New Orleans: Mardi Gras

Good evening folks!!! I know I said I was going to New Orleans for my birthday and blah, blah, blah!! Well, last month me and my bestie finally got our chance to party in the Big Easy for Mardi Gras!!!!!! Let me tell you, I was beyond excited for this trip!! Even before Princess and the Frog came out, I always wanted to visit New Orleans and I finally got my chance!! First, I must start off by saying, we missed our first flight in the morning and had to take the next flight. *womp womp* Which kinda sucked because we were going to spend that time walking around the French Quarter and looking at all the shops. Anyhoo, we finally get on our flight (we definitely weren't going to miss that one) and an hour and a half later, New Orleans!!!

I'm not sure how it is all year round in New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, but there were people everywhere!!!

Thanks to some very helpful party people that we met at the airport, we ate lunch at a VERY popular seafood restaurant in the French Quarters called Deanie's!! The place was packed with people, but yet the wait was only 45 minutes.

This was soo good!! It was fried shrimp, oysters, fish and soft shell crab!! I didn't get my Po' Boy sandwich this time, but next trip, it is on!! After that we head to the hotel to check-in and put on some more clothes. Brrr!! That was one of the downfalls of this trip...the weather. It didn't rain thank goodness, but it would of been soo awesome if it would have been a tad bit warmer. Moving along,the one thing we really enjoyed were all the different parades, that were held by different organizations or Krewes. One Krewe we definitely loved, was the Krewe of Tucks. And that is because they threw the most beads and other random objects than any other parade that we saw.

If you ever go to one of these parades, NEVER LOOK DOWN!! I say this because, there are numerous amounts of objects being thrown out into the crowd and if you look away, you will be knocked in the head by a strand of beads!

Don't worry, I left with a lot more beads than that!! And I didn't have to show one boob! :D Another thing that sucked, after that parade was over, we decided to wait for the next one...which took almost 2 hours to come!! And it was cold and it was windy!! Let's just say after all the parades that we saw this year, next year we decided 2 parades will be enough. Finally, Krewe Proteus and Krewe of Orpheus comes down the block!

These parades were loooonng and stuff was being thrown everywhere!! They threw beads, rolls of toilet paper, plungers (not really ones), coins, spears (again, not real ones) and even bags that all the stuff came in!!

Also, during many of these parades, were high school marching bands. They all did a really great job and you can see in many of the students faces that they were proud to be in participating in the parade.

One last thing that sucked, my camera battery died after this last parade. *womp, womp, womp* So, I took it back to the room to get charged, which meant no pictures of Cafe du Monde, the super famous cafe that serves the even more famous, beignets. We also went to the Harrah's casino, where I won money!!! Yaaay!!! Then we marched down to Bourbon St. to get some drinks and watch all the tomfoolery. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed about Bourbon St, but I think it was because I was tired from watching parades all day and it the temperature was continuing to drop. There were plenty of drunk people and some flashing, but most people were just walking around or standing around. *shrugs* I blame extreme sleepiness. After that, we decided to call it quits and head back to the room. I was soo tired, I barely had enough energy to take any of my clothes off before crashing into bed and not waking up til early the next morning. Lucky for us, our hotel served breakfast, which is always a plus in my book. After that, it was time for one more parade before we head home. Krewe of Zulu!!! Everyone always looks forward to the Zulu parade, because they give out the only thing that no one else does. Coconuts. That's right. Coconuts. No one knows why they do, but getting a coconut earns you bragging rights for many years to come.

If you want to get a good view of the Zulu parade, make sure you get up early to get a good spot. That parade gets very crowded and if you short like me, it makes things pretty difficult to see.

Of course I took waaaaay more pictures than this (around 100) but I would uploading for hours!! After that, we check out, walked up the street, ran down a taxi (literally) and was on our way back to the airport. Let me tell you, I truly did enjoy myself down there except for a couple of things, but I already cannot wait to go back next year. I just now know what to do for next year: 1. Staying for a couple of days instead of trying to cram everything into one long day. 2. Booking our hotel waaay ahead of time. We originally wanted to stay at the Double Tree, which is right on Canal St., but unfortunately for us, it got booked up really quickly, so we had to get the La Quinta, which was around the block. It was a nice hotel, but we decided we're staying at Harrah's next year. And that is because it's closer to the French Quarter and if it rains, we're still entertained by the casino and the night club downstairs. 3.Plan better for the weather. I didn't bring too much of a variety of clothes to wear and the super cold weather threw me for a loop! I'm glad I brought my coat! 4. Definitely more sightseeing! 5. Another battery for my camera! Can't wait til next year!!