AND MORE MARDI GRAS

We're up bright and early Saturday morning to take a ride on the Paddlewheel Steamboat "Natchez".



It was a beautiful cool day, bright sunshine. The river was fairly busy and we saw lots of other ships, tugs, barges AND some great views of the city.



After a short rest at the park, we went to City Park for the beginning of the Krewe of Endymion parade. The four the night before were fun, but this was our first view of one of the "biggies".

Endymion was the first Krewe to use the "superfloats" which are two or three very large floats hooked together, carrying 100's of riders each. The first was "Papa Joe's S.S. Endymion" introduced in 1976 at 56' and the biggest is "Captain Eddie's S.S. Endymion" at 240' long. It's so big, I could only get one section in this picture.


The parade travels several miles through the streets of New Orleans and ends at the Super Dome where it joins hundreds of party goers for a concert - this year's Grand Marshall was Kevin Costner. He and his new band, Modern West were joined on stage by the Doobie Brothers, and The Go-Gos. I guess the young folks were there. Us old folks went back to the park for a relatively early night.

Sunday we watched the Super Bowl. The Manning family is from New Orleans so I had the fun of watching a bunch of Southerners screaming encouragement and cheering for the New York Giants!! We all thought we'd need pace makers before the end, but Eli "came of age" and put most of the Damned Yankee critics that have been giving him a hard time all year in their places.

Monday is "Lundi Gras", literally "Fat Monday" and is a day for partying, parades and lots of music.

Kinda like "Mardi Gras" (Fat Tuesday) except a day earlier.

Some of us went to the Riverwalk early in the afternoon for a free concert. There was a traditional New Orleans Brass Band, a Zydeco Band and "The Topcats" playing some rock, rap, techno, a little bit of everything.

SOME of our group got in the spirit. Names deleted to protect the not very innocent.






I must tell you a little that I learned about New Orleans Mardi Gras. In case you couldn't tell, we're all having a BALL ! And in the entire time, we haven't even set foot on Bourbon Street. In fact, Lundi Gras was the first time we had an alcoholic beverage in public. The parades don't even go to the French Quarter anymore. The floats are too big. There are some rowdy areas, but the parades are really family events, with little kids running all over the place.

THAT SAID, I also must tell you about one of the things I DID see that I think may be unique to New Orleans. You probably already know that you can walk around in public - on the streets or even in the malls while enjoying a drink. There are Daiquiri Take Out shops on almost every corner. They sell "individual" servings of up to a gallon or so. If you're planning a party, you can buy "in bulk."

ANYWAY, I was sent to get refills for our drinks and on the way, I went inside the Riverwalk, which is the fanciest mall in the entire area, to the PUBLIC restrooms. I don't know what I thought I was going to do with the two mugs, but the wonderful City Fathers had already thought of me.


Maybe I'm just an unsophisticated traveler. OK OK I AM an unsophisticated traveler. But I would still like to know if YOU'VE ever seen a shelf for your drinks in a public restroom. Email me, please.

The ceremonies at the Spanish Plaza closed with fireworks at 8pm. The rest of our group met us and we walked the four blocks to yet another parade.

The Krewe of Orpheus really outdid themselves this year.






And we were ready for them !





Gee, where has the time gone? Tomorrow is MARDI GRAS and we'll be going to

- you guessed it -

ANOTHER PARADE !!!!

REX - The KING of Mardi Gras !

Please check back !

MORE MARDI GRAS

Before our Chef Ann dismissed us, she told us a secret that most locals don't know. "When you leave here, go left one block to the OMNI Royal Orleans Hotel. Walk in 'like you own the place' and take an elevator to the top floor. Follow signs to the pool. The stairs behind the pool lead to a terrace with the best view of the French Quarter." Our crowd is not shy, so we went straight there.




Walked through this beautiful lobby "like we owned it" or at least like we were registered there.




And found that Ann was right.




The Parades we had planned to attend on Thursday were canceled because of weather. So Friday evening we went like the privileged folks do to our reserved bleacher seats on St Charles Avenue. THREE parades were scheduled, but one from Thursday marched as well so we enjoyed the beautiful floats, incredible bands and, of course, those inevitable BEADS for about 6 hours. The seats and location were wonderful. But most important to some of us older folks, we had a private Porta-John !

Here's our gang of Airstreamers



Stanley, Lesly and me. It was NOT warm


HEY MISTER, THROW ME SOME BEADS

We still weren't too successful with the pictures, but I HAD to put this one in. One of the Krewes was D'Etat, which specializes in irony and sarcasm. They had lots of floats skewering FEMA, the Corps of Engineers and a bunch of other local people/organizations. Then there was this one, titled "Left Wing Chicken". The bucket is labeled "DNC". I hope the picture is good enough for you to recognize the "star" of the float.


Oh, what the heck, here's a profile too


There was a VERY TALL man in front of me in the bleachers. He was about 6'2" but I think his arms were 4' long. I was not having much success with the beads and other throws. A lady in the next section of bleachers asked if I was from out-of-town. I said, "Yes" and that this was our first Mardi Gras. One of her male companions said, "Put your bag over here. We'll fill it for you." And they did.

Thank you, Wendy. I told you I'd "make you famous" so here's your picture


So ends the second day of our Mardi Gras. It started at 8:00am and ended back at the Airstreams at 1:30am.

Life IS good.

But I may be too old for many more days of THIS good !