Mardi Gras Weekend

We passed a good time this weekend with family and friends here in Lafayette for the Mardi Gras. My parents arrived on Thursday night and spent Friday getting things ready for more arrivals. After work, I got home to help Roxi and my parents do some last minute work cleaning up the house and we got everything ready just at about the time that Karl, Jan and Jordan arrived with some of their friends from Houston. They had been out at the Friday Night Parade and were cold and ready for some hot gumbo. As we sat down to a huge pot of chicken and sausage gumbo with some fresh homemade potato salad, Travis and Danielle arrived from College Station. We finished off our gluttonous dinner off with slices of a giant King Cake from Southside Bakery.





Saturday started out slowly with most people waking up in waves throughout the morning. After a lunch of leftover gumbo and desert of Blue Bell's King Cake flavored ice cream(!), we organized ourselves to make it out to the Mardi Gras carnival set up at the end of the parade route at Cajun Field. It was a great day to be outside, but rather windy and so made it a little cooler than we all would have liked. After having a some daiquiris I felt the need to indulge in some fresh boudin and a crab burger. They were absolutely delicious. Of course at this point, I was feeling like I was eating a bit too much, but what the hell, it's Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday! Roxi and I watched as Danielle, Jordan and their friends rode some nauseating looking rides before we headed home to get my parents for the Bonaparte Parade.





After our rendezvous at the house, we made our way back downtown to the tent that Karl's company had set up on the parade route. Roxi got some great rockstar parking a short walk from the tent and we made our way through the crowd to join our group. Just before the parade started, we had to indulge just a little more and have a bowl of hot chili on the very cold night. Finally, the Bonaparte Parade arrived.













Of course all good things come to an end and everyone has to return to their normal lives tomorrow, but I have a couple of days off of work so Roxi and I are planning to enjoy more festivities on Mardi Gras Day.