I'm back.

[2camaros]

Got back mid day yesterday after a long bus ride! What a shame to leave behind 70 degree weather to come back to snow... Its amazing, down there they bitch when they have to wear a light jacket at this time of year!! Oh well as I type this I think I am coming down with a cold from the climate change. :mad:

I had a great time and I will put here some of the more memorable moments over the next few days. Stay tuned.

[My1stCamaro92RS]

kewl...stayed out of jail I hope

[2camaros]

Well, as I figured, I was coming down with the flu monday. :mad: Now that the worst of that is gone, I'll start again here.

I'll start with Thursday and work backwards throughout the week. Thursday we went inside the huge new Harras casino in the city. This place is huge. Legalized gambling is amazing down there! You can see video poker machines in the corner of a fast food joint! (and a riverboad gambling den almost everywhere also!) I sure didn't spend a dime there however.

While I'll spare you most of my opinions on the evils of legalized gambling, suffice it to say the roads and public school systems still suck down there, despite gambling money supposedly going into them... ;)

Well Thursday night I resolved to go and party on Burbon street.
I was dropped off just after dark. I then walked the length of the street and took in the sights. As I neared the end some black dude in a alley says "Hey, you want to buy some weed?" Must have been a sting or something, considering a cop was not too far away!

After that I headed to a local bar and spent about a few beers time there. I then moved on and ended up at a bar/dance club. While a lot of the bars were full of couples (it was valentine's day) and single guys, this bar had two hot chicks dancing and grinding on each other. While I was certainly above such simple entertainment, ;) most of the guys were transfixed on them.

Well from there I went on to check out one of the numerous strip clubs on Bourbon. I ended up at a place called Rick's or something like that. It was quite amazing one chick better than the next. Plenty of old men there with stippers hanging off them. It was a bit more "high class" than I expected sadly. ($7 dollar bottle of beer!) So I was out of there soon and that was it. It was around 11:30 or after, I was running out of money so I called it a night. (That and I don't think my father would have appreciated a call to come get me at 1 am) It was a great time.

[My1stCamaro92RS]

Ahhh, memories of Bourbon Street....we spent our honeymoon there 25 years ago. The Royal Orleans Hotel if I remember correctly. As for the street, i remember the bars, grits, the sidewalk hustlers, strip bars, the jazz joints, grits, the small shops selling anything and everything, the guy who pinched Faith's ass, more grits, the mugging of some poor guy at an alley just in front of us...ahhh yes, I remember too well ;)

Glad you had fun Thursday...no jail time for rude or lewd behavior, didn't touch the boobies, kept away from the gambling, etc. Looking forward to the other days.

[2camaros]

Wednesday was not that special. We mainly recovered from Fat Tuesday.

Tuesday, Mardi Gras day, started out early. (You have to get there early to get a good spot) A contractor/vendor to my dad's work rented/runs a reviewing stand on a west side parade route. We went there, even though two hours early, there was hardly any room! That wasn't so bad, as they had all the free Jambalaya, chili and almost any cookout type food you can imagine. We filled up and waited for the parade. It was a long wait but not quite as bad because of nice weather and plenty of sights to see. (people in costumes, chicks, etc)

When the parades finally got to our position, it was really too crowded to catch much. I really didn't mind, as I enjoyed watching with my Daiquiris and free beer from the vendor. ;) All in all it was a good show. We got there about 9:30am and got home about 5pm.

The local daiquiris place has a interesting web site you might want to check out: www.fat-tuesday.com. I swear it seems they have a place on almost every street corner on the parade routes...

[My1stCamaro92RS]

I never had jambalaya. What is it? Sort of a chicken recipe? Great to have connections with good seats. I bet the parade was unbelievable to watch. I'll have to watch the discovery channel to see it I guess.

[2camaros]

Jambalaya is like a spicy rice and meat mix. For the meat usually smoked sausage is best, imho, but it can be made with shrimp, ham and chicken. You can buy Zatarain's New Orleans style Jambalaya mix at a local Marc's sometimes. Let me know & I'll bring you a box of mix next time if you want.

[My1stCamaro92RS]

Hmmm, I may pass then...don't like food spicy(guess I'll never make it as a cajun), not wild about rice nor shrimp. The sausage may be tolerable though.

[2camaros]

Ok now on to Monday. My father had to work so I ended up going to lunch and browsing around with his girlfriend/woman/whatever she maybe to him at the moment. (HEH)

Monday afternoon was chilly so we ended up not doing much. The parade scheduled to roll that night was not too big so we just stayed home after dinner.

Sunday was great. A sales rep of a vendor to my father's work has a son who runs a gas station along a mid city parade route. (Magazine street to be specific) It was a great party. Everyone brought some food and drink. Magazine street is beautiful, some of the old houses are works of art. Its really sad to see some nice houses then a falling apart house right next to them, but that is common there. We spent most of the day there. It was great not to fight for room with lots of people.

Saturday we were hoping to catch one of the biggest parades. We arrived along the downtown parade route early around 10 but still had trouble finding a spot. During the parades you were boxed in by all the people, hardly more than a few inches of movement is possible. The first parade rolled by and we were hardly able to get close enough to see it. The crowds cleared out (in other words, headed back into the bars) in the hour or so break between parades. The second parade was better and over around 4 or so. We waited a couple hours but the final and best parade was no where to be seen. We were quite tired from standing around for around 6 hours (my father is too cheap to buy those chairs like we use at car shows) and the final parade wasn't due till 9-10pm! We ended up going home and resting, I was quite beat.