Krewe du Chaos

I experienced my first parade tonight. Mardi Gras hasn't officially started, but the Krewe du Vieux holds their parade a couple weeks before. Y'all - it was an assault on the senses. The whole experience. Sights, smells, sounds, touch - it was coming from all directions.

Let me back track a bit...I'm here in New Orleans for a conference for work. We heard there was a parade tonight so we decided to check it out. The fact that it passed right in front of the restaurant we had dinner reservations was just a bonus. Apparently the Krewe du Vieux is one of the raunchiest of the Krewes. They are an equal opportunity group and no one is safe from their satire and ridicule. Some of the floats were clever and some quite graphic. It made me wonder a bit about the parents next to me with their young children, but that was their call and I wouldn't want to be in their car on the ride home and answer the kids questions. And I know they had questions.

After the parade we had dinner at a fantastic restaurant, Carmelo's on the corner of Decatur and Toulouse. If you are ever in New Orleans, and you want good (and I mean good) Italian food, you need to go here. They have the best tomato sauce. But I digress...we walked back to the hotel down Toulouse to Bourbon Street. It was packed. I couldn't even imagine how crowded it would be when Mardi Gras starts. People screaming for beads, the smell of cigarettes and beer mixed with the sounds of the clubs and jazz bars combined with the push of the crowd. It was A LOT. Now, I like to go out and have a good time, but I have never been a crowd person or one for large parties and this is the biggest party I have ever seen. I'm glad I experienced it - I can say I did it, but don't look for me during Mardi Gras. It was crazy and chaotic, but that's Bourbon Street.

I am looking forward to exploring some of the other restaurants in the area and I'm hoping to convince Heather to take a trip to the French Market with me before I leave on Wednesday.