Lundy Gras, Rex, and fireworks! Feb 11

Monday dawned with some of the rain we were supposed to get, but once again the weatherman's prediction fell short. The ground was once again always wet, but we never really got stopped by the rain. After a day checking out more areas in the French Quarter, having lunch of muffalettas, gumbo, and jambalaya , (Bird says his is better, so he has to make some for everyone in North Beach sometime!), we checked out the Spanish Plaza, near the Mississippi River, and watched the end of a concert by Cowboy Mouth, and watched the landing of the kings of the Zulu and Rex royalty. They traditionally come in on a coast guard boat from the Mississippi, have a toast, and the king of Rex asks the mayor to officially declare Fat Tuesday as a day of no work for the city. (Even the post office shuts down!). The ceremony was accompanied by a fly over of an F-18 fighter jet, and fireworks, even though the clouds were so low that the tops of some of the downtown buildings were in the fog all day and night. Sometime during the day we had time to catch three parades: Proteus and Orpheus. Oh, that's only two parades, but its all becoming a blur keeping up with Pam the parade monster, who is the queen of dressing up ( bright blue shirt with a blue and purple boa that people kept asking her to sell ) or bright green, hey, they have to see me to throw me beads! There is definitely a strategy to catching the attention of the bead throwers( in a family friendly way), and Pam has become an expert!

I got this feather boa thrown to me from a float.  

Bird and Gisele begging for beads.

Bird and Gisele

Posing with some guy walking down Bourbon Street dressed like.......I guess an Indian???

Bird earning lots of beads

A float - note all the arms up begging for beads!

Highly sought after doubloons!

Bird, Gisele and mystery lady - okay, it's Pam.

Queen on a float.

The "Laissez Boys"!  They all had lazy boy chairs on wheels , dressed in satin smoking jackets and drove down the street in the parade!  It was hysterical!!!