storytelling and local lore, according to the hotel’s press release.

Only three of the original 17 Banksy murals still exist in New Orleans today.

New Orleans art museums offer cool news when weather gets hot

Most Louisiana residents don’t wish for temps to soar in August. They’re too busy dreaming of autumn’s arrival. But if the heat index reaches 93 degrees in New Orleans, three city museums will offer free admission to Louisiana residents the following day. The participating museums are the New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Contemporary Arts Center.

It’s all courtesy of The Helis Foundation. 

But there’s more. Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls will offer sno-balls for free on “Art & AC” days at NOMA’s front entrance and Helis will sponsor a raffle at each museum. Visitors should check-in at the front desk and receive one set of two tickets. Fill out the top portion of the ticket and turn it in for a chance to win one of two prints of "NOLA Color Study" by David Armentor. The other can be redeemed for one sno-ball.

To find out if the day’s heat index reaches 93, follow FOX8 in New Orleans with meteorologist David Bernard, along with NOMA’s Facebook page.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.