What with the gathering of fishy friends and freaks from afar, we didn't get back in last night until sometime after 3 AM. Good thing our calendar is easily adjustable for such contingencies!
Like yesterday, first order of the day was coffee and Wifi; today at French Press Coffeehouse.
A few hours later it was off to the Quarter to meet up with Shu-yi, Gerry, and Steve for an early dinner at the Crescent City Brewhouse, strategically located near the end of tonight's parade route, for dinner and drinks.
My recollection is that I ate a large, delicious, flat piece of fish, but without notes or pictures, it's hard to recall much more than that… I'll blame it on the brews! After a tasty meal, we decided to head off to the Marigny on the far side of the French Quarter to as to watch the start of the parade from a less crowded neighborhood vantage rather than suffering the already-swelling crowd surging along Decatur.
You might be wondering about that spelling in the headline; I figured that with the Krewe du Vieux parade to kick off the start of the 2013 Mardi Gras season today, it was appropriate to twist things just a little. Works good, don't it?
Being about a mile's walk to the head of the parade route, we stopped part-way for a drink at D.B.A. before finding our roost on a (fairly) quiet sidewalk around 6:30 PM – just in time to catch the initial street-sweep by New Orlean's finest, followed by the parade. And a fine parade it was – though decidedly adult-themed! Bestiality seemed to be a popular topic this year. Ting took tons of pictures, but as far as I can tell, none of them have been processed for sharing just yet. In the name of decency, I'll refrain from posting any parade pics until we can get around to separating the prurient from the profane.