Wald's World On Wheels: New Orleans

As we pulled out of Gulf Island National seashore on the morning of March 2, they were just kicking off the Mardi Gras parade in Gulf Breeze Fl. We didn't stay for the parade because we were on to our next destination, New Orleans! The nations mecca for the Mardi Gras celebration.

Just to be clear, we didn't plan on attending Mardi Gras, we're not that good. We just simply got lucky to be in New Orleans the week of Louisiana's largest party.

We were a little apprehensive about driving into New Orleans with the kids for Mardi Gras, after all, it certainly doesn't seem like a family oriented destination. Before driving in we did some on-line research to find the best places to visit during Mardi Gras and where to park. I also talked to a few locals at our RV park to get the inside scope before heading off for the big party.

For those of you who may not already be aware, Mardi Gras, for the most part, is very family friendly. The Mardi Gras that we all see through TV and the media paints a very different picture of what the celebration really entails. Most are familiar with the French Quarter and Bourbon St. (Which is not where you would ever want to bring your kids!) The party on Bourbon St. is only about 10% of the Mardi Gras experience.

The real celebration of Mardi Gras involves parades, lots and lots of parades. It is by far the largest parades I have been to. The floats were magnificent and there were huge crowds of locals who stake out the same spot year after year and spend the day having a B-B-Q right along the entire parade route. During the parade the floats through out tons of toys and trinkets for the gets, including thousand upon thousands of beads!

One interesting innovation that we found at the parades is the use of "Ladder Seats". This seemed to be a uniquely New Orleans invention. Many of the locals would install seats on top of A frame ladders for their kids to sit and get a view of the parade even from the very back of the crowd. What a great idea!

We met some great people at the parade who we became quick friends with. They were telling us that people would mark their spots along the parade route with blankets, chairs, ladder seats and then leave for the day...and nobody would touch them. They then disclosed to us, "two weeks later when the celebration is over, if someone left something on the street around their it would be gone in 10 minutes". Even the thieves have a sense of respect for Mardi Gras!

The particular parade we were at had Quintin Tarantino as the celebrity monarch for the Krewe of Orpheus parade that we attended. I'm not a big fan of his but it was still fun to see him on the float.

This was a fountain made from old beer tap handles.

The kids posing next to some ladder seats. If you look closely you can see the black wheels on the top. This is used to role the ladders along the sidewalk instead of carrying the awkward shaped contraption down the street.