Mardi Gras (Part I)
New Orleans was effing awesome. Flight to Houston was okay, except my boarding pass said the gate to N.O was in A, and we flew into C. So I get all the way to A only to find out the flight actually leaves from C. I haven't walked/run so fast in a very long time. But I still made it and there was much happiness. There was usually at elast 2 parades every day from Thursday when I got there until Fat Tuesday. We went to as many of them as we could since Zach's house was literally, his house; Church; parade route.
We went to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street on Friday and Monday. Mostly just walked around looking at everything and ate lunch. Had a Hurricane from Pat O'Briens, wow. That was a powerful drink, got a little tipsy from it. Had beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Those are soooooooo yummy. Little square donuts mountained with powdered sugar. The French Quarter is beautiful. Lots of iron work on upper balconies and porches(http://www.cornichon.org/archives/Carriage%20in%20French%20Quarter.jpg). I really liked the ones decorated for Mardi Gras or with all sorts of plants covering the whole thing.
Didn't see any crazy behavior on Bourbon Street, mostly cause we were there in the day, by time night rolled around Zach and I were usually too peopled out to want to venture down there and that madness. So NO, I did not expose myself for beads, ever. The only place you are "permitted" to expose yourself is in the French Quarter and no parades go down into it or on Bourbon Street. The cops are very efficient at making sure the area along the parade route stays mostly family friendly, and have no trouble sending people to central lock up or being taken off the parade route. (Zach got warned for jumping over the police fence to get me a stuff animal that if he did it again he would be taken off the parade route. Though how they enforce that when the routes are over 3 miles we're not sure) Being drunk in public is also a good way to get sent to central lock up. As one sign for a port-o-pot said "Bathroom $1 per visit or $499 cheaper than bail". Most of the bars and areas along the parade route had portable toilets that they charged a $1 per use or $5 day pass, apparently that is the norm. Although I really wouldn't have wanted to even attempt to use one those, can you imagine how many people may have puked in one. Ew. So yay for Zach's house being in walking distance!
I'm thinking of going to a craft wholesaler and buying tons of feather boas then taking them down there and selling them next year, I think some of the street vendors made a killing by having carts with stuffed animals and boas and things.
The parade rotues have lots of families that make a day out of it by bringing a tent and having a cook out. Tons of them bring special ladders that have seats built into them on top for kids to sit in. Quite clever but annoying because they put them right up against the barriers and those of us who have to stand can't get in front of them or anything, so naturally the taller ones get more of the good stuff. There is definately a hierarchy of "loot". The plain ordinary beads are the lowest, while the big baubles and ones that light up are towards the top. Doubloons are also good things to get, they are rarer and only so many are made for each parade. I liked trying to get doubloons and necklaces that had pendants specific to that parade. Proteus almost soley threw out red necklaces with seahorses on them (Zach caught a bag of them, as did I, but he insisted on wearing all of them, at once. About 20), while Endymion had very few that they threw out. Some people on the floats were more generous with what they threw out and to whom. Being a cute little kid helps, signs, or doing something really crazy to get the attention. A lot of tims the people on the float would catch your eye and throw something specifically for you. One guy threw me some beads that Zach got out of my hands so I looked back up at the guy and he made motions that I should beat Zach, so I did and he bust up laughing. Another time a float somehwere in front of us broke down so we had one in front of us for a good 10 minutes and I had such a time laughing at the people on the float and questioning the sexuality of one of the men there. (Come on, how many men do you know that can sing all of the correct words to "I Will Survive" while not being totally sober, and do dance movements with them, hmmm?) He was great though so I took a picture, we'll see if it comes out. Some floats had music and others didn't, I liked the ones that did cause it was easier to wave my arms to get attention than the other ones. And the people throw not just beads but frisbees, cups, stuffed animals (I got a cute pink cat Beanie Baby, yay Zach! And a stuffed "Tuck" from Krewe of Tucks)usually specific to the parade, Muses even threw out necklaces with earrings. I got a pair of Krewe of Thoth panties because Zach knew a guy on the float and the guy gave them to him. (They're greeeeeeeeeeen) Anything that fell on the ground near you, you tried to put your foot on and after the float moved along then you picked up that stuff. One night we had to be careful because it was hard to see anything coming towards us so we both got beaned several times by beads and who knows that else. Just keep your hands up and something will come to you eventually!
