I already wrote about the awesome first part of Lundi Gras in my post detailing my absolutely amazing trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras…but now it’s time to talk about what we did that evening, because it was probably the best 6-ish hours of our vacation!

Our hotel was on Canal Street, but future experiences (read: the very next day) and my anxiety about being pressed in among strangers for long periods of time (or well, ok, at all – NOT my thing) made me SUPER happy that I ignored the “advice” I received on Reddit to not bother with stands.

Knowing that we only had these two days and needed to make the most of them, I took a chance – despite the aforementioned “advice” – and booked two spots in the stands at a hotel on St. Charles Ave. My ONLY complaint is that they advertised that there would be local food available for purchase, and I…don’t believe that was the case. (You could go inside the hotel to use the bathrooms, which was a HUGE plus, and also purchase drinks at the bar – and there was also a food cart outside, but it appeared to just have the basic fried chicken, burgers, etc. type options – no big deal, but maybe don’t advertise you’ll have true NOLA food if you, ya know, don’t.)

But hey, at least we got very close seats for these parades!

Anyway, we got to sit in the stands with a great mix of people – locals and tourists alike! – and we made a LOT of friends! (Let’s be real, that’s what two extroverts do, right?)

It was a LONG night, by the way – we arrived at the stands around 6 PM and waited quite a bit for the first parade – Rex – to come by. But WOW, was it worth it! As I already mentioned, we met so many friends – including the Australian couple who was sitting next to us (and who we convinced to check out our favorite brewery, Brieux Carre, the next day)…

….as well as a local woman who was there with her two little girls 🙂

Because by the way – us being tall people, we caught a LOT of throws from both Rex and Orpheus that night – which meant we also got to pass them around to the little kids who weren’t quite tall enough to catch them. Let’s just say that I caught a seahorse plushie from Orpheus that I absolutely wanted to keep, but let’s be real, the kiddo wanted/needed it more 🙂

But that’s the true spirit of Mardi Gras, isn’t it? It’s celebration, it’s giving, and it’s loving the city and the people around you. And when one of the little girls was admiring the hat that I’d made especially for this trip, I realized…what was the point of bringing it home, when I could give it to a child who lived in this amazing city, a child who appreciated it and would hopefully continue to appreciate it for years to come? So…I did 🙂

At the end of the night – and it was a WAY later night than we prepared for, considering we had to get up pretty early the next morning – we realized that we’d had the best experience we could have, well, experienced. We met new out-of-town friends who had never been to NOLA and were able to give them suggestions about the places we loved…and we got to meet a local who was actually part of the Zulu crew the next day, and were able to give her two amazing little girls a great night by making sure they got the throws they wanted and passing on my hat to a kiddo who was super excited to perch it on her adorable little head 🙂

Needless to say, as much as we enjoyed the next day, I think our Lundi Gras experiences were the highlight of our trip!