Mardi Gras World!

Friday, January 27, 2023

Today started with a scurry. Well, first there were working hours/leisure hours, but we planned to leave at 11:30 to go out for the day. Our Jazzy pass for the streetcar was good for 24 hours exactly – and it expired at 11:50. The streetcars are supposed to come every 15 minutes, or so. When we got out to the street, there was our car – already loading at our stop across the street. No chance of getting on. Augh. Okay. We had 15 minutes left on our pass. Maybe the next one would come. It would be all of $6 to have to buy another pass – but it would have worked so slick if we didn’t have to get another one. We went to the stop and waited. A bunch of other people came. Waiting. Checking the minutes. Wondering. It’s so hard to wait when the clock is ticking. Keith suggested we walk up the line, to the next stop. It is only a block away, and obviously the car would get there sooner than at our stop. We scurried along the rails. No train in sight. We kept going to the next stop – two blocks away. I ran. Now, if any of you have ever seen me run, you know your average person walks backwards faster than I run. I have been having very clunky heart days this week, and my tiny little running steps (Keith did not have to run to keep up. At all) were absolutely the maximum that I could go. We could see the car coming down the track. I was just zooming along, giving it my all (such little all). Luckily, the car got held up at a traffic signal, so we made it. Can you imagine if we were between stops when it got there?! Hilarious (my goodness, we have fun, don’t we?!) We watched our tickets count down the minutes, then the seconds as we approached our original stop. We had 12 seconds to spare when got there! We wouldn’t have had to scurry, but I am so glad we did. It was so much fun to feel the excitement, and that running – well, that was fun, or at least funny to anyone seeing me! (We also got seats. We wouldn’t have gotten seats if we had stayed at our original stop. Car was full by then. We win.)

We went back to Bearcat for lunch and ordered exactly what we had yesterday. Our waiter thought that was the best compliment anyone could ever give and brought us a bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice as a thank you. It tasted exactly like an orange. Everything was as good as yesterday!

We walked to a butcher shop, looking for tasso. Daniel commented on Keith’s tasso eating and I suddenly realized we could take some home. We went to the butcher and checked it out. It was labeled to not be stored above 41 degrees. Well. Mmm. That wasn’t going to work.

On to Mardi Gras World Museum. We learned so much about Mardi Gras parades. There have to be 14-30 floats and at least 9 marching bands to have a float parade (there are also walking parades. There is a walking parade tomorrow – we will be on a plane – with a Sci-Fi theme. There will be a gazillion people walking, all dressed in their best Sci-fi costumes). They can get around having “only” 30 floats by tying some together – two or three or four together only count as one. There can be 40-50 people on a big float, and since they could be there 6-8 hours, there are porta-potties built into the support columns. Mardi Gras parades started in the 1850s, and really started to be the THING in the 1930s. Blaine Kern was the one who first made over-the-top-beautiful-fancy floats in the 60s (We were at his warehouse/museum). They have 40-50 full-time, year-round workers building props for floats. There are fiberglass characters, which are much more expensive to make, are more detailed, and last a long time. There are many, many big figures made of carved styrofoam, covered in papier-mâché, painted, then sealed. I could not get over how great they looked. When I papier-mâché, I have a hard time making a sphere. I have no interest in coming for Mardi Gras, because crowds just weird me out. We came on the streetcar past some of the parade route tonight, and there are bleachers already up and ready. We saw video and pictures of the massive crowds. I am happy to have seen some behind-the-scenes, and I will leave it at that.

We spent the rest of the day in the French Quarter. Keith was hunting the “right” pralines. We tried Aunt Sally’s – no. Very grainy. Then we tried Magnolia. YESSSS! Success. So good. We walked around Jackson Square and listened to buskers. We shopped in a hat store. We shopped in a store that had beautiful stuff. BEAUTIFUL. They had dragonflies made out of silverware that balanced on a metal stake (I guess you had to be there) (lawn art!). There was no way we could fit it in the suitcase, or we would have one. Or two. We listened to a street band. And a violin player. And a trumpet player. I really liked hearing a single trumpet playing some blues as we walked along. We tracked down the sound and listened for a while. He got a bigger bill in his hat than the others. Keith was eyeing up his horn and identified it as a Puje (“pudgy”, a cornet/trumpet crossbreed) – though he had never seen one in real life before. We talked to the player. He was from Liverpool and had gotten a great deal on the horn. Keith is sitting in a chair, shopping for one, even as I write this.

We had dinner at Pierre Maspero’s. It is in a reallllly old building. We have eaten there several times before on other trips. Keith sent this picture of the wall to the family and said, “It’s dinner time. Where are we?”

Alexander wrote, “That one super old place I can’t remember the name of.” Sean said, “Pirates of the Caribbean?” (solid guess for someone who hasn’t been here before). Benjamin pulled it out, “Pierre Maspero’s,” (“Yeah, there!” from Alexander), followed by “Order the seafood pistolettes. I wanted to bathe in that sauce.” Keith did not think he was hungry enough (because full is cumulative, apparently) to order that appetizer, but I wanted you let you all know that our boys like the food here as much as we do. Alexander recommended the caramel bread pudding, which we did share. I had a roast beef po-boy. I had NO IDEA it would be so good. It was on Leinenkugel bread, or whatever that bakery was called (“Leidenheimer” -keith) from the other day, and was shredded beef in a fantastic sauce, with lettuce, tomatoes, and the most delicious pickles! Keith inhaled his crawfish etouffee in about 2 minutes, then said, “Yep, that’s what I wanted.” I had to take the picture of my sandwich using my nose, because Keith was inhaling and didn’t even notice I needed help (Help, help) (which was really funny).

Then we streetcar-ed home (with new jazzy passes – for tonight and tomorrow).