Our First Mardi Gras Parade

The day before we departed from our beloved New Orleans we got to experience our first Mardi Gras Parade, up close and personal. And what a fabulous experience that was!!!

Our First Mardi Gras Parade complete with colorful fun costumes on parade participants

Mardi Gras Parade Revelers wear such fun costumes!

Our First Mardi Gras Parade old English themed float with large tub and men dressed as Friars throwing beads

Ye Royal Bath

Our First Mardi Gras Parade with a pink and purple float with pink elephant on front.

Dumbo leads the parade for Purple Haze

Words cannot describe what it felt like to actually be at a Mardi Gras Parade. It was so joyful that my constant, ear to ear grin, made my face hurt by the end of the parade. But nothing hurts so good as that!

Pink and purple float with purple haired people through Mardi Gras beads.

Purple hair is the craze on Purple Haze

Costumed people in Our First Mardi Gras Parade on a float with a huge bottle of champagne being poured into a large gold chalice

The Jungle Juice

Mardi Gras float painted to look like a tavern bar at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Sassyracs float

Our dear friends Holly and Paul had promised to get us to a parade and they were true to their word. Neighbors and friends of theirs own a wonderful boutique on Magazine Street called Alice and Amelia, just one block from the parade route. Lucky for us, they invited us to park in the boutique’s parking lot! That made it a very easy stroll to the Krewe of Tucks Mardi Gras Parade.

Large group of women in black tops and short red skirts dancing down the street at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Dancin’ in the streets!

Bright yellow float with statue of Friar Tuck at front at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Krewe of Tucks brings Friar Tuck to the parade!

Our First Mardi Gras Parade with lots of revelers on the route along with me, Steve and two of our friends.

Our merry band of revelers, from left: Me, Steve, Holly and Simma

I mean, we were so close that the people on the floats could hand us beads. Steve and I amassed a huge haul of 55 strands of beads and a boatload of trinkets. The Krewe is sponsored by Tucks, the hemorrhoid treatment people. So as I’m sure you’ve noticed in the photos, there was a bathroom related theme for many of the floats, trinkets and beads. We even caught a roll of printed toilet paper. The 2 of us had 4 bags filled to the brim, plus the beads and hats we put on.

Yellow float with statue of Elvis on front is being pulled by a green tractor at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Is that Elvis in the house? Suspicious Minds want to know.

High school marching band in dark purple and gold uniforms at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

It’s not a parade without a marching band!

Friar Tuck

And the people were so friendly and fun. Steve had caught a cool silver sequined white fedora that lit up. He looked adorable in his new hat. And then, two young men standing near me, handed me one of the hats they’d caught. They said if my husband had one, I needed one. I was thrilled and immediately donned my new fedora.

Multicolor float with peace sign at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Hey Dude – Peace and Love

As a colorful float passes Steve and I are catching beads at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Steve and I gleefully catching beads and trinkets

At Our First Mardi Gras Parade girls in white costumes with orange flags dance in the street.

Flag girls dancing along the parade route

When our first Mardi Gras Parade was over we walked back to Alice and Amelia, put our treasures in the trunk and crashed exhaustedly into the welcoming vehicle. But not before Paul dubbed me an official NOLA GIRL with a coffee mug and car magnet from the boutique. A title I am very proud of! NOLA GIRL merch is a registered trademark of Alice and Amelia.

Large Friar Tuck statue adorns the bow of a float that looks like a cruise ship on the ocean at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

If the boat’s a rockin’. tucks did the knockin’

At Our First Mardi Gras Parade a float that looks like a cruise ship on the ocean

Booze Cruise Krewe of Tucks

Float painted with bartender saying Last Call! at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Right Place-Wrong Time Rhinestone Cowboy float

We drove back to Holly and Paul’s street to drop off their neighbor Simma, who’d joined us for the parade. Then, still in a Mardi Gras state of mind, the four of us went to a Mardi Gras block party and lavish private house party, which I will tell you about in my next post.

Our First Mardi Gras Parade included a float that looked like an island paradise

A taste of the Caribbean right in NOLA

Tucks on Tap

Wood float that look like a bar complete with bar stools and bartenders throwing beads at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Belly up to the bar boys and get InTUCKSicated

One thing I can assure you of, this may have been our first Mardi Gras Parade…but it definitely will not be our last – G-d willing!!!

Colorful float with a musical theme at Our First Mardi Gras Parade

Storyville Jazz and the Voodoo League

A group of women marching in Our First Mardi Gras Parade dressed up like Dolly Parton

Krewe of Dolly

Wild and colorful float at Our First Mardi Gras Parade with lots of parade watchers

Funky Tucks, Love Child and Funky Fox

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