A New Orleans Mardi Gras

When you come home with a bag of beads, the ability to down slice upon slice of King Cake like it’s nothing and stories about balcony parties, parade floats and an argument between a cop and your jester hat-wearing uncle, you know you’ve just had the one of a kind New Orleans Mardi Gras experience.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…there’s nowhere like New Orleans.

From its Jazz-infused culture.

I’m not really sure why there’s a Christmas tree up in the airport, though.

To its food, that’s uniquely Southern, Cajun, French, Italian, African and Spanish all at once.

Grilled cheese, topped with an egg at Ye Old College Inn. Followed by their award-winnig shrimp po’ boy and their award-winning fried bread pudding. And then I died of happiness.

Just a giant loaf of French bread at the grocery.

Shrimp po’ boy at Parkway. For those of you not in the know, a po’ boy is basically a sub sandwich served on French bread. The bread at Parkway pretty much makes the sandwich.

Crab stuffed two ways at Crescent City Brewhouse.

Muffuletta at New Orleans Food and Spirits.

Crawfish Banditos at the Velvet Cactus. Guys, I don’t know what banditos are, but this was astounding.

It’s hard for me to pass up shrimp when I’m in New Orleans. Clearly.

My uncle’s gumbo. Perfect rainy day comfort food.

And let’s not forget the grits. There’s a little coffee shop down the street from my uncle’s house that we love going to every morning, for coffee and breakfast. Colorado is in serious need of a place like Nola Beans that serves a good breakfast, but isn’t quite a sit down restaurant.

To its sites and celebrations.

Mr. Bingle is kind of an old New Orleans mascot, which my family has grown to know and love because my aunt sends my mom a stuffed Mr. Bingle every year for Christmas. It was nice to see him hanging next to us at dinner.

If you know me in real life, you know how much I adore Harry Connick Jr. Turns out his dad literally lives across the street from my uncle. Which made it really convenient to stalk the house and keep an eye out for HCJ, who as it turns out, made a neighborhood appearance while we were out to lunch.

Nooooooooooo.

My uncle seems to know all the right people, so we had passes to a fully catered, open-bar balcony party, with all the beads you could throw all night. I felt like a real VIP dangling those beads over the desperate people in the crowd. Fact: throwing beads > catching beads.

I’ve been on lots of great vacations, all fun and memorable in their own right, but this one will definitely stand out in my mind as one of my favorites. Maybe it was the fact that it was just my sister and I, or that my uncle is the best tour guide, or that we got to spend a week in a city where everyone was celebrating and no one seemed to be taking life too seriously, but it was an experience I’ll never forget.