Mardi Gras New Orleans

Roy, Heather, Scott and Dale at Joey T's for lunch

The BudweiserClydesdales opened the second Wednesday parade,."Krewe of Druids"

 

Lucky us! We have great friends in New Orleans and got to visit them during Mardi Gras. Roy and Dale are part of the Tortugal cruising group and hosted the first Annual Tortugeezer Reunion back in August, 2022. They came up to our Fourth Reunion in 2024 and stayed with us. But this time our visit coincided with the famous New Orleans Mardi Gras. We arrived on Wednesday, February 11rh and left on the 13th.  And even during this time the parades were sensational! It's hard for us to believe they could be better. Certainly there was a big step up from Wednesday's parades to Thursday's, but Wednesday's were fantastic. We've been appreciative audiences. 

The Archdruid float. 

Between the floats High School bands along with
their dance troop and cheerleaders parade. 
Occasionally we got a performance!

Those on top fling or hand out various items: 
beads, balls, lighted swords, bags etc. 

Some of the floats are so high that you can barely
see the occupants!

This ship on the first night was impressive!

And our host's beautiful home was just a few houses away from St. Charles St. on Seventh. They put out chairs on the parade route early with neighbors so we had wonderful seats. And we could go back and forth to the house to eat (or for the toilet - very helpful as we saw no Porto potties). This is important as the parades, early ones you understand, lasted for many hours. On Thursday from 4:30 PM to after 10 PM! That was 3 Krews: Knights of Chaos, Knights of Babylon, Nights of Muses. This last is a highlight of the Mardi Gras. The Krewe of Muses was founded in 2000 and has 1100 members. Since it's inception, Muses has emphasized gifting usable and "remuseable" throws to paradegoers. The most coveted of these are the single high heels. If you manage to catch one, you decorate and keep it as a souvenir and home decor (see the two Dale & Roy have in the photo).

Two coveted "shoes" from Krewe Muses"

Dale and their friend and tenant Amy.

Roy preparing breakfast in the kitchen. 

Heather in her "bling" at the parade, front
and center.

Both evenings Dale and Roy made wonderful dinners - Shrimp Etouffee and Pulled Pork with lots of sides. And two different kinds of King Cake. Their son Timmy and several friends joined us. On Thursday we had lunch at iconic Joey K's just down the street and did some shopping on Magazine Street. It was fun seeing a lot of the parade participants meeting and boarding the buses. 

Thursday's first parade had a lot of local and 
national figures. Bernie looks a lot more
positive then Marco and J.D. at the left!

The local political floats concerned New Orleans
problems and figures. 

The theme of Krewe Babylon was Operas.

Roy and Dale's house is beautifully decorated for Mardi Gras with "bling" of every sort. I've included a few photos here and they decorated us as well. We've brought back home a bag of "swag". We'll share that with everyone at our Mardi Gras party here on Tuesday!

We left after breakfast and stopped at The Shed for BBQ as usual. We took home one dinner plate and was enough for dinner that night. Great trip! Thank you Roy & Dale!

Lady Godivas!

Signature high heels for the Krewe Muses

Lots of flames - goes back to when there were no
street lights and these lit the parades.

Nothing like a bath in public!

This Muses float was spectacular!

Lunch at The Shed overlooking the Bayou.