Mardi Gras 09!!!

So as I mentioned, I had the opportunity to go to Mardi Gras this year. I have a very good friend that has been living there for two years, and this was the first year I was able to accept his invitation.

Given the fact that I didn't have any time constraints, I flew into Mardi Gras on Saturday, Feb 21st, which is typically a day late for the big festivities, an flew out on Friday Feb 27 - for no other reason that to hang out and get cheap flights....


I got in on Saturday pretty late, went straight to Bourbon St., and did what people do on Bourbon Street til roughly 1am, then we headed back to the Garden District for some late night beer at the Bulldog... there was a general lot of drinking, lot of CSI watching, and then we blew off some steam with 300 .45 rounds at the shooting range...

I was there for a total of 6 days, which is roughly 3 days more than anyone really needs to travel to New Orleans for. We did the whole touristy/French Quarter thing 3 of
the days, but that stuff gets tacky pretty quickly. My favorite place was actually a bar up bear Ryan's house in the Garden District called The Bulldog, where Wednesdays you can buy a beer and keep the glass... as many times as you want (I have almost a full
kitchen set in the back of my car now). The flood areas are still pretty beat up (toured on Thursday) - it was weird seeing entire neighborhoods gone, and then one lot where a guy decided to rebuild his house on a flood plain. It was a lot like Detroit, except the houses are still there in Detroit.

All in all it was a good trip - enjoyed some nice weather, had some
deer burgers, took some target practice, ate some good food (Jaques-Imo's, a restaurant near Tulane, is AMAZing!) Other than getting an 8-person taxi ride in the back of a "Free Candy" van from a couple resembling the Natural Born Killers, it was a pretty fun time.


Alas, all good things must come to an end... But not yet. Back to
Denver for some north country skiing