It's carnival time, and everybody's having fun!

Mardi Gras is one of my favorite holiday's-- the colors, the food, the lights, the throws, the food.. oh, did I say food twice? Cory and I decided that since we are now residents of the city that throws the best Mardi Gras parties, we would go to as many as we could. We sure didn't disappoint, but we were sure exhausted by Fat Tuesday. Come along for our journey?

Our top parades: 
Krewe of Muses, followed by Chaos, followed by Knights of Babylon |  February 21

Cory's only goal for this Mardi Gras season was to catch a Muses shoe. If you don't know, the all-ladies krewe of Muses take shoes and hand decorate them. It is one of THE catches of the season, and we wanted one. We heard a rumor that the ladies like to make trades for their shoes, so we pulled out a bottle of wine from our cabinet and Cory hand decorated it with beads. I made a sign and we brought it to the parade, and lo-and-behold, the lady on Float 5 was very excited and traded our wine bottle for a shoe! Also, the throws that Muses had were literally some of the best we caught-- things that are super practical and worth elbowing the college kids in front of me for. The other krewes were good too, but I'm excited to attend Muses again next year.
Rating: 10 outta 10 beads

Fat Tuesday | Zulu and Krewe of Rex  | February 25
We got up early Tuesday and went Uptown. We parked and walked the few blocks over to where Zulu was passing through. We didn't get to see much of the parade, because of all of the people who got there the day before to stake out a spot, so we walked back to Louisiana to get ready for Rex. Rex is one of our most favorite parades-- each float has a special medallion that they throw out and are worth fighting for. Kelsea came down to the city to celebrate with us for the second year in a row, and after the parade, we walked over to Magazine St. to eat at the Rum House-- taco Tuesday, duh. It was a great day!
Rating: 9 outta 10 beads

Lundi Gras | Krewe of Orpheus | February 24

This parade was co-founded by Harry Connick Jr, and he rides in it every year. This year, my favorite player and Cory's favorite Saints player were also riding, so I ran up front when that float came through. I saw Thomas Morstead and starting squawking at him to "throw me something!" He didn't hear me, but awkwardly, his wife standing beside him did, and took mercy on me and threw me a bead. I was excited-- until I turned around and saw Cory with a purple bead straight from Thomas' hand. Cool story. Cam Jordan was on the next float, but we didn't catch anything from him. The rest of the parade was beautiful, with most of the floats having crazy lights and hand-crafted elements.
Rating: 8 outta 10 beads.

Honorable Mentions: 
Bacchus is another great parade that we really enjoy. It has great throws and last year, Cory and I fangirled over the King, Jensen Ackles... who was here again this year and I squawked again. We got to see all of Endymion and it was pretty cool and a long parade. The Krewe of Pygmilion was also super fun and cute.

Most Bizarre Parade:
Krewe du Viuex, followed by Krewedelusion |  February 8

This parade was deemed 'not suitable for children' and boy were they not kidding. This krewe is known for it's political satire, adult themes and super inappropriate takes on the struggles of this city. The best "floats" included handouts of parking tickets, where they asked you to make sure you went online to pay, so Mayor Cantrell can afford to pay for her summer home. Lots of Trump jokes, a few Hard Rock hotel jokes and TONS of inappropriate hand outs.
Rating: 4 outta 10 beads.

We ate too much Pizza Hut, grocery store sushi, potato chips, gold fish and King Cake, but eh. So, all in all, we got to see 15 krewes this Mardi Gras season, and by Fat Tuesday, we were tired, to say the least. But, no rest for the weary--- Cory's favorite holiday is in 2 weeks. See you for St. Paddy's Day my friends!

-B