Endymion and zydeco band on Bourbon- Feb 9

We rolled downtown in the Jeep again today, but parked in an outdoor lot, a little further away from the action, so we had to walk more, but we were able to watch the best parade of the bunch in an area that wasn't so packed. We watched the Tucks parade near St Charles and Canal, which is a busy place, but it wasn't very memorable. The Endymion Parade started at 4:00, and it lasted well into the evening, had great floats, and threw a ton of beads. Okay, it's Pam's turn to talk... I have to go back a few days to when I first arrived at the KOA.  I was greeted by our neighbors, Richard and Bonnie Robertson who, over the next week, taught me all about Mardi Gras.  Even though they live in Arkansas, Bonnie was born and raised in New Orleans, and told me what Mardi Gras was like when she was young.  Richard is a member of the Krewe of Endymion, and they told me that that was a not to miss parade.  Boy were they right!  The floats were lit with LED lights and just gorgeous!  There floats were manned with 3x the amount of riders and it rained beads and trinkets!  Most important was the beauty of the floats!  Midway through the parade, I found myself not even trying to catch beads, but just standing with my mouth open and tears in my eyes just looking at the shear beauty of the floats!  I can never truly explain these floats, but I do encourage you to see the Endymion parade if you attend Mardi Gras.  Their parade is just over the top - it is a total assault to the senses!  They have music on the floats, lights, beautiful floats, it's just overwhelming!  Thank you, Richard and Bonnie for allowing me to pick your brains!  You taught me so much about the history of Mardi Gras!

Bonnie and Richard Robertson - our neighbors.

Float with one of the maids of Endymion

The back of the maid

This was the coolest "band" performing in numerous parades.  They were from Switzerland.

Guggenmusik Kamikaze Band

Decorations on Bourbon Street

We spent the evening on Bourbon Street, tackling the largest fraternity party on earth, a mass of drunken humanity. We did see two people older than us there. We did find a great zydeco band playing, and we spent some time inside a bar listening to the great sounds of a band led by a washboard player, and an accordion player. They really do have a distinct musical style down here that is well worth seeking out if you can find it. We also went into a place where we could go up on a balcony and look out over the crowd for a while. It was unique, because it was free. Some places charge $25 or more to go to the balconies, and they are so packed, that many of them had been reinforced with floor jacks, to handle the weight of the crowds.
We had beautiful weather, so we tried to do as much as we could the last few days, because the forecast was that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday could be potential washouts. We are hoping for the weatherman to be wrong, because Bird and Gisele Baldwin, friends from the Outer Banks are coming in on a motorcycle. We hatched the plan to hook up and do Mardi Gras way back in the summer, as part of their motorcycle trip from North Carolina to Florida and Arizona, during the month of February.

After the Endymion parade!  Every night Canal Street looks like this, and then a few hours later it is totally clean!