Mardi Gras

Jack and Spencer, see the parade in the background

My girlfriend took Jack to the Mardi Gras parade across the river.  This is such a different culture here.  The amount of stuff that is thrown from the floats is massive.  And evidently, a lot of it is collected and coveted. There are of course, beads like crazy, and certain types are collected.  Each krewe throws custom stuffed animals and doubloons.

Evidently, if you dress up, they will throw more stuff to you.  Jack and Spencer (Cristi's son) dressed up as knights.

This is the beginning of the parade route.  It is pretty much all local families.  Cristi said these people set up tents and grills and leave their stuff set up for the entire parade season.  The madness occurs downtown in the French Quarter.

The boys up on a ladder.  This is a plain 'ol normal ladder.  You should see some of the extravagent ladders that people make.

The traditional colors: purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power).  Evidently chosen by Rex.  Why the masks? From what I can tell, it's a Disney type thing, where the krewes are creating a sort of magic by concealing their identity.  It is actually illegal to wear masks here at all other times of year.

Jack and all of his loot

Jack with MOST of the beads on

Beads, Doubloons, Rex, and the Rex Cow

As I was layering all of the beads on, I neglected to figure in the difficulty in removing.  It took a little while, but I managed to get some to fall off his shoulders and the others I just starting flipping from the back of his head to the front.  Good thing he has good sphincter control, because he laughed enough that he could have peed himself :o)