God save the King of New Orleans.

First, a disclaimer...for those of you who have never been to Mardi Gras, it's not all "Girls Gone Wild" like you see on TV. True, you can find this type of party in New Orleans if that's what you're looking for, but it's only a very small part. The real Mardi Gras is the kind of place you can bring your kids, grill out hamburgers, play music and laugh with friends and total strangers. I think it's best described as like a weekend long tailgate party with parades and no game. Matt's college roommate, Chris, is always an awesome host whenever we visit. He takes us to the House of Blues, gets us great seats for shows, knows how to get everywhere around town and has a family that welcomes us to all of their celebrations. I love New Orleans and love visiting. It's such a cool place.

Tree in Jackson Square...see if you can find the lone strand of beads someone threw up there.

Jackson Square is my favorite place in the city.

The street performers, the artists, the sights and sounds.

St. Charles Street, post-parade and pre-parade....
Tucks was that morning and Endymion will come through in a few hours.

Vander's uncle's stand where we watched a lot of parades and ate some delicious food.

Vander has a very fun family

After Endymion showing off my beads. I don't even need all these, but, catching beads is like fishing...it's the thrill of the catch.

We were having a blast.



NOTE: Tucks, the afternoon parade on Saturday, sort of has a toilet theme...I'm not sure why. Tucks is the reason you see all the toilet paper in these pics..they print special paper with their krewe motto and throw it in the parades. They also thew plungers and Matt was very proud of the plunger he caught.

It served as a microphone.

An old fashioned telephone

Again as a microphone.

And what looks like a hairbrush....

One of the floats from Tucks.

Toilet paper flowing in the wind on a beautiful NOLA day.

Vander was not quite so charmed by the paper.

Catching part of Tucks on another part of St. Charles.

Matt was proud of this Tucks cup until he caught the plunger.

Chris and Matt

Better Than Ezra at the House of Blues

We were so tired from the drive over, but we had a blast

I caught these cool beads from the bass player.

Thanks to Vander for the invite. We had a blast.