Mississippi Monday: Mardi Gras in New Orleans

I was going to share pictures of us picking blueberries to share with you today, but I couldn't find them on the camera card.  I remember Kate taking them (we unanimously named her photographer due to her slooooooow picking speed)  but they are not on the card anywhere.  So you'll have  to wait for our next blueberry picking trip to see all of the $7 a gallon blueberry fun and goodness. Yummm.

Instead it's Mardi Gras.  I know it's not technically Mississippi since we went to the New Orleans parade, but it was close enough.  Next year we will comply with technicality and go to the Biloxi Mardi Gras parade.  In New Orleans there are so many parades it took me a while to figure out which one to go to.  We settled with three...they were family oriented and so back to back that unless you read the website you wouldn't know they were two different parades.    I also figured out the family friendly section of the parade route and we picked up some friends and headed out.

Knowing the traffic was going to be crazy we gave ourselves 3 hours for the drive to New Orleans, which is normally a little over an hour.  As we drove down the freeway we started to see previews of the parade.  I doubt any of the floats, buses or crazy people we saw were actually going to the same parade (it seems every town here has a Mardi Gras parade,)  but there were some people who thought it was good enough and wanted to turn around.  Lucky for me the minority of the "let's go home bunch" were awake and the majority of the "We've got to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans at least once krewe" were awake.  So we pressed on.  Once we go close we slowed to to a crawl.  Even though the street wasn't closed (yet)  there were so many people in them it was slow going.   When we got relatively close to our destination we decided to do a cross between a Chinese fire drill and the unloading of too many people from a tiny clown car.   Everyone was given some thing to get (be it a baby, water or bag) or a place to be.   The next time we stopped all the doors flew open and whammo out flew 12 people, some running around the car, some grabbing stuff, some trying to go back in the car, and two drivers trading places.  I promise you it looked like 30 people, and I even knew them all.  Our well laid plans looked awry, but we were off one way and Richard went the other with a baby and a boy (one baby took one look at the crowd and ran back to the van with her assigned boy in tow) to park the car.  And our adventure had begun.

Our plan was to see the Rex parade at 10 am, and we were plenty early.   We were on St Charles heading toward Napoleon when we jumped and were trying to head to the beginning of the parade.  Family territory was anything on the opposite side of the freeway from Canal street, with being closer to Napoleon better to avoid delays.  The street closures made it nearly impossible to get to where we wanted to go so we got out and started walking.  When we got to Jackson street it was cordoned off and we ended up watching ...

I didn't think we were that early but I can't confirm that; for an unknown reason my camera is set to the wrong time.  I am confident we were not there at 2 am on the 22nd.  I think it might still be set to Okinawa time.  Guess I better figure out how to change that.  So based on my best calculations using my only assumption I snapped our first picture of the parade  at 9:54am.  We watched the Zulu parade.   And got Zulu loot from

the Zulu'z centennial year 2009.  We also got a coveted Zulu coconut.  It was even a 2012 coconut.  And they are all hand painted.  I didn't know how special they were until I got home.  I did know that the guy on the float pointed to one of our kids, handed it to a security guard, who then gave it to us.  This is how coconuts are handed out.

Sorry for the poor picture.  It rolls a lot so I grabbed the closest thing that would hold it good (which happened to match in color, if not in character)  and by the time I managed to snap a picture the lens fogged up.  It is h u m i d outside today.  I didn't want to wait for my camera to acclimatize so this is what you get.  If you want your own zulu  coconut to take a much better picture of you either need to take tired cute kids like this with you

Or dress more festive that we did like these people

Or knit yourself a Mardi Gras hat like this

Or get a mardi gras ladder (google it), hide all your loot in bags under and around it, and watch all the mothers of little ones around you keep aforesaid munchkins away from your loot while giving them dirty looks.  The little one below is stealing from our own relatively small but plenty big for us loot sack.  The other people's bags were about the right size to fit a set of grandparents in.  If we thought we could bring some grandparents or cousins home from Mardi Gras we would bring ox-sized bags too.  I guess they just have higher hopes and bigger dreams than us. 

Oh and so you know the pictures in this post were mostly take blind.  I am short and keeping an eye on this little one kept me behind several rows of people, almost all of whom were taller than me.  My technique consisted of holding the camera over my head, aiming, shooting, readjusting and shooting again, all the time being handicapped by the fact that I am not a great photographer to start with.

There were floats and floats and floats, most of which seemed reminiscent of a vague remembrance of a nightmare, or maybe a dream or the dark side of a boys imagination.

There were tons of elaborate headdresses like the ones above and below as well

Some southern charm ... sort of.  If you look closely at least some of these are parasol toting men.

The marching bands and horses were the only items that reminded me of parades I am used to.  I forgive the marching band their casualness in resting.  It was already over three hours since the parade, in theory, started.

These two were ready to go home from the get go.

One of these was determined not to watch the parade, the other was determined not to lose the first even when her neck was sore and hair was being used as reigns.  The second had a worse bedhead when she left Mardi Gras than when she got out of her bed.

These two were fine, but only because they had each other to talk to

These two could have stayed the whole day

Here is a picture of most of our crew...we are not a krewe.  Ignore the one in the middle.  He is done for the day, unless...  The one in the yellow glasses, well he's just chill...whatever is fine.

This one likes the loot, but the rest of us think she is easier at home, away from other peoples loot.

This one is just cute, and in need of a restroom that doesn't require payment.  I think it was $5 per person.   And I think those who took her may have turned it into a 3 for 1 deal, though I never got a clear confession.  Only the statement that there was only one flush.

This is the only picture I got of the sweet little girl, there behind her mom's camera.  I figured I ought to ask her mom before I posted the mom's picture.  The mom is one of my most favorite people.  So are some of the other people in this picture.  We had a great group, with the possible exception of my two babies.  A couple more years on 'em, would have served us well.

This is what I saw the most of...hands waving and beads flying through the air.  It's contagious.  I was known to put my hands in the air too.  Not Richard though.  Somehow he still managed to catch more than me.  I didn't really want to take all the junk home anyway.  Really.  I mean it.

I just liked this tree.  I love the form of the branches.  Geometry.  Mmmm.

And that about does it.  We'll just end with this yellow-eyed partier, and leave out the most talked about part of our day.  The part where a squirming 1 year old on shoulders, mardi gras beads, and I all met each other on asphalt. The baby survived at the sacrifice of my chin, my teeth survived to the relief of the dentist, the camera survived with only some scratches, and I got to see 10 horror stricken faces at the blood running down my face.  I wouldn't even mention it if wasn't the kids main memory of the day.  So instead will end with this.  This was more the spirit of the day.  Unless you talk to the boys.  They liked McDonalds.   Silly boys.  They loved it, it just took them a few weeks to realize it.