We Were In A New Orleans Parade!

Day 2:

I spent all of yesterday alone - doing whatever I wanted to do - while Corey was at his conference. It was lovely - reading, surfing the net, napping, catching up with a friend on the phone, going to the movie theatre, eating a cookie at the mall, taking a hot bath, watching a movie in my bed.

Then, we 6:30 we were supposed to join the people of the conference downstairs in the hotel for some sort of parade thing... I was a bit skeptical and was certain that it was sure to be the corniest thing ever. It began as a bunch of "computer nerds" and their guests stood in a hall of the hotel waiting for the big event to start... and none of us were even sure what the event was going to be. A minute later, we heard a New Orleans jazz band coming toward us followed by clowns and princesses all dressed in purple, gold, and green handing out gobs of beads. Okay, this was interesting but would have been better with kids to point and say, "Look at the clown! Isn't that princess's dress pretty?" to. (A parade without kids seems like it is missing something to me.) I thought that this might be what the parade experience was to entail for us - simply a "pretend" parade in the hall of the hotel... but no! After the band played for a bit, they took off out the door (still playing) and we all followed. We paraded through the attached mall (even down the escalators) and ended up outside where we were greeted by more clowns on stilts. The band kept marching and playing, and we all kept following. We walked probably a mile or more through the French Quarter as police blocked roads, tourist took pictures of us, and we threw beads to those watching our parade. It was really cool! We were in a real New Orleans parade! We ended up at a restaurant where we were greeted by ladies giving out more beads. This place had a traditional balcony that overlooked Bourbon Street, and we all made our way up to it. The evening was spent there, eating dinner and doing some serious people-watching on Bourbon Street. (Oh, my!) It was definantly a night to remember...