Monday, March 5, 2012

New Orleans - Mardi Gras!

Stephen and I visited New Orleans last month during the weekend before Fat Tuesday with our next door neighbor and his girlfriend.  The weekend before Mardi Gras day is THE big carnival weekend with all the superkrewe parades like Endymion, Bacchus, Orpheus, etc...going on all day and night.  It is a bacchanalia as only New Orleans can put on. We enjoyed several parades on Sunday, including Iris, Okeanos,Thoth and Bacchus.  Of course, I got overloaded with beads.  Surprisingly, Mardi Gras is a rather tame family-oriented event, at least at the parades.  It resembled a neighborhood street party more than anything.  The locals know how to do it right and they come prepared with fold out camp chairs, coolers full of tasty beverages, snacks and even ladders equipped with wheels and with seats on them at the top for good viewing. 

While the parades may be family-time, there is still plenty of flesh to be seen in the Quarter, especially on Bourbon Street.  We avoided Bourbon Street for the most part due to the frat-boy crowds.  Steve, in his usual anti-social way, has a few favorite Quarter bars that are off the beaten path that he enjoys and frequents, including Molly's on Toulouse and Harry's Corner Bar. These bars tend to be low-key, cheap and have good jukeboxes, which meets his requirements. The only bar on Bourbon Street that he will make an exception for is The Old Absinthe House.

Mardi Gras is definitely something that should be experienced at least once.  The parades were a sight to behold, especially a superkrewe like Bacchus.  Bacchus lasted close to 3 hours and there must have been 30+ marching bands and dance crews in it.  At some point I figured they were going to run out of local college and high school marching bands.  Also, the floats were incredibly elaborate.  These are not your average neighborhood paper maiche floats - these babies were the size of double decker buses in some cases.  Will Ferrell was the King of Bacchus this year and it was great to see him banging a golden cow bell and tossing beads.  Steve and Gary started a "Frank the Tank" chant when his float stopped in front of us and pretty soon we had a huge crowd doing the chant.  The bead catching is a lot of fun.  It's surprising how many people (myself included) will scream, shout, jump and act like a desperate fool just to catch some worthless, made in China plastic beads. I don't know why but after your first catch, you will be hooked.  Bead catching quickly becomes competitive.


Steve and me waiting for Bacchus to Start
Tanya and I with our beads and plastic scepter
As you can imagine, there were plenty of interesting characters out and about in the Quarter. The people watching was pretty intense but it provided us with hours on entertainment, especially on Saturday afternoon when it poured rain.  We had a great window seat at Molly's on Toulouse Bar right off of Bourbon Street.  Across the street from us were the public port-o-potties the city sets up, which were ironically named "Pot-O-Gold."  Judging by people's reactions and facial expressions when they opened the door to use them, I am 100% certain there was no gold inside them. 

A few photos from our Mardi Gras experience:

Queen of Okeanos Parade

Bacchus Float

Bacchus Float
 Overall, I would definitely attend Mardi Gras again.  Next time, I would be better prepared, just like the locals with my own chair and would remember to bring some kleenex wipes to use at the Pot-O-Gold Portapotties.  There's absolutely nothing dignified about drip drying in a portapotty in New Orleans. 

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