Ruby Slipper is a great breakfast/brunch place.
Riding the St Charles Streetcar and checking out Magazine St is fun.
The Ww 2 museum is a must see!
@romanigypsyeyes Jazz clubs along Frenchmen street are fun. That’s where the locals who appreciate good jazz go. The spotted cat and three muses are two places we enjoyed , but there are several others. Just make sure to get an Uber there and back especially at night. There are also a lot of jazz places on Bourbon street but tourists predominate. We also enjoyed walking along the river walk (board walk) by the Mississippi River. It’s about a 2 minute walk to get there from the French quarter. There is the Steamboat Natchez harbor boat ride entrance right there —we enjoyed it very much. And further down on the boardwalk (at the end of Canal Street) there is the Aquarium and butterfly museum nearby. And a large indoor mall, with couches interspersed throughout, that is air conditioned and allows for some rest and a reprieve from the intense heat.
I’ve eaten at Cafe du Monde dozens of times and never waited in line. I don’t go for breakfast. I mostly go there in the evenings or late night. I went on Mardi Gras day a couple of years ago around 10 pm and walked right on.
WWII museum is amazing. The Backstreet Cultural museum is supposed to be great— lots of African American history and Mardi Gras Indian stuff.
My vegetarian friends rave about Seed and Sneaky Pickle. Cleo’s on Canal is a market/Middle Eastern restaurant with some good veggie options. Gumbo Shop in the quarter has a veggie dish every day (usually some sort of beans and rice) and also gumbo z’herbs which is meatless. Green Goddess is another place I hear people mention a lot. NO has a lot of Vietnamese places and those will usually have some veg options. It’s much more vegetarian friendly than it used to be with all the hipsters who have moved in. ?
Oh, and I agree with the Algiers ferry. I love the view of the Quarter from there. It used to be free but I think it costs $2 now.
Uber and Lyft are readily available. The St Charles streetcar is an attraction unto itself. Beautiful scenery.
If you have time and inclination to get out of the city, Whitney Plantation is an incredibly moving experience. Plantation tour that focuses on slavery.
I was just in New Orleans this week. I learned so much from the trip advisor forums and will be paying attention to this thread because D19 is going to Tulane so I will be spending more time there. We stayed at the Hyatt that backs up to Canal Street - it is a good location, easily walkable to all of the French Quarter and close to the St. Charles streetcar stop.
Everyone has made great suggestions so far. I will add that you can check wwoz.com to find a list of what bands are playing where each night, it helped us a lot. Frenchman St. is definitely best for music, Bourbon is mostly 80’s cover band type music but we did find 3 spots we liked - Tropic Isle Bayou (there are a few but this one has great zydeco bands), Maison on Bourbon (jazz) and Fritzels (we were there the house band called the All Stars played and we absolutely loved them - amazing musicians and voices.) Frenchman Street we went to d.b.a specifically to hear the Treme Brass Band, wanted to see Rebirth but they were playing too far away that week.
For history the WW2 museum is supposed to be amazing and there are lots of free self guided walking tours online of the Garden District. You can do a guided tour as well but I liked doing it on my own so we cold skip some if we wanted, take a break, etc. The cemetery in the garden district has short hours (I think it closed at 2:30 when we were there) so check that first because it is cool to walk through.
I like Cafe du Monde even if people think it is touristy, I just don’t want to wait in the huge lines and sit in the crowded restaurant area so we go at off times (open 24 hours) and walk around to the back to the take out window. There is usually a much shorter line and then we grab our food and go sit on a bench in Jackson Square. We also liked Cafe Beignet because we can get mimosas with our beignets there. 
D19 and I liked the Royal Street location because we like the cute little courtyard.
Oh - and not sure how early you will be there but the weekend of Aug. 31-Sept. 2 is Southern Decadence, a crazy, fun Pride Day on steroids event that we saw the first time we were there. Some people may not like it (google it and you will see pictures - people walking around in just speedos, chaps with nothing on underneath, etc…) but D19, her friend and I loved it and were glad we happened to be there to see the crazy celebrations.
A few years ago I needed to travel for business to NO on short notice. My 9 year old son was with me and one of the business meetings the client set up was a celebration dinner at a restaurant in the middle of the French quarter at 9 PM - during what I now know was Southern Decadence. Client specifically invited my son, so no way to skip this dinner. The streets were closed to traffic and we had to walk through the Quarter to get to the restaurant. Lots and lots of mostly naked people, men kissing, chaps, etc. Wasn’t sure how much son was taking in until we walked by a pair of men wearing nothing but tiny black speedo type undies and bondage gear - straps, masks. My son was fascinated and asked “mom, why is that man wearing a seat belt?”
Full disclosure, sometimes we are caught off guard and our quick replies lead to parenting fails - this was one of those times. All I could come up with in the moment was “he’s very safe.”
For the record, son appears to mull this over and we had a bit more age appropriate and good discussion later back in our room where it was quiet and there was privacy.
Learned a lot of history on a CityBus tour, and had my favorite beignets at the place in City Park (I liked them better that Cafe du Monde)- also enjoyed walking around the City Park sculpture garden.
@milee30 That is too funny!!
I’d second Lizardly’s recommendation for Galatoire’s. It’s a NOLA institution that’s been in operation for 100-some years. The food is great and the wait staff is helpful and friendly–many have been there for years and years. They’ll find vegetarian options for you. Another place we really liked was Peche–it has a focus on local foods/seafood and has won a James Beard award.
I did a walking tour of the French Quarter–the Natonal Park Service has a center where you can get information about tours of the area. The tour I took was really excellent. I also did a plantation tour (went to Oak Alley, which is one of the plantation featured on a number of the tours), which I enjoyed. Last recommendation–Audubon Aquarium. There’s a really cool rainforest exhibit.