Mardi Gras, New Orleans

Last weekend was SO much fun! I've been to New Orleans many times, but I've never been for Mardi Gras. Our friend, Joey, invited us to stay with his aunt and uncle that live near New Orleans, so we took him up on his offer. We've stayed with Aunt Nanny and Uncle Bert a few times before for New Year's. They are very sweet and generous to let us all crash at their place.

We all piled into a Suburban on Friday afternoon and had a fun six hour road trip. Chris flew in from Phoenix for the weekend, and he and his fiance, Logan, joined us as well as Erin, Joey's girlfriend.

On Saturday we grabbed lunch from the Come Back Inn - red beans and rice, and a muffaletta to go. New Orleans' food is so good! Afterward we headed  uptown to the parade route and to meet up with the other part of our group that had driven in separately. We joined them at the RV that we all chipped in to rent for the weekend. For 12 of us, we each paid $60 to have the RV from Friday night through Monday. That might've been the best $60 I've ever spent! I'll elaborate on that in a minute.

Me, Logan, Erin

We walked down to the parade-watching spot that Nanny and bert had staked out for all of us at the corner of Orleans Ave. and North Carrollton Ave. Joey told me that standing at corners along the parade routes are the best places to be. The floats have to slow down to turn, so there's more time to get beads from the floats.

Here's a picture of us at out parade spot. It's not very flattering, but it's the only one I have of us from the weekend. It's so hard to make him get in pictures!

In the background, you can see ladders on the ground. I had no idea that people bring out tons of ladders to get up higher to get more beads!  Here's a photo of Harrison, Joey, and Chris:

Rain was threatening all day, so we went back to our RV that was parked close by for a few hours of playing cards and watching the weather channel. The eye of a massive thunderstom was going to be on top of New Orleans right around the 5:30 start-time of the parade. We headed back to our spot around 5 and then came the DRENCHING rain! My jeans were soaked almost instantly! Figuring that the parade would be cancelled because the storm didn't show any signs of letting up, we sought shelter again in the RV. After trying to dry off a bit, we heard that the parade started on time and the rain was down to a drizzle. A few of us decided to venture back out and at least stay to watch 20 minutes of the parade. I'm so glad we didn't throw in the towel! Endymion was so much fun that I completely forgot that I was soaked. The floats were very beautiful and elaborate!

I ended up with a massive amount of beads! All I had to do was yell, put out my hand, and try to make eye contact with some of the throwers! Contrary to popular belief (what I had imagined prior to this trip), women aren't usually 'flashing' along the popular parade routes. I'm sure it happens, but none of us witnessed that all weekend. The environment is actually pretty family friendly. I think all of the raunchy stuff happens on Bourbon Street and down in the French Quarter. We didn't even go to that area once on our trip, and I didn't miss it at all. I enjoy that area, I just don't want to get close to it during Mardi Gras! 

We got home around 10 or so, and most of us decided to crash for the evening. Harrison, Chris, John, and Kenny weren't ready for the night to end, so they went to some bars near Tulane.

On Sunday, we all went out for brunch at The Cheesecake Bistro. The food was very good...crawfish ravioli and Peach Bellini! Afterward, we dropped Harrison off at the D-Day Museum. In the past, everytime he went to New Orleans he planned to visit the museum. Each time, it never worked out for one reason or another. He was so excited to finally get to tour the museum, even though he knew it meant that he'd have to walk three miles when he was finished to meet us at the Bacchus parade!

We met up with everyone at the RV, which was parked in a new location for the Sunday afternoon parade, Bacchus. It was on St. Charles Street, which has the longest stretch of beautifully unique mansions that I've ever seen. Our RV was perched right in front of what might as well have been a castle.

In addition to providing shelter from the rain, it was nice to have a place to takes breaks from the chaos outside. The main reason we rented it was to have a place to use the bathroom all weekend. Many people rent port-a-potties since it's near impossible to find bathrooms. Many establishments require that you buy a drink before you can use their restrooms. There are some areas with public port-a-potties, but by the time you've finished standing in line you've missed a chunk of the parade!

There she is!

We hopped on a trolley and rode past all of the beautiful mansions, Tulane, and Loyola. We ended up at a bar, Cooter Brown's, where we drank a beer and ordered some good New Orleans pub grub. Again, I opted for the muffaletta, which is our favorite sandwich ever! I saved some for Harrison since I knew he'd be hungry after his long walk back.

Here's the gang, minus Harrison and me (the photographer):

Erin, Joey

Logan, Chris

Jameson, Katie

Laura (kind of hidden), Kenny

Beth, John

We found Harrison back at the RV. He thoroughly enjoyed his three hours at the museum and wished he'd had more time there. We headed out to Bacchus but arrived late and missed seeing Will Farrell as the Grand Marshall. We didn't have a great spot to watch, but some very nice ladies let me and Laura stand on their ladders for a little while.

After the parade, we went back to Cooter Brown's for a while. From there we went to a lively dive bar called F&M's and then arrived back at Nanny and Bert's at 2am. I keep forgetting I'm not in college anymore.

On Monday, we went to brunch with Nanny and Bert and then we were on our way back home. Somehow, Harrison, Joey, and I caught a second wind and went straight to Niffer's for our usual Monday night trivia! I definitely paid for the fun weekend on Tuesday when I had to get up for work!