Mardi Gras Fever!

So...yea this was my very first Mardi Gras! I was excited, a little peeved about parking, but definitely ready for Fat Tuesday. My weekend started on Saturday with one of my friend's birthday dinner at Houstons. We ate ridiculously over-priced food and then prepared to head out to The Republic, on South Peters off Canal. What should have taken 15 minutes ended up as 2 hours. Thats how long we were stuck in traffic because of a parade. For 2 hours we roamed around downtown New Orleans stuck in Jaguar driven by an unexperienced and nervous newbie. When we made it we got turned away because of our "under 21" status and were forced to retreat to The Boot. Yay us... :-( Sunday and Monday my roommate and I were marooned on campus because St. Charles had been taken over by parades. We're pretty lazy so going to see the festivities was out of the question.

Tuesday was what I had been waiting for. I figured all the other parades were small compared to what would happen on Mardi Gras. So I woke up at 6:22 am, ran downstairs to great my cousins from home and waited for a friend to lead us to the pararde. Claiborne was backed up so we ended up on Canal. Wow! It wasn't even 9 am yet and the street was packed. Around 10:30, Zulu finally came around and we rushed to the barricades to see. It was AWESOME! I didn't catch that many beads because a crazy old lady in front of me was fighting people for them. What I did catch I gave to a little kid who had none. Eventually I gave up and just watched the floats pass by. The costumes were fantabulous! Feathers, animal prints, wigs, masks, everything!