Down at the Mardi Gras: Picture Post!

As promised, a picture post!  We'll start out with photos from the Krewe of Xanadu Ball!

(Kay did my hair, isn't it wonderful?)

(Our table setting)

(Gorgeous Kay!!!)

(Me and my mother, belles of the ball! ;))

(Last year's royalty bidding adieu to their reign...)

(Presenting Queen Xanadu 2013...)

(Here she is!)

(In New Orleans, at the Iris Parade)

(Endymion!)

(Our swag caught during parades.  This isn't even all of it.)

(At the parade at Morgan City)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!  They can't entirely capture the magic of the Mardi Gras season, but hopefully you can see that a grand time was had by all!

Down at the Mardi Gras: Part Two

We arrived back in Lafayette from New Orleans at a little before one in the morning.  As you might imagine, we were exhausted.  After Friday night at the ball, an early morning to get to New Orleans, and a late night back, sleeping late on Sunday morning was a necessity.  Still, we didn't sleep that late because we wanted to try The French Press, a restaurant in downtown Lafayette.  And I'm so glad we did!  The restaurant featured in a Southern Living article, and it lived up to the hype!

For breakfast, we all split a "Sweet Baby Breesus" appetizer-- a boudin ball on a muffin with cane syrup-- and praline bacon, which is as decadent as it sounds.  I got the Cajun Benedict for my meal: two poached eggs on French bread topped with chicken and andouille gumbo and rice.  Kay got amazing French toast covered with blueberries.  We split cheddar grits and each got a fruit bowl, which thankfully had no melon, but several pieces of kiwi!

After breakfast, my parents friends came to pick us up and we went to Morgan City, a small town south of Lafayette, for another Mardi Gras parade.  This was much calmer than New Orleans.  The Krewe of Galatea rolled, with a groovy '70s theme.  Such a relaxing afternoon parade, really felt "down home."  It reminded me of the homecoming parades at my high school in Missouri, with the whole town coming out to see the homemade floats.

That evening we had a buffet dinner at Randol's, where Cajun music played in an attached dance hall.  Kay learned the Cajun two-step, but I refrained from dancing (I'm terrible at it).  And, we tried crawfish!  I love love love it!  It tastes like tiny lobster tail bites.  We didn't peel them ourselves, as one of the members of our party (who lived in Lafayette) loved peeling them and really went at it.  I felt grateful not to have to pop the heads off myself, but I'd do it if it was the only way.

Monday was low-key.  Kay, my mom, and I had breakfast at a diner called T-Coons, where we had beignets!  Then we spent the morning in a coffee shop, just relaxing.  The past few days had really taken it out of us.  We checked Facebook and blogs, read, chatted.  We had lunch at Blue Dog Cafe (duck quesadillas!) , then napped in the afternoon.  In the evening we were to meet everyone for a night parade in Lafayette, but neither Kay nor I was feeling too alert (and it was very rainy and cold), so we opted not to join.  Instead, we walked up the street to Agave for fajitas and chorizo queso.  We even caught a few parade floats, as the route took them right past the restaurant.  A lot of people had gotten tables, ran out to see the parade, then came back in to eat.  Smart.

Then Tuesday!  Mardi Gras itself!  We were disappointed to find The French Press closed for Mardi Gras, and as we checked out other restaurants we came to realize that Mardi Gras is treated like Christmas Day in Louisiana.  Everything closed.  We grabbed breakfast at McDonald's, then met everyone on the parade route for the parade of the Krewe of Gabriel.  So much fun!  My parents friends set up a tailgate, essentially, on the route.  We had fried chicken and jambalaya, King Cake, chicken wraps, boudin, soda, beer!  The floats in the parade were beautiful.  Our friends knew many of the riders, so they got some very cool throws.

After the parade, we headed back to Baton Rouge for the evening.  We dropped my dad at the airport, then Kay, my mom, and I checked out Beausoleil again (closed for Mardi Gras) so got coffee at a La Madeleine, then headed to an eatery called The Chimes.  So. Good.  I'm almost glad Beausoleil was closed.  I had Mahi-Mahi Florentine with crawfish tails on top, red beans and rice, we split an appetizer of hushpuppies, and I had a cider with framboise.  Amazing.  Then we got white chocolate bread pudding with praline sauce to go, and ate it for breakfast the next morning before our flight.

