Part 6

Chapter 9. Mardi Gras in the Big Easy, LOUISIANNA

We met Jan and Charles for an early breakfast at IHOP before they left to go back to Texas. After breakfast we met their new little “dog” Kisses a black Chichaqua. Very cute but not a dog!!!

Since it was such a lovely day and there had been talk of rain later in the week we decided to hit the Mardi Gras Parades. Mum and Dad had seen a the Krewe of Barcus (a dog Krewe) last year so we thought we would see that one later in the day on Bourbon St. There was a larger parade that was going down the main street in town first thing so we packed Noah into his carrier (thank God for the Ergo!!! Thanks Girls!!) and headed off for a day of walking and parades. True to form Noah fell asleep just as we were expecting the parade to come through … thankfully it was running behind and Noah managed to wake up in time to watch it. When Noah had had enough we made our way further up town around the parade route as there was no way across the path of the floats so about three hundred miles later we found ourselves on Bourbon St for the doggy parade. A trip to Bourbon St would not have been complete without having a beverage, so we meandered through with our mango daiquiris and headed for the parade. Unfortunately the parade was way too crowed and we were surrounded by some very pushy people so we headed back to catch the second of the main parades. This parade was a kiddies on so not only were they throwing beads (and no you don’t have to lift your top to get them at any of the parades) but also cute little toys, by the end of the day we had quite the collection, including a very cute caterpillar.

History of Mardi Gras

New Orleans had the first Mardi Gras parade in 1837. The parades consist of floats holding the krewe members, who throw doubloons, beads and other items to the people lining the streets. Many parade goers either wear costumes or purple, gold or green outfits, when attending the parades and shout “throw me something mister” to the krewe members on the floats. The largest parades are held on Mardi Gras day is also known as Fat Tuesday, which is the last day of Mardi Gras. The carnival season can be short or long depending on when Lent and Easter fall in a given years calendar. The start of the season is always the Twelfth Night, January 6th, (12 days after Christmas), which commemorates the Three Wise Men arriving in Bethlehem. The King Cake is a brioche-style cake traditionally made throughout the state of Louisiana during the weeks prior to Mardi Gras. It is decorated using the three colours of Mardi Gras - gold (power), green (faith) and purple (justice). A small plastic baby, bean or coin is baked into the cake (to represent the baby Jesus). Whoever finds the baby in their piece of cake is required to bring a King Cake to next year’s festivities.

16/02/09

After a big day of walking at all the parades we decided we were on a roll and would keep on walking the next day as well. We headed downtown to the French Quarter via the Riverwalk Marketplace and then onto the cheapo tourist markets in the Quarter. When we arrived in the Quarter we decided it was best to do a horse drawn carriage tour before we did too much shopping in the markets. Which was a lot of fun Noah was very excited to see the horse and it kept him entertained for the 30 minute tour. We saw all the hot spot on our tour … or at least we think we did our guide was very hard to understand with his thick Southern accent! We started our tour in Jackson square which was has been a parade ground since 1721. The statue of General Jackson on his rearing horse was put in place in 1856 and is the world’s first equestrian statue with more than one hoof unsupported. Either side of the square is the Poontalba buildings which were built in 1840 to improve the look of the square. We then travelled through the French Quarter and saw various sights including a hotel built by Napolean but he died before it’s completion, a house with a corn cob fence built by a maiden’s boyfriend to reminder her of the farm she had grown up on, a house owned by Nicolas Cage and of course Brangalina’s house!!!

After the tour we stopped at Café du Monde for beignets, but the line was huge so we decided to come back later after lunch. We meandered through the tourist markets looking at all the wonderful junk you could buy, we managed too avoid most of it. By this time we were hungry so we went to another American icon Bubba Gump’s (from the movie Forest Gump). It was VERY TASTY!!!! As we slowly made our way back to the Greenhouse we stopped in at Café du Monde and watch the man make the beignets and then of course ate them!!!! For those of you not in the know beignets are little square doughnuts covered (not dusted) in icing sugar. They are FANTASTIC!!! Now we were really exhausted and decided it was time to call it a day.

