Happy Madri Gras in New Orleans

Well it's Mardi Gras time again and I just realized that I never wrote about it last year -- shame on me! Every time I say this, my Christian friends can't believe it, but man Mardi Gras was fun and I want to take my wife and kids to experience it some time!

Mardi Gras was nothing like I expected and everything that I expected all at the same time. Mardi Gras is NOT just a bunch of drunk people flashing everyone (unless you're on Bourbon Street of course). It is like a street carnival, jazz festival, and great parades all wrapped up in one big event.

We stayed in a big hotel off of St. Charles between Canal and Poydras and we had tickets to about three big parades. The tickets were to stay on a set of scafolding to watch the parades and catch "throw" from the floats. The key to catching "throw" in the form of beads, stuffed animals, toys, coconuts (from the Zulus), and other cool stuff is NOT flashing but being nice, looking the floats riders in the eye and yelling "Throw me somethin' mistah!" The parades were really cool with fun floats and wild costumes. During the day, between the big parades, neighborhood crewes would "march" and some of them were hilarious. I saw a whole family dressed like the incredibles including the baby.

Since I was with my Mom (yes, I'm the conservative one of the family) we went down Bourbon street enough to grab a bit to eat and go to Charlie O'Briens piano bar one night. Charlie O'Briens was a blast. The stage was two pianos opposite each other with a guy playing the thimbles in between. Man did those pianists know how to play and sing, I bet they know every song ever written (they play requests from the crowd). The guy in the middle had thimbles on each finger and a metal dish like a plate that he would tap on. People would throw him change and that would help the percussion sound. Everyone would sing all of the songs that they knew and it was a lot of fun.

A highlight for me was getting to meet up with my friend Chip. Chip is a true hero of Katrina who stayed behind to look after his grandfather while the rest of his family evacuated. He got stuck in his attic, got out, and helped rescue others in his neighborhood before going to the Superdome. He testified that the Superdome was a horrible, unspeakable place and they couldn't wait to get out of there. Chip is in the Crewe of Zulu and got us beads the night before they marched, and got us great stuff including the coveted Zulu painted coconuts also.

However, you can't take a trip to New Orleans without the food! We ate fried shrimp po-boys, gumbo, and ham at Mothers by day and beignets at Cafe Du Monde by night. I can't wait to go back and our experiences with the people of New Orleans after Katrina only made my time there sweeter.