Lundi Gras

We spent another 10 or 11 hours out for Lundi Gras, plenty of time to take more pictures that I haven't had a chance to go through.  The parades are interesting to some degree, but for me, the night was made during our trip up Frenchmen, where dueling brass bands were competing for their share of the crowd.  That is, until the police showed up and shut the impromptu performance down.  We closed out the night seeing the Panorama Jazz Band play a set that had the second floor of Mimi's shaking under the feet of costumed dancers.

Now - up early for what is sure to be a long and exhilarating Fat Tuesday.

Krewe du Vieux: Mardi Gras Begins!

Last weekend I made it out to the Krewe du Vieux parade.  One thing I've come to learn as I've seen more and more Mardi Gras parades is that the experiences from parade to parade can be wildly different depending on both the parade itself and where you are when you see it.  Krewe du Vieux is a walking parade with small horse drawn floats and is known as one of the more 'adult' parades.  We elected to watch it in the Marigny, an area where Mardi Gras costume making is a year long activity.  The combination of the parade and location made for a very different experience than at the bigger motorized parades.

At what age do kids learn what sperm are?

This is very bad spectator etiquette.  There's no reason to dig through horse poo and broken glass to get beads. 

Some friends were kind enough to let a group of people stay at their house the night of the parade; a kindness we repaid by drawing on everything they owned with sidewalk chalk.  

Fence Silhouette Theater

One of the benefits of not having grass.  

Keep moving forward

Since my camera tends to go with me everywhere, sometimes I don't even remember what pictures I've taken.  I'll be clearing out old files and come across folders I had completely forgotten about.  It's kinda fun to rediscover old photos, reprocess them, repost them.  You get to laugh at how little you knew then, appreciate how much you've learned, and look forward to how much more you'll know when you're looking back another year from now.