Lundi and Mardi Gras
My parents booked 3 rooms at the Ritz on Canal Street in New Orleans. Picture below was taken at the Ritz. Funny thing is, the "lobby" is on the third floor and the garden courtyard is also on the third floor (which is where this picture was taken). The building looks small from the outside, but it's huge.
The parades go down Canal Street, but instead of going in front of the hotel to see them, Dad bought tickets for us to be on the stands right above the restaurant Luke’s on St Charles.
We ate at Luke’s for supper. Greg and I split a hamburger and oh my gosh – I’m so glad that we did! It was huge!
Mom said, “I’m spoiled to the stands now. I don’t think I’d ever want to do another Mardi Gras without being in one.” It was nice being above the crowds and close to the floats!
Lundi Gras (Monday night parades) was a blast. It was the first time I saw the flambeaus. Not only where they great to look at, but also gave us some warmth. It was a surprisingly chilly night!
And no, before you ask, the crowd was G-rated. We were on St Charles, which is a fairly narrow street and more family oriented. Whereas, after the Lundi Gras parades, R&R went to Bourbon Street, where Roda saw one woman flash for beads. Rob told Roda, “Keep walking, just keep walking.” I figure most natives from this area aren’t going to flash – I mean, HELLO, they are BEADS – I can buy them if I wanted to! Lol.
When we were in the stadium, we spoke with people who go there every year. They said, “Zulu is the best parade to go to on Mardi Gras day, because everyone is too drunk from tonight to go to an early parade tomorrow.”
We caught a lot on Lundi Gras. Kristen and her Mom were in town as well. Kristen said, “No way am I going to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and Aleta be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and we not see each other!” I told her where we’d be and she found her way through the crowds. Kristen was decked out in a colorful wig and a hat that blinked. Good thing she gave me the description otherwise I wouldn’t have recognized her! That’s friendship for you when someone is willing to go through all the crowds and meet up. (Kristen is family; I’ve known her since we were 10 years old.)
Mardi Gras day was fun. We had breakfast and lunch at Luke’s and again – up in the stands. I’ve wanted to go to the Zulu parade for many years, but never made it out to it. It’s colorful and different and though there are many different throws (beads, cups, Frisbees, stuffed animals, necklaces that blinked, just about anything under the sun that you can think of…. the prize of the Zulu parade are the coconuts! The Zulu members decorate the coconuts and carefully toss them from the floats.
R&R each caught one. Greg caught three! Rob said, “They throw it to Greg because Greg’s head has the coconut shape!” Greg takes everything in such good stride and with such good humor! I love him!
The float people loved Greg too. I wanted to take pictures while Greg caught the throws. Greg said, “They would try to throw to me; they made eye contact and pointed to me, but the wind is so strong it was pushing the throws towards R&R.” Hehe, even with that happening, we still ended up with 4 bags of throws (which was all sent home with my parents for Mom to bring to her school). I kept one or two beads that had Zulu on them for decorations in the house next year.
After the Zulu parade, there was Rex. I didn’t take as many pictures, by then, I was getting a little tired. I figured that I should give someone else the space where I was for them to catch beads rather than me take pictures. Plus, we had the camera bag on the seat and it was in a high traffic area on the stadium. Call me nervous, but those lenses are worth a lot of money! So, I sat back and enjoyed relaxing. A woman took my spot next to Greg.
Greg turned back to me and gave me a look. I nodded my head. I saw what the woman was doing. She was wearing a low cut shirt. Each time a float came by, she shimmied her boobs between her arms for the best view and then reached down over the stadium rail and extended her arms. It was as close to flashing as a woman could get without them popping out of her blouse!
Even my Mom saw what the woman was doing. All for beads. Crazy…. I should mention that the woman was drunk.
I should also mention that the woman was so into catching beads that when one pair of beads went sailing over her head, the woman leaned back and back and back….. and FELL on top of me where I was sitting! If I hadn’t been there, the woman would have broken something. Greg came up to me fast and asked if I was OK. I said, “I’m ready to leave now.” Not only had the woman fallen on me (I really felt it in my knee, but thank goodness, nothing broken or swollen), but she had also knocked down the camera equipment.
The woman tried to give me the beads, saying, “You earned them.” I told her to keep them, but I really wanted to tell her where to shove the beads.
Nothing you can do about crazy though, you just get away from it, which is what we did. We had been on the parade route from early in the morning until mid afternoon and I was happy to leave at that point. (As the parades continued to roll, so did the alcohol.)
The only negative (other than the woman) was walking back to the Ritz. I’m not a crowd person and neither is Greg. Add to that….. the parades took a different route on Canal Street from the night before and we played hell trying to cut across it between the 18wheeler truck floats (those roll after Rex). It was a mad house and a smelly one. People were on the parade routes since 5am, bringing food and drink and tossing it to the ground with no care. Walking back to the hotel was walking through a garbage dump.
All in all, a lot of fun and I’m glad to have done New Orleans Mardi Gras. Typically we do the parades in our town, right outside of New Orleans, which is very family oriented. New Orleans is another world, colorful, creative, loaded with history and most of the time…. Good, clean fun :)
I took videos of the first night, but then the battery ran out on the small camera. The quality isn’t good, but if you want to see a small snippet of Lundi Gras, click here.
