Thing to Do #104: Attend Mardi Gras

Since it is Fat Tuesday, I should share my experience of Mardi Gras 2008.

I’m not a big drinker; therefore, I’m not a big “party gal.”  However, Mardi Gras is just one of those events you HAVE to attend (we’ll see if I ever make it to Carnival in Brazil-Thing to Do #36: Visit Every Country).  I got the chance when Alex had a conference in New Orleans last January.  As he was staying in the Ritz Carlton in the French Quarter, and given that I had never been to New Orleans and that, because of the early Easter Holiday, Mardi Gras was actually starting at the end of January, it was a no-brainer to tag along.

Just like the Miami trip the year before, Alex was in workshops and meetings all day and all night; therefore I was left to my own devices to keep myself entertained and being right in the middle of the French Quarter during Mardi Gras, that wasn’t difficult at all.  We arrived on Thursday afternoon and immediately went looking for some Cajun Cookin’, finding gumbo, jambalaya, fried gator, raw oysters and more.  Alex had visited New Orleans a couple of times before but had not been back since Katrina, so we went exploring, walking down Bourbon St. until we reached the more questionable side of things and then headed back.

The next day (Friday), Alex was working all day, so I decided to do some more exploring and signed up for a tour of the Saint Louis Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in New Orleans.  The tour guide gave a rather thorough history of the city, taking us through other points of interest on our way to the cemetery and pointing out water lines on the buildings, courtesy of Katrina.  Once in the cemetery, he was able to provide background information of important and famous people buried there, including where the famous cemetery scene from Easy Riders was filmed.

That evening, I went out to dinner in the French Quarter and decided to visit Harrah’s, where I played Roulette and spent an hour winning $400 and spent 20 minutes losing $400.  The first of the Mardi Gras parades were scheduled for Friday night but it had began to rain.  Some parades opted to cancel and the one closest to our hotel changed their route to shorten the length of the parade and the floats went by so quickly they showed up as blurs in my photos.

The next day (Saturday), I had scheduled a fan boat tour of the bayou, an hour outside of the city.  Since it was January and still a bit rainy, there were only two others on the boat with me (other than our guide/pilot).   Fan boats have always intrigued me, the idea of being able to travel over both water and land; the speed of practically flying over the water was rather exhilarating (although the guide need not tell us how easy fan boats flip) and it was fun traveling over the marshy land, bumping over logs.  

I had been eager to see the infamous Louisiana bayou, but I have to admit that the land and its fauna and flora differed little from what I have seen canoeing in the lakes and water ways of the Inter-Coastal area of Eastern North Carolina.  During our visit to the bayou, I saw a Great Blue Heron and the flash of the White Egret, both beautiful birds that I enjoy seeing on our own coast here in NC.  However, I had not expected to see one of its reptiles up close and personal.

While we had been speeding down one of the waterways, our guide suddenly slowed, and turned the boat around without explanation.  Apparently he had seen a set of eyes above the water near the bank and was turning around to give us a chance to see.  With a little bit of time and pointing out, we finally saw two little reptilian eyes, amongst floating leaves and other debris.  I looked down to take out my camera and when I looked back the guide had pulled the alligator out of the water.  I had not expected having a wild alligator in the boat with us (even though it was just a “baby”-only a couple of years old and ONLY 5 feet long from snout to tail), but the guide quickly got it under control and the gator soon stopped struggling.  We were shown the different parts of the gator and the guide spoke in length about gator hunting and tagging in Louisiana.  He then offered each of us a chance to hold the gator, with explicit instructions of where to hold it and how to handle it.  The guide also had a baby alligator with him that we each got a chance to hold.  This was a rather domesticated alligator, and was actually rather cute as it made a kind of chirping sound.  I entertained the idea of how neat it would be to have one as a pet until I realized it would all too soon be over 10 feet long…

After my big adventure on the bayou, I arrived back in time for the first parades of the day.  For this parade I was able to get many more photos, and although I had managed to get a front row spot, I was standing between two significantly taller people, which meant I wasn’t able to catch any beads or cups.  I managed to grab two cups that had fallen to the ground, just as souvenirs. 

After a big group dinner on Saturday evening, Alex would have the rest of the night off and as we were leaving on Sunday, I was excited about actually going out on the town with him.  I grabbed some food from McDonald’s, starving from not having eaten all day long.  Unfortunately, I became violently sick within 30 minutes of completing my meal, either from the food or some other germ I had encountered during the day (did the alligator get his revenge?) and successfully ended any chance of enjoying Mardi Gras with Alex.  I’ll spare the details of the next 12 hours, with little to no sleep, the plane trip back to North Carolina the next morning, and the next two days.  Suffice to say that within three days, I had lost 10 pounds and any desire to ever eat at McDonalds again (it has been a little over a year and I have not been back to McDonald’s yet, which is probably a good thing).

Final thoughts?  I can say I’ve been to New Orleans, got to explore some of its more interesting parts, witnessed a festival that makes otherwise sane people fight over cheap plastic beads, and got to hold a wild alligator.  However, the city itself really didn’t make much of a mark on me and if I never visit again, it’ll be ok.

Have you been to Mardi Gras?  Have an interesting story?  A lot of people LOVE New Orleans-got anything to change my mind about my impression of the city?