Road trip continues

We got to Louisiana right on schedule.

And the approach to New Orleans right on time.

The

Lake Pontchartrain took our breaths away.

After traveling on the bridge of Lake Pontchartrain for forever we could see the city of  New Orleans in the distance appearing like a mirage. 

Ok so most of the trip was uneventful. No bad traffic or weather. The plan was to get to New Orleans before Mardi Gras was over. We did good. Made great time, got in town around 4pm on Sunday. We didn't have a hotel pre-booked so we had no intention of getting a room any where near the action especially since we had the dog with us but... luck was on our side and we got a room right out side of the down town area in Metairie. Only a mile or two from the French Quarter. It was so great. We stayed a La Quinta Inn. If you are traveling with a dog and don't want to unload a fortune to get a great room La Quinta is definitely the place to stay. And they didn't even pay me to say that. They always accept animals and the rooms are clean with new linens. Linens are the most important part of a hotel stay as I have found out.

One of the many beautiful churches that we passed on the way in to town.

The super dome where people took shelter during hurricane Katrina.

We passed where some of the floats were being readied for a parade later.

And one of the many above ground grave yards that are everywhere and add to the mystic of New Orleans.

Any way after finding a hotel our next plan was to see some MardiGra. Well, the traffic to down town was completely at a stand still. I asked the hotel clerk about it and he said it was because the day before all the parades had been canceled due to rain and they were making up for it by having all the parades that day so around nine parades were scheduled to go back to back. And in fact if we wanted to enjoy one of the parades we didn't have far to go. There are parades all over New Orleans during Mardi Gra not just down town. They have ones that are family friendly not so much drinking where you can take small children and still get the same experience. And that's where most of the locals go to see a parade anyway. So we decided to go. And it was well worth it.

Yep we took our dog to see the parade but he was a big baby the whole time and had to be carried. Some one on one of the floats through a heart shaped pillow at him and he started to like it a bit more.

As Floridians we froze to death even though it probably wasn't that cold.

One of the first floats had Troy Landry from Swamp people on it.  The Husband is a big fan of his. The parade we watched was TV show themes. All the floats were very lavish and the bands were amazing. We met one of the local people who was standing next to us. And he was just the perfect Mardi Gras people. He had a mouthful of gold teeth and a big square diamond earring. He also had a big deep laugh. He explained some of the stuff we were seeing and we had a great time watching the parade with him and getting lots of beads. And other stuff. Unfortunately many of the photos were blurry. ( And I wasn't even taking the pictures for a change.) But we will always have the memory of it will always be there. The parade lasted for about  an hour or two.

We made the news! This guy was shining a light at us all night for the news.

Jacob is on the left and Troy is in the blue shirt on the right. Choot 'em Jacob!

Head coach of the Saints was in this truck.

Waterloo float. "Beads! Beads!"

These guys were awesome! As were all the bands.