The days leading up to Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, are wild but on the day itself, New Orleans goes nuts. And it all begins very early in the morning. Some never actually go to bed the night before.
Our hotel was ten minutes away from the parade route so our alarm didn't go off as early as some. By eight, we were shivering on the sidewalk. A couple of young men set up their chairs and ladders (young children sit in special boxes affixed to the ladders), staking a claim for their families who would arrive later. They kindly let us use their chairs while we waited. Some parade watchers had camped overnight so had the best spots next to the barricades. At around 8:45, one of these groups asked us how lucky we felt then gave up enough room for us and another couple (from Florida) to have front row positions. Not long after a woman asked if she could squeeze between us as she was short. We let her not knowing she was a former Zulu Queen.
We were at the barricades early because our friend, Joe and his son, Matt were
walking the parade with Pete Fountain, a famous clarinet player and his Half-Fast Walking Club. It was the club's 50th anniversary of walking on Mardi Gras day and no one was doing it sober. Joe was very generous with his white and gold beads so we spread the wealth giving some to our barricade buddies and the little kids behind us.
The Krewe of Zulu parade began around nine with the King's float festooned with colourful feathers. The most coveted items gently tossed or passed from the Zulu floats are decorated coconuts. This is when we learned of the power of the Zulu Queen. She knew many on the floats and her gold jacket alerted others to her status as a former queen. She was given more beads, gifts of stuffed animals, coconuts, cloth roses, and frisbees. It was her mother's first Mardi Gras so she often got special gifts as well. Lisa was generous with her barricade buddies and we happily shared her wealth.
Glen actually did catch a coconut on his own. Because he wore his Saints hat, a Zulu gave him a coconut painted with Who Dat! Later, we learned Joe's son, Joey, had only ever caught one coconut in all the years he'd watched the parade. We ended up with five! I even caught a special nerf football emblazoned with the Zulu logos. Many of the special beads we caught had medallions celebrating 100 years of the Zulu parade (1909 - 2009).
One of the oldest Mardi Gras parades is Rex, founded in 1872. Like the Zulu parade, it had over 40 floats with high school bands playing between them. We watched the parade on TV while eating lunch since after standing for 4 hours, we were exhausted and had left the Zulu parade early. Glen had a 'make-your-own' Calzone and I had a Margaritis pizza in a little restaurant near our hotel called the Pie Pizza and Pastas.
Bernie called us and we met her and a very tired Joe at 2:00 p.m. We headed into the Quarter which was awash with people in fantastic costumes. Joey was dressed as a clown while Matt's girlfriend wore an outfit from the 50's to match his 'walking' costume. Bernie wanted us to see her friend's condo which was in an old style New Orleans home. We battled the hordes of people on Bourbon Street vying for beads thrown from the balconies of the hotels and taverns. Apparently, it took two hours to walk a single block, there were so many people. We had to weave across the street so did not get caught up in the madness.
The condo was a haven of calm even though it was full of a family making merry. No street noise penetrated the house. We had a beer in the kitchen/living room which was the kitchen of the orignial 'town' house. The woman who built it had a plantation, Chrétien Point, up the Mississippi River and used this town house during the winter 'season'. Upstairs, we viewed a renovated condo where the slaves used to live.
By this time, Joe was exhausted. He had been up since 4 a.m. and had walked for hours. We left them to head home while we went back to our hotel. After spending some time relaxing, we headed out to have oysters for supper. We couldn't believe that most of the restaurants in the area were closed. The ones close to the Quarter were open but line-ups were long. We gave up on oysters and ended up back at Gordon Biersch. We shared a lobster and crab cake, then I had pecan-covered chicken breasts while Glen had lobster Mac 'N Cheese. Both were delicious but mine was too much food. Glen had an ice cream brownie for dessert and declared it wonderful.
Afterwards we headed for some fun at Harrah's Casino next door. It was here, years ago, I won $2.50 and felt on top of the world. Since then I have learned that video poker is my game and so was disappointed when we passed hundreds of slot machines in the casino. Finally, we found a 25 cent/play Black Jack machine and Glen played for awhile. He won $30 on a $10 bet so was pretty happy to cash out. We wandered through the casino trying to find our way out when I spotted some 25 cent/play video poker machines. These were different from what I played in Vegas so it took me a bit to get used to them. I won $70 on a $20 bet. Our winnings covered the cost of our meal so that's when we stopped.
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