17/02/09

With all the walking we had done in the past two days we were ready for some driving again! hahaha so we loaded into the car to go visiting in Batton Rouge (about an hour out of N’wlins). Unfortunately on the way through there is an outlet mall in Gonzalez … so we had to stop and make sure we weren’t missing out on any bargains. Luckily we did cause there were some good ones! Next we called in to visit Delicia’s parents and an old team mate of Dad’s Ed. After a day of visiting and driving Noah was ready for some fun so we stopped in at a massive kids playground in an even bigger park opposite Robert’s school. We had a lot of fun chasing ducks, squirrels and geese near the lake’s edge and of course sliding and swinging in the park. All in all a great day.

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18/02/09

This was a day I had been looking forward to… taking Noah to the Zoo, the Audbion Zoo is one of the oldest in the USA and is set at the back of the massive park we had been walking through the day before.We had thought with Noah’s love for animals he would have a lot of fun. But true to form Noah was excited about the huge elephant water fountain, the petting zoo and that was about it! Mum and I enjoyed the Zoo though it was very well set up and very edumacational! Sadly there was only one small enclosure for Australian wildlife with 2 sad little Emu’s in it :0(

19/02/09

With Robert busy at school all morning it had been recommended to us to go and check out the Convention Centre. So we thought why not…and what an experience it was. The convention centre is approximately 1 mile long and has 3 levels. There are 200 meeting rooms, Banquet Halls A-J (6 of which breakup into 2 ballrooms) and an auditorium for concerts! It was insane it just kept going and going., it sure puts the little one on the Coast to shame! We had a very interesting chat with one of the bartenders who told us they often have 3 or 4 exhibitions on the go at any one time and goodness only knows how many meetings as well. It is just incredible! We met with Robert for a late lunch and a bit of a relax before the big Game that night. One of the girls from the women’s told us that we should go home because we had jinxed the boys team (they had lost the four games they had played since we arrived). A bit rude but we were beginning to think the same thing. Luckily for us they jinx was broken that night with the boys winning by over 20 points that night! Ha take that girly!!!

20/02/09

We had read in one of the tour guide books in our room about an award winning playground for kids aged 2-5 with nothing to do and Robert at school all day we decided to make the day about Noah. The park was a short drive across town but of course Noah managed to fall asleep on the way. So instead of sitting in the carpark waiting for him to wake up we went in search of one of the restaurants that advertises on the radio broadcast of Robert’s games (their ad is every second add just about). When we got to the address listed on their banner in the gym at Robert’s school, we discovered that it had been blown away by Hurricane Katrina! Oops! So mum kicked into tour guide mode and we did a bit of driving around Lake Pontchatrain and the surrounding areas that would have all been underwater when Katrina came through. Some of the houses still had the markings from the search and rescue teams above the doors, others were like new and of course there were still some houses that looked like the families did not return to them. When Noah woke up we went back to the park and had a lot of fun. The playground was amazing with little houses and mazes, big slides, little slides, swings and jumping things.
That night we walked across to St Charles Ave to watch the Mardi Gras parade. We had decided to target the stuffed toys instead of beads, cause they are lighter and easier to take home. So Robert and I would run up to the floats carrying Noah and Robert would yell “I have a small child…small child…I need toys” hahaha and they would throw him toys!!!! It was great fun, very addictive!

21/02/09

The drive to Jackson for another of Robert’s games gave me the chance to catch up on some serious blog writing (for this blog). The 3 hour road trip went by fairly quickly. We (Delicia, Thomas and Matthew as well us Mum and I) were all very nervous from Robert’s game, because depending on the result Robert would either be able to come with us to Memphis over the weekend or not. It was a very exciting game … one of Robert’s best since we’ve been here… and the result was even better with the team winning its first game since our arrival! Thankfully the positive result meant Robert was able to come to Graceland.

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