Mardi Gras Firsthand

 Honestly I don't even know where to begin!  We had no idea that moving to New Orleans at the end of January would land us smack dab in the middle of Mardi Gras mayhem.  You may think that mayhem is a strong word but I guarantee you that it is NOT.  This city LIVES for Mardi Gras season! In February Southern Louisiana turns Purple, Green and Gold!

 Being newbies to the area, people that we ran into delighted in educating us in all things Mardi Gras.  We learned about areas to stay away from, which parades were the best and how to get a good spot to watch them go by. They taught us techniques for catching beads and avoiding black eyes from those same flying beads. We were also told where to get the best slice of King Cake in town.  That was definitely advice that we took seriously but no one was able to give us a realistic picture of the true MANIA of Mardi Gras.

During the Carnival season parades roll every weekend all day long and even some week nights.  As Fat Tuesday approaches the parades get more frequent.  About 2 weeks before the big day Caitlin and I decided to do a little parade recon just to see if this would be something that the whole family could do. That Saturday we took the ferry into The French Quarter and made our way to a spot on the St Charles St. parade route.  Believe it or not, there's a Mardi Gras Parade Tracker app so of course we had that pulled up and handy.  

 It was freezing cold that day and our spot on the route was in the shade.  I popped into a little shop nearby and bought us New Orleans Saints hats and some socks to put on with our flip flops.  We were a funny sight dressed that way cradling our hot lattes from PJs Coffee shop across the street. Thinking back on it I realize that we probably looked more normal than the majority of the folks there decked out in crazy crazy outfits. In the end when the parade finally began to roll by we forgot all about the cold.  Caitlin really got into the spirit of it all yelling for beads "Throw me somethin' Mista!!"and competing with our fellow parade watchers for the best catches.  We were hooked!

  Now before you get any crazy but stereotypical ideas in your head I have to say that we personally never witnessed the kind of "girls gone wild" craziness that people associate with New Orleans at Mardi Gras time.  I know that it happens but like I already mentioned, we were well educated about areas to avoid.  For the most part it's just one enormous party that lasts for weeks! We quickly decided that the rest of the family had to experience it.  We ended up going to quite a few parades after that.  One of them we went to completely by accident!

It was a Friday late afternoon and we needed to go to the Apple store in the mall.  We walked in a few minutes before 6 and all of the stores were closing. People leaving as we came in told us that the mall was closing because a parade was about to start just outside.  Imagine that! A mall closing on a busy business night for a parade?! We were baffled, so we decided to stick around and see what the hype was all about.  Hey, we already had a great parking place so we may as well stay for the fun!

 It is simply amazing to us the number of beads that get thrown from 2 and 3 story high floats passing by. The floats are HUGE and decorated like nothing you've ever seen before.  There's 20 or more people aboard every float and all of them throwing trinkets into the clamoring crowd.  I thought it would be a strand at a time but boy was I wrong.  Often we would look up just in time to see a handful of big heavy beads headed straight at our heads.  Abbie and Holly began to just dodge them after awhile.  After all, a girl can only wear so many pounds of beads before you just start to look gawdy. :-)

  Just to give you a little glimpse of the mania I will tell you something that's hard to believe in today's day and age.  In New Orleans on Fat Tuesday everything closes, even Wal-Mart and McDonalds!  Unbelievable I know, but TRUE.  People decorate their homes and businesses just like they would for Christmas but with purple, green and gold.  King Cake is sold in every store. Businesses close, they block interstates so that parade floats can get into position, they light the Superdome up with blinking lights, trees that line parade routes hang heavy with beads and the booze flows faster than the Mississippi River.

Again, I can't even begin to convey to you the feeling of Mardi Gras here in this amazing city.  It's something you just have to experience for yourself.  So if it's one of those things on your bucket list, consider yourself invited to join in the fun with us next February.