Mardi Gras Memories, Version 2014

This was definitely a different sort of Mardi Gras for us. It was fun to stay with friends and catch up with neighbors, but it just felt . . . like we were visitors.  Which, of course, we were.

Wow. That's kind of hard to admit.

Anyway, we spent the first part of the week staying with a friend in Lakeview, and we left our car there for the second part of the week, not really being up for paying $50.00 per day to park in the Quarter. Retired Navy friends picked us up there and took us to their lovely 200 year old  home in the Quarter after dinner on the Lake (they live up the street from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house, and catty-corner from one of Nicholas Cage's former houses. One of the ones he lost during his little tiff with our pals at the IRS. I might note that our friends are less than enthralled with Brangelina.). Here are two views of the downstairs parlor:

One thing that made me feel "at home" was the ubiquitous Mardi Gras decor.  I did a few things outdoors, but didn't manage to get the lights up. That failure will not happen next year. It's just cheery to see decor like this:

One doesn't encounter decorative arts like that in Little Rock.

We made it to the old neighborhood twice, got to visit with dearly missed neighbors and meet new babies both trips, and even got an extended tour of Moogie's Mansion, which is now nothing like Moogie's Mansion inside. On Bacchus Sunday, we went to two neighborhood parties and visited with the out-of-retirement-just-for-Mardi-Gras Security Guard at St. Elizabeth's who had taken a shine to Pepper and wound up giving him quite a few hunting rifles and shotguns before we moved because he was downsizing. (That is proof positive that it certainly pays to take plates of food to the Security Guard on a regular basis!) It was a great day, but another you-don't-live-in-Moogie's-Mansion realization hit us square in the face when we couldn't find a parking place any closer to the parade route than a mile and a half! We got our exercise in that day, for sure. Here is what the front yard looks like now at the Mansion:

No more holly, jasmine, and lantana on the front fence. And JB's gardenia has been dramatically pruned. It should be okay though -- it survived Bouie's puppyhood, after all. They offered to let us take the Mother's Day birdbath, but we didn't get back over there on the way home. At least I have a picture of it as it sits today.

I went with our Lakeview friend to the Mystic Krewe of Nyx's parade on Wednesday night after our arrival while Pepper relaxed. It was freakin' freezing! And I didn't wear nearly enough clothes, thinking I was back in New Orleans and all -- it took me all night to thaw out beneath the covers. Who knew? This is one of my favorite new floats -- it's one of the signature Nyx floats:

Cosmo, anyone?

I can't believe I didn't take more pics of the food we gorged ourselves on during the week.  Maybe I feared that just looking at the pics would pack on the pounds. On Friday night, we had dinner at Ralph's on the Park with our real estate guy -- he had become a very good friend. He even bought Pepper's 911 so we wouldn't have to move it. (Don't grieve for Pepper's loss of a Porsche.  He had a gently used, but not terribly well-maintained, Cayenne waiting for him in Little Rock that had found its way into the family last spring during a trip when we were supposed to be babysitting, not car shopping. I call it "The German Lemon." Hopefully, it's in good shape now, plus we can get in and out of it a lot easier than the 911.) This preceded dinner -- a cucumber martini. (It had been prettier -- I had already eaten the cucumber slice perched on the rim of the glass):

This was my dinner -- Visiting Fish:

I think we had dessert, but it disappeared PDQ.

This was breakfast with the Krewe of Eggs on Mardi Gras morning on St. Charles Avenue across from Gallier Hall.  Pretty darn good buffet on a dreary, cold, rainy morning!

But, I think this was my favorite.  A shrimp Po Boy from our neighborhood grocery, Zara's.  Or what was left of it by the time I snapped this pic. I called in the order as we were hiking toward the old neighborhood and it was steaming hot by the time we got there, just waiting on us. We ate it on the neutral ground. It also pays not to delete numbers from one's phone when one moves:

There was a lot more food and fun than I photographed. And I finally got to see the Sophie B. Wright Academy marching band as Zulu passed our restaurant on Mardi Gras morning!

Writing this post brought up some very pleasant memories.  And it kept me from concentrating on Ukraine and our paper tiger president, who is on yet another golf vacation in the Florida Keys while the world threatens to implode.

Thank you for your indulgence.  I think I'll go find a little snack!

And maybe a cocktail. After all, it's 5:00 in the Florida Keys.