Mardi Gras!

This year Mardi Gras weekend happened to coincide with President's Day, so when Chris talked me into heading down to New Orleans to party and see family and friends, there was no reason to say no.
We left Houston a little later than planned, and sat through 2 accidents on I-10 before arriving at Zea's on St. Charles St in downtown New Orleans to meet up with Brooke and Doc, two friends fro South Carolina. Brooke goes to grad school at UNO. It was nice to touch base, I've done a horrible job staying in touch with them.
We pulled into Zea around 7 while Hermes was rolling, but were too busy enjoying the all you can eat ribs to partake in the festivities. We did manage to catch the other 3 parades that rolled by though. Zeas turned out to be an excellent bargain. For a little over 40 bucks we got free parking, all you can eat food, and in and out access to the parade route. The parades stopped rolling after 11, but by the time we got the car out of valet it was past midnight. We still managed to beat Doc and Brooke back to their apartment though!
Saturday morning was pretty uneventful, but the 4 of us headed out to Mr. Ed's, "a New Orleans institution" for lunch. I tried a BBQ sandwich that was just roast beef with a weird BBQ sauce. Not that good. I was able to pick up a Barq's bottled root beer for the collection though.
After lunch we went back to the apartment and Chris and I beat Mario on the Wii while waiting for my aunt and uncle to get home.
We headed over to Mona's and Rick's about 3:30 and chilled there until about 5, then Rick drove us downtown so we could explore Bourbon St....and that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that.
Chris and I each bought a HUGE ASS BEER on Bourbon St, and saw part of the Saint's owner's parade on Canal St.I was able to add a port-a-potty picture with the parade in the background! Then we headed over to Harrah's. I lost 40 bucks quickly on slots and called it a night, bought a turkey burger from Fuddrucker's to get some food in me, and then watched Olympic Short Track while Chris lost money playing poker and craps.
Afterwards we stopped at Cafe du Monde and split some beignets. Rick was nice enough to come back and pick us up, it was only about midnight, but we didn't want to stay out longer and have to take a cab back.
Sunday morning the 4 of us left for Rex's about 9:30 to see another set of parades. Brooke met us there and I saw my other uncle and maw-maw, which was very nice.
Brooke, Chris, and I headed up street to watch 2 parades roll, Okeanas and Mid City, before heading back to Rex's to see Thoth roll right in front of us. It was really fun.
After Thoth we ate some of Rex's jambolya and headed back up street to Napoleon St to catch Bacchus in the evening. We had about an hour or so to kill, so we people watched in the park and had a lot of fun watching the drunks play frisbee with an awesome dog.
Bacchus rolled about 5:30, and I was fortunate enough to get another port-a-potty picture! Drew Brees was the celebrity king, and he rolled by about 10 to 6. I was too busy taking a picture of him to realize he had thrown a toy football that bounced off both Brook and myself before some random dude picked it up. Bummer, my one chance to catch a Drew Brees pass...
Chris took a position close to the action while Brooke and I hung back and hoped to get long throws. It was a poor strategy as a family with small kids brought ladders and all the long throws went to them. We muscled through the crowd to the front and were able to pick up a few cups and coins though, so it was a pretty successful roll.
Brooke drove us back to Mona's and then in the morning we were heading home to Houston, with a brief stop at Cajun Charlies for lunch. Excellent alligator there.