Mardi Gras World

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Geo: 29.9537, -90.0778

This was my last full day of classes and I'm not gonna lie, I was way more interested in sight-seeing at this point. I went to a morning class and then headed back out to meet Anna for last minute wandering and eating. We were supposed to do another walking tour that day but we cancelled last minute so we could souvenir shop. I met her at the famed Cafe du Monde so we could compare it to the beignets we had our first night in town. Verdict? I prefer the other place more. Cafe du Monde was crispier and I enjoyed the softer ones more. It all comes down to personal taste, though. =) We ended up back at French Marker for MORE oysters, and to shop. I ended up buying some mardi gras masks, and then some really nice local art from an art gallery. We had a couple food items to check off on our list still- green tomatoes and grits So we hunted down one of the places our Culinary food tour had recommended. Grits, I must say, is another dish I didn't think would taste good because Californians do NOT know how to make them. The one time I tried grits back home it was plain, bland... it was like soupy thin oatmeal and I didn't understand at all why Southerners bothered with it. NOW I know. Damn Californians forgot the cheese. Anna and I INHALED the grits, they were so good! After that we walked across the street to the famed Napoleon House to try a Pimm's Cup- wasn't bad! Probably a mistake to have that drink right before classes again.

I headed back to the conference to check out the vendors area, which was so massive that each section in this giant room needed addresses. I was seriously buzzing on my cocktail at that point so I plopped myself down in front of some CE on telemetry monitors and checked out my surroundings. These vendors had crazy budgets- they had hauled in anything to get attention, including whole couches, coloring centers, fancy lighting, you name it. I found the CPR Throwdown booth (where nurses could compete against each other for the most effective CPR) genius, lol. It was set up like a NASCAR game.

I finished out my long day of classes and then met Anna up again for pre-gaming the Nurses' Night Out at Mardi Gras World. I didn't know what to expect in terms of food and drinks at the event so I wanted to fill up ahead of time in case drinks were expensive and food was scarce (I need not have done so it turns out). By now we were obsessed with New Orleans oysters... I don't know what it is about them but they're better than what you get in California. They're big, delicious and everywhere had been serving them fabulously so far. Luke was another popular local restaurant and well known for their 75cent oyster happy hour. Since it was our last night in New Orleans we had to do it right. We bought a huge platter of a dozen oysters, crawfish bisque, jalapeno cheese grits and french fries. Everything was damned good so naturally it was the fries we didn't finish.

Then we walked back to where the shuttles were hauling nurses over to Mardi Gras World. Nurses staying in "conference hotels" (which are hotels that have a slight discount for the nurses) also got to ride these same shuttles to their conference classes every day. None of the hotels were near where Anna and I stayed on Bourbon so that's why I hadn't used them. I preferred our place anyway- not sorry at all we spent our nights on the other side of the French Quarter. Mardi Gras World is in a dingy area- I'm not gonna lie it was remote and ghetto-y out there. I was very glad for the shuttles because walking back to the hotel at night would not have been safe.

Once we got to the event, I was stunned over and over at the immensity of the place. Initially, it just appeared there were guests outside under a canopy by the water. We bought masks from a vendor for pretty cheap, and began collecting more beads. We started on the wine and free desserts. Then we realized there was an "inside". Turns out it was a giant two story concert hall with an actual concert going on (80s music), and MORE dessert buffet tables EVERYWHERE. More cash bars everywhere. We wandered around, listened to music and took pictures. After heading down one hallway in particular we found ourselves "outside".. but no... we weren't outside because it shouldn't have been dark yet. My jaw dropped. They had Disneylanded-out at this venue. We were in a "bayou" with a Mansion and supposedly "outside"- the sky was fake. More bars, more food, a Dixie band playing this time. Totally impressed by now we kept wandering about with our wine, seeing what else there was to discover. And then we found the warehouse... An incredibly huge building full of Mardi Gras floats, some of which we could climb on and take pictures with. Did I mention all the staff wandering around dressed up for Mardi Gras? We explored the colorful floats in storage for the year. There was yet ANOTHER huge concert inside the building, full blown with drunk nurses singing and dancing to the music. More cash bars, more free desserts. We were stuffed on sugar at this point. We were also getting pretty drunk. After a miniature Mardi Gras parade passed us by inside the building, we found ourselves drunkenly dancing and singing along with the older nurses to the 80s music in the first building we had found. We were having a BLAST.

We left the party somewhere close to 10pm, and hopped on the first shuttle we could find. It left us somewhere on the wrong side of Bourbon Street, so we drunkenly wandered back to our little studio. I wanted one last night on Frenchman Street but we never actually made it into any of the clubs. Instead, we just soaked up the atmosphere and ate at Dat Dawg again before calling it a successful night. =)

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