A little more confusion to start off this day. The tickets my sister had purchased were for Blain Kern’s Mardi Gras World. But they said to meet near Café Du Monde. Which I had forgotten to mention on an earlier blog post that we had went there. Anyway, Terri called and was able to get a shuttle to come pick us up at Café Du Monde and then take us out to the ware house. Overall it cost us parking $25 and some time. Which wasn’t as important to me as it was to my sister who was driving home to Oklahoma today.
I had heard about Mardi Gras world but had never actually gone. The process by which they create these huge floats is incredible. But they are not only floats they all have to have bathrooms on them as well since the riders are sometimes on them for up to 8 hours at a time.
Guess they don’t like Atlanta Falcons in New Orleans.
Underdog
After this the Crew was headed back to Oklahoma. Long drive down for three days touring in New Orleans but I was glad to be invited to join them. We had just one more stop on their way out of town. Well two actually.
First was to see the Laura Plantation. This was a traditional Creole plantation.
The bright colors is what defined a Creole house. These were typically built by French settlers prior to the Civil War. What amazed me about this house is that after the freeing of the slaves there were descendants of the slaves that lived here until the 1970’s. They didn’t have anyplace else to go. Also, the back half of the house burned down at some point so the fact it still exists at all is amazing. Plus the fact that it was almost razed by developers at some point. Definitely worth checking out.
The plan was to go to Houmas house for lunch but with the delays getting to Mardi Gras World this morning that wasn’t going to happen. So instead we went to Oak Alley Plantation. (Which secretly I wanted to see, I’ve been to Houmas before. Even though I wanted to see the newest art by Craig Black)
My sister and I enjoying Mint Julips.
Oak Alley Plantation has been used in several movies. They also have numerous guides dressed in traditional attire. Well worth the stop. There are numerous more plantations to visit on following trips. But the ones I’ve wanted to see I have.
At this point my sister and crew left. So I rushed back to New Orleans to see what I had found out about during the tour of Mardi Gras World this morning. That is the Krewe of Boo.
While I couldn’t quite be in New Orleans for Halloween this was pretty special. There is nothing like a parade in New Orleans. Catching Beads and other throws. I picked up a new Nerf football. Very glad that I made the trip down here. Been to 12 states now. One quarter of the lower 48.