Several of the parades has celebrities on them so I got to see Michael Keaton, Dan Akroyd, Elijah Wood, Ellen Degenere's mum, Al Roker was somewhere on a float the only guy I saw was a skinny old white guy, as was Jim Belushi, Scarlett Johanson, and Josh Hartnett. I actually caught beads thrown by Steven Seagall. Hopefully my pictures come out well, that's a concern for all of them cause a lot of the parades were at night. Oh and Erin, in theory Lucky (Jacob Young) was on a float with other stars from GH and some other soap, I didn't see him nor recognize him.
Each parade had a theme as well as their "Krewe", we saw Babylon, Chaos, Muses, Hermes, Krewe d'Etat, Morpheus, Iris, Tucks, Endymion, Okeanos, Thoth, Bacchus, Proteus, Orpheus, Rex and Elks New Orleans (Though we left during Elks cause their semis kept breaking down and we were already burnt and hungry)
Fat Tuesday was interesting, we got out on the route really early thinking there would be tons of people since it was true Mardi Gras. Parade is supposed to start at 8:30 am. 9 comes and goes and Zulu hasn't started. So Zach goes back to the house to use the restroom and get more water. I start chatting with a lady next to us and find out Zulu did start at 8:30 but it was in a different part of Uptown than we were in. DOH! Zulu is one of the biggest parades. So we waited around until 10 for Rex and Elks and Crescent City. By 1:30 Elks still wasn't done and were both hungry and tired. I was a lobster. Not pink or medium-well, I was RED. My arms and, shoulders and face. I wore a tank top for 4 days after I got home because anything else hurt too much. (On the plus side I got to peel!) Now I have weird tan lines from the wristlet I wore on my right wrist and on my left wrist is a thin little line from my hair tie. Also across my shoulders a diagonal line from the shoulder bag I wore. I hurt so bad after that. It was odd not seeing paczki in the grocery stores down there (We went for aloe), they had their King Cakes instead. Saw lots of people carrying those around.
Didn't get to take any tours or visit any of the mini-cities (cemetaries), unfortunately just couldn't schedule them properly around the parades. Did get to see one of Anne Rice's houses, but did't look like she was home. Alas. Maybe next trip down?
We went to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street on Friday and Monday. Mostly just walked around looking at everything and ate lunch. Had a Hurricane from Pat O'Briens, wow. That was a powerful drink, got a little tipsy from it. Had beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Those are soooooooo yummy. Little square donuts mountained with powdered sugar. The French Quarter is beautiful. Lots of iron work on upper balconies and porches(http://www.cornichon.org/archives/Carriage%20in%20French%20Quarter.jpg). I really liked the ones decorated for Mardi Gras or with all sorts of plants covering the whole thing.
Didn't see any crazy behavior on Bourbon Street, mostly cause we were there in the day, by time night rolled around Zach and I were usually too peopled out to want to venture down there and that madness. So NO, I did not expose myself for beads, ever. The only place you are "permitted" to expose yourself is in the French Quarter and no parades go down into it or on Bourbon Street. The cops are very efficient at making sure the area along the parade route stays mostly family friendly, and have no trouble sending people to central lock up or being taken off the parade route. (Zach got warned for jumping over the police fence to get me a stuff animal that if he did it again he would be taken off the parade route. Though how they enforce that when the routes are over 3 miles we're not sure) Being drunk in public is also a good way to get sent to central lock up. As one sign for a port-o-pot said "Bathroom $1 per visit or $499 cheaper than bail". Most of the bars and areas along the parade route had portable toilets that they charged a $1 per use or $5 day pass, apparently that is the norm. Although I really wouldn't have wanted to even attempt to use one those, can you imagine how many people may have puked in one. Ew. So yay for Zach's house being in walking distance!
I'm thinking of going to a craft wholesaler and buying tons of feather boas then taking them down there and selling them next year, I think some of the street vendors made a killing by having carts with stuffed animals and boas and things.