Overall, I loved the Mardi Gras experience and would go back again, but perhaps for a shorter amount of time.  I had no idea it would be so tiring!  After Sunday I was wiped.  But, I really do feel like I experienced it all (except, of course, the chicken-chasing).  I think it would be fun to go back again for some more New Orleans parades, too, and of course, some Cafe du Monde beignets.

Pictures to come soon in a dedicated picture post, as soon as I get them!

Down at the Mardi Gras: Part One

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

I've been MIA on this blog for a little over a week because I've been in Louisiana for Mardi Gras with my parents and Kay!  As of yet, I'm low on pictures-- but they are coming, never you fear.  Essentially, my Mardi Gras experience was a bit more than a weekend of Cajun cooking, fried chicken, beignets, King Cake, a krewe ball, parades, purple/green/gold everything, throws of every make, but mostly beads beads beads.  I had no idea how many beads or how many different types of beads.  We ranged from Baton Rouge, to Lafayette, to New Orleans, to Morgan City.  We got a taste of every kind of Mardi Gras, except the really rural chicken-chasing kind.  But we heard about that kind.

We went to Mardi Gras because some friends of my parents live in Lafayette and have wanted us to come for years, so we had a very specialized experience.  The trip opened with an amazing meal at Beausoleil in Baton Rouge.  I had chicken and andouille gumbo, sea scallops on a bed of chorizo risotto, and we finished off with a white chocolate bread pudding and praline ice cream.  The next day we found ourselves in Lafayette at a fancy dress store, where I let my mom and Kay talk me into buying a beautiful one strap, blue-green sequined formal dress.  It will be perfect for Vegas.  The salesman was a friend of girl I knew in high school, so when we walked in he gave us "virgin mimosas": they were out of orange juice, so just the champagne ;). 

That night we went to the Krewe of Xanadu Ball at the Cajundome.  I really shouldn't even try to explain this one without pictures.  Suffice to say, it was beyond my dreams with the costumes, the dancing, the presentation of the Krewe Royal Court, etc.  There will be pictures.

Then off to New Orleans, for a day of parades!  We had a prime viewing spot at the Federal Reserve building, with clean bathrooms, secure parking, and bleachers to sit on if we wished.  The first parade to roll by was the Krewe of Iris, which my high school friend (mentioned above) rode in.  I saw her and called her name, and she tossed us her "good throws"-- that is, beads that were much nicer than the typical Mardi Gras bead.  We discovered that it works this way at most parades: since the riders buy their own throws, they throw the normal stuff for most of the parade, but if they see someone they know-- or someone especially enthusiastic-- they will throw their "good throws", whether prettier beads, stuffed animals, cups-- my mom even got a parasol!  After Iris we saw Krewe of Tucks, much more of a wild, "everyman" parade.  I got a throw that looks like a real necklace, and my dad got me some beads with rubber duckies on them!

Then we walked onto Bourbon Street.  Then quickly walked off Bourbon Street and back to the relative calm and security of the Federal Reserve Building.  We learned later that several hours after we left, four people were shot on Bourbon Street.  Luckily not fatally, but still.

That night, the Krewe of Endymion Parade rolled.  Endymion is a super krewe, and their floats showed it.  They were debuting their new float, Pontchartain Beach, comprised of nine segments that took up a whole city block and a half.  The float had 220 riders, all throwing things at the crowd below.  Thus, the bead catching then became a defensive sport.  I got hit in the eye, Kay has a bruise on her forehead, and my mom has a bump at her hairline.  After awhile, I retreated farther from the street in an effort to keep from becoming concussed.  But just wait for the pictures!

After Endymion, it was back across the Afatchalya Swamp to Layafette, where three more days of Mardi Gras awaited us!  Tune in to "Down at the Mardi Gras: Part Two" to hear the rest!