I also have a longer picture slide of Mardi Gras day, click here to see that.
We ate at Luke’s for supper. Greg and I split a hamburger and oh my gosh – I’m so glad that we did! It was huge!
Mom said, “I’m spoiled to the stands now. I don’t think I’d ever want to do another Mardi Gras without being in one.” It was nice being above the crowds and close to the floats!
And no, before you ask, the crowd was G-rated. We were on St Charles, which is a fairly narrow street and more family oriented. Whereas, after the Lundi Gras parades, R&R went to Bourbon Street, where Roda saw one woman flash for beads. Rob told Roda, “Keep walking, just keep walking.” I figure most natives from this area aren’t going to flash – I mean, HELLO, they are BEADS – I can buy them if I wanted to! Lol.
When we were in the stadium, we spoke with people who go there every year. They said, “Zulu is the best parade to go to on Mardi Gras day, because everyone is too drunk from tonight to go to an early parade tomorrow.”
We caught a lot on Lundi Gras. Kristen and her Mom were in town as well. Kristen said, “No way am I going to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and Aleta be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and we not see each other!” I told her where we’d be and she found her way through the crowds. Kristen was decked out in a colorful wig and a hat that blinked. Good thing she gave me the description otherwise I wouldn’t have recognized her! That’s friendship for you when someone is willing to go through all the crowds and meet up. (Kristen is family; I’ve known her since we were 10 years old.)
Mardi Gras day was fun. We had breakfast and lunch at Luke’s and again – up in the stands. I’ve wanted to go to the Zulu parade for many years, but never made it out to it. It’s colorful and different and though there are many different throws (beads, cups, Frisbees, stuffed animals, necklaces that blinked, just about anything under the sun that you can think of…. the prize of the Zulu parade are the coconuts! The Zulu members decorate the coconuts and carefully toss them from the floats.
R&R each caught one. Greg caught three! Rob said, “They throw it to Greg because Greg’s head has the coconut shape!” Greg takes everything in such good stride and with such good humor! I love him!
The float people loved Greg too. I wanted to take pictures while Greg caught the throws. Greg said, “They would try to throw to me; they made eye contact and pointed to me, but the wind is so strong it was pushing the throws towards R&R.” Hehe, even with that happening, we still ended up with 4 bags of throws (which was all sent home with my parents for Mom to bring to her school). I kept one or two beads that had Zulu on them for decorations in the house next year.
After the Zulu parade, there was Rex. I didn’t take as many pictures, by then, I was getting a little tired. I figured that I should give someone else the space where I was for them to catch beads rather than me take pictures. Plus, we had the camera bag on the seat and it was in a high traffic area on the stadium. Call me nervous, but those lenses are worth a lot of money! So, I sat back and enjoyed relaxing. A woman took my spot next to Greg.
Greg turned back to me and gave me a look. I nodded my head. I saw what the woman was doing. She was wearing a low cut shirt. Each time a float came by, she shimmied her boobs between her arms for the best view and then reached down over the stadium rail and extended her arms. It was as close to flashing as a woman could get without them popping out of her blouse!
Even my Mom saw what the woman was doing. All for beads. Crazy…. I should mention that the woman was drunk.
I should also mention that the woman was so into catching beads that when one pair of beads went sailing over her head, the woman leaned back and back and back….. and FELL on top of me where I was sitting! If I hadn’t been there, the woman would have broken something. Greg came up to me fast and asked if I was OK. I said, “I’m ready to leave now.” Not only had the woman fallen on me (I really felt it in my knee, but thank goodness, nothing broken or swollen), but she had also knocked down the camera equipment.
The woman tried to give me the beads, saying, “You earned them.” I told her to keep them, but I really wanted to tell her where to shove the beads.
Nothing you can do about crazy though, you just get away from it, which is what we did. We had been on the parade route from early in the morning until mid afternoon and I was happy to leave at that point. (As the parades continued to roll, so did the alcohol.)
The only negative (other than the woman) was walking back to the Ritz. I’m not a crowd person and neither is Greg. Add to that….. the parades took a different route on Canal Street from the night before and we played hell trying to cut across it between the 18wheeler truck floats (those roll after Rex). It was a mad house and a smelly one. People were on the parade routes since 5am, bringing food and drink and tossing it to the ground with no care. Walking back to the hotel was walking through a garbage dump.
All in all, a lot of fun and I’m glad to have done New Orleans Mardi Gras. Typically we do the parades in our town, right outside of New Orleans, which is very family oriented. New Orleans is another world, colorful, creative, loaded with history and most of the time…. Good, clean fun :)
I took videos of the first night, but then the battery ran out on the small camera. The quality isn’t good, but if you want to see a small snippet of Lundi Gras, click here.
I also have a longer picture slide of Mardi Gras day, click here to see that.
Comments
One of these years I'm taking my wife to New Orleans. She'd really enjoy it.
It's great to hear New Orleans is back to its old self again-- Happy and colorful and one big party!
Cheers, jj