The parade rotues have lots of families that make a day out of it by bringing a tent and having a cook out. Tons of them bring special ladders that have seats built into them on top for kids to sit in. Quite clever but annoying because they put them right up against the barriers and those of us who have to stand can't get in front of them or anything, so naturally the taller ones get more of the good stuff. There is definately a hierarchy of "loot". The plain ordinary beads are the lowest, while the big baubles and ones that light up are towards the top. Doubloons are also good things to get, they are rarer and only so many are made for each parade. I liked trying to get doubloons and necklaces that had pendants specific to that parade. Proteus almost soley threw out red necklaces with seahorses on them (Zach caught a bag of them, as did I, but he insisted on wearing all of them, at once. About 20), while Endymion had very few that they threw out. Some people on the floats were more generous with what they threw out and to whom. Being a cute little kid helps, signs, or doing something really crazy to get the attention. A lot of tims the people on the float would catch your eye and throw something specifically for you. One guy threw me some beads that Zach got out of my hands so I looked back up at the guy and he made motions that I should beat Zach, so I did and he bust up laughing. Another time a float somehwere in front of us broke down so we had one in front of us for a good 10 minutes and I had such a time laughing at the people on the float and questioning the sexuality of one of the men there. (Come on, how many men do you know that can sing all of the correct words to "I Will Survive" while not being totally sober, and do dance movements with them, hmmm?) He was great though so I took a picture, we'll see if it comes out. Some floats had music and others didn't, I liked the ones that did cause it was easier to wave my arms to get attention than the other ones. And the people throw not just beads but frisbees, cups, stuffed animals (I got a cute pink cat Beanie Baby, yay Zach! And a stuffed "Tuck" from Krewe of Tucks)usually specific to the parade, Muses even threw out necklaces with earrings. I got a pair of Krewe of Thoth panties because Zach knew a guy on the float and the guy gave them to him. (They're greeeeeeeeeeen) Anything that fell on the ground near you, you tried to put your foot on and after the float moved along then you picked up that stuff. One night we had to be careful because it was hard to see anything coming towards us so we both got beaned several times by beads and who knows that else. Just keep your hands up and something will come to you eventually!
Several of the parades has celebrities on them so I got to see Michael Keaton, Dan Akroyd, Elijah Wood, Ellen Degenere's mum, Al Roker was somewhere on a float the only guy I saw was a skinny old white guy, as was Jim Belushi, Scarlett Johanson, and Josh Hartnett. I actually caught beads thrown by Steven Seagall. Hopefully my pictures come out well, that's a concern for all of them cause a lot of the parades were at night. Oh and Erin, in theory Lucky (Jacob Young) was on a float with other stars from GH and some other soap, I didn't see him nor recognize him.
Each parade had a theme as well as their "Krewe", we saw Babylon, Chaos, Muses, Hermes, Krewe d'Etat, Morpheus, Iris, Tucks, Endymion, Okeanos, Thoth, Bacchus, Proteus, Orpheus, Rex and Elks New Orleans (Though we left during Elks cause their semis kept breaking down and we were already burnt and hungry)
Fat Tuesday was interesting, we got out on the route really early thinking there would be tons of people since it was true Mardi Gras. Parade is supposed to start at 8:30 am. 9 comes and goes and Zulu hasn't started. So Zach goes back to the house to use the restroom and get more water. I start chatting with a lady next to us and find out Zulu did start at 8:30 but it was in a different part of Uptown than we were in. DOH! Zulu is one of the biggest parades. So we waited around until 10 for Rex and Elks and Crescent City. By 1:30 Elks still wasn't done and were both hungry and tired. I was a lobster. Not pink or medium-well, I was RED. My arms and, shoulders and face. I wore a tank top for 4 days after I got home because anything else hurt too much. (On the plus side I got to peel!) Now I have weird tan lines from the wristlet I wore on my right wrist and on my left wrist is a thin little line from my hair tie. Also across my shoulders a diagonal line from the shoulder bag I wore. I hurt so bad after that. It was odd not seeing paczki in the grocery stores down there (We went for aloe), they had their King Cakes instead. Saw lots of people carrying those around.
Didn't get to take any tours or visit any of the mini-cities (cemetaries), unfortunately just couldn't schedule them properly around the parades. Did get to see one of Anne Rice's houses, but did't look like she was home. Alas. Maybe next trip down?