We're back

Hello, everyone! I apologize for my long hiatus from the blog...as you all know we were in Louisiana until last Wednesday night, then on Friday I got sick (still am, actually) and then real life started again today (you know - work, school, studying, etc).

I'll forewarn you now that I don't have any pictures of my own - our camera didn't make it down to Louisiana :( Between this blog and Katie's eventually you'll see a bunch though...

We had the BEST time hanging out with Katie and Adam in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Their apartment is so cozy and cute. We found ourselves lingering in the living room long past breakfast each morning and long into each evening, just too relaxed to want to move.

Our time in Baton Rouge was filled with tons of food, tasty drinks, movies, games and of course a long chat over coffee - for me and Katie that is (the boys played video games for a few hours while we finally got the chance to catch up).

Tuesday morning we woke up super early to have Katie's world-class pancakes before driving in to New Orleans. We made it to our hotel just before they closed off the roads for the parades to begin. Our hotel was right on the parade route (kudos to Katie for that one) so we were able to take mini-breaks throughout the day for food, drinks and the bathroom. Many of you may not know that the parades begin at 8AM and go until about 5PM, so having a place to rest up was AWESOME!

We watched 4 parades. "Rex" is the oldest klan (4 different klans sponsor the different parades) and was my favorite by far. The floats and costumes were super bright and sparkly. Loved it.

Trying to get into the southern spirit, Andrew suggested that we eat at Popeye's for dinner - let's just say we were in the minority at Popeye's. It was actually pretty good food and quite the cultural experience. After dinner we grabbed hurricanes (the classic Mardi Gras fruit punch mixed drink) and made our way to Bourbon Street. For the most part it was exactly like we expected....packed with people, people throwing beads from the balconies, girls 'earning' their fancy beads, etc

Some things that surprised us and things that you may not know about Mardi Gras:

• You will become bead CRAZY if you go to Mardi Gras.
  
• You will also become very picky about what beads you want (eg "I need the big twisty pink ones with crowns on it") because...
  
• Beads are a dime a dozen - we think a couple million were probably thrown on Fat Tuesday alone - so if you take every bead that's thrown at you then your knuckles would be dragging from the weight of them all.
  
• Eye contact with the people on the floats is the key to getting the beads you want...as you may have gathered the parades are 100% about the beads and nothing else (it's really bizarre actually).
  
• On Bourbon street both boys and girls flash for beads.
• It's easy to spot the flashers in the crowd - they're the ones with masks on (so you wont know who they are tomorrow) and all of the cool beads, they don't just give those ones away after all.
• The police don't walk through the crowd, they ride horseback through the mobs of people. With one person in front of us we tailgated behind the horses to get out of the crowd quickly. Worked like a charm.
  
• By dawn on Wednesday you almost wouldn't know that Mardi Gras had happened, except for the bead strands in the trees and on the light poles. The have the cleanup down to a science!

On Wednesday we got beignets and strolled around the French Quarter. It was a perfect way to end a truly memorable trip.

Thanks to Katie and Adam for a fabulous time!!