I am back from Mardi Gras!

posted by The Vidiot @ 9:36 AM Permalink

If I ever move to New Orleans, I will buy about a dozen of these all-in-1 chairs because that's exactly what you need to watch the parades. (We saw Drew Brees, who was King of Bacchus, tossing mini gold footballs from the lead float!)

New Orleans is a special place where debauchery reigns and the police are more focused on pomp and circumstance... at least when it comes to the French Quarter. It's hard to get arrested in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. You have to be a tremendous idiot to get busted. Mardi Gras isn't the best time to go to New Orleans. There are too many people in town, so getting a beignet at Cafe du Monde or a plate of Crawfish and Tasso pasta and Coops is just not going to happen. But this time was a special Mardi Gras because of the Saints.

After the Saints' win, the town erupted in revelry. Nearly 850,000 people attended the Saints parade on the Tuesday after the Superbowl. Schools and businesses dismissed early on Monday, closed on Tuesday and opened late on Wednesday to accommodate the parade attendees and their families. So, for all intents and purposes, this year, Mardi Gras lasted three weeks, instead of the usual two. That means for three solid weeks, people went out, partied until 3 or 4, woke up, either went to work or didn't, or went to a parade (there are 200 of them during the two weeks preceding Mardi Gras) then went out again and partied until 3 or4, and so on and so forth. By the time the actual day Mardi Gras came, and by the time the cops cleared Bourbon street at midnight, most New Orleaneans were actually throwing in the towel and going home. Dr. Vidiot had never seen it like that. He said that usually, Mardi Gras is just like every other night preceding it where the revelry doesn't really kick in until 1 am. But not this time. This time, when we headed back to where the locals go (in the Marigny) the streets were damn near abandoned by 1 am. No more random shouts of "Who Dat?!" (Which has now been answered: "Nobody!") No more brass bands, no more drumming in the streets. Everyone had partied until they could party no more.

It was a good Mardi Gras and exactly what Fat Tuesday is supposed to be.

Labels: Mardi Gras, New Orleans