Day 4 Mardi Gras New Orleans March 4, 2019

   As people say here, “Happy Mardi Gras!” I am still trying to wrap my head around what Mardi Gras, the actual day, is really all about. Our waiter at Brennan’s is in Mexico today, almost every restaurant is closed, even Walgreens where we have been getting water and such is closed, plus Sabrina’s mother told us to be off the streets by noon. Our hotel did not have its usual buffet, so this is a different day. We met a couple last night in the bar who have ridden in the parade Orpheus for the last two years. They usually leave on Mardi Gras day so they could not tell us what today brings.  So we will approach it with caution, but glad I will be experiencing it.

    Yesterday we ate lunch and sailed on The Natches, the River Boat. It was a true paddle wheeler and they let us go into the engine room. Very interesting! Also Tom finally got to hear some real New Orleans Jazz. The only place we have heard it this entire trip.

   At night we had tickets for a grand stand on the parade route. Our grand stand was directly across city hall and where they were announcing the parade. That was fun. We watched the parade Proteus. We dodged the beads, cups, medallions, and the lighted tridents just to name a few items that they threw. Tom did get hit with an entire bag of beads but only a slight bruise this morning. I managed to dodge them all. We decided one parade was enough so weaved our way back through the throng of people. Quite the experience! However we are much more knowledgeable this parade so learned if you walk to a light there is occasionally break, the police move a barrier and let you pass. We did walk 14,780 steps, so got our exercise yesterday.

More to follow

Tom & Holly