Sooth Seekers

Well, you might as well go ahead and double click on these photos, unless you are our grandkids. They don't get any more believable when you blow them up. It's like this... We were riding on the street car in downtown New Orleans the other day. The driver said "don't forget the parade", as we stepped off in the French Quarter. They were having their first Mardi Gras parade that night. "When in Rome"... Naturally we had to return. The thing started at 6:30 pm. We lined the streets with the best of them, but it took about two hours of hanging around with a mass of thousands in front of a store which sold bongs before the parade got there. Most everyone was high on something, and we were very happy not to understand what they were using. The people were something to behold, we're just not sure what.

This parade puts the Philadelphia Mummer's Day Parade and the Key West Fantasy Fest Parade to shame. The people in the parade were wearing falsies, wigs, eyelashes, lipstick, etc., and most were men! The crowd was extremely diverse, and if you can think of it, it was there. We could only stomach the parade for 5 or 10 minutes before we escaped. We are very glad to have witnessed a Mardi Gras parade, and have no desire whatsoever to see another one.

We purchased another 5 pounds of fresh shrimp today, and fixed some New Orleans style Shrimp Etouffee with some of it. It was pretty good, but scampi is better. We'll hopefully have a relaxing day tomorrow before pushing off for Western Louisiana on Wednesday.