New Orleans Mardi Gras, March 2019 (Part 1)
The holiday season is always a nightmare for those working in the restaurant industry. Throughout Christmas and New Year’s I was working a little over 60 hours a week due to staffing issues.
After an such an intense schedule, I was due an extra day off and I decided to save it in order for Audrey and I to take a quick trip somewhere.
Given the time constraints we knew it had to be somewhere close. Eventually it just clicked. We had both always wanted to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans and this short time off from work gave us the perfect opportunity.
The law of supply and demand is in full effect for Mardi Gras. Since everyone and their mother is going, tickets and accommodations in New Orleans at the time are steep.
I have never gone into so much detail about our actual travel days but this one was an adventure of its own.
The day of our flight, Winter Storm Scott hit New England, dropping 14” of snow in some parts of Boston overnight.
It was still snowing when we woke up around 5 AM and our Uber almost got stuck twice in the snow getting us to the airport as almost none of the roads had been cleared yet.
When we reached Logan International Airport, several flights had already been cancelled due to the snow. Fortunately for us, our Southwest Airlines flight to Dallas had not yet been cancelled since the snow was letting up.
Despite the snow outside, we were on track to board our flight on time. Shortly before getting on the plane, the gate attendant made an announcement: due to the weather, the airport was closing the taxiway for an hour. This delay all but guaranteed we would miss our connection.
In spite of the inclement weather, we were one of the first flights out of Logan Airport that morning and were only an hour and a half delayed. We couldn’t ask for anything more than that from the vacation gods.
We landed in Dallas Love Field and had missed our connection by about 15 minutes. Fortunately while we were in the air, Southwest had already foreseen us missing the connection and had already rebooked us onto the next flight to New Orleans a few hours later.
With a few hours to kill in Dallas, Audrey and I looked for something to eat. As luck would have it for me, there was a Whataburger inside the airport.
For those of you who have never heard of it, Whataburger is a regional fast food chain that originated in Texas and is rarely found outside of the state. Since vacation calories don’t count, I got myself a double cheese Whataburger and reveled in the flavor nostalgia from when we still lived in Texas.
We finally boarded our flight to New Orleans around 2PM local time. The flight itself was barely over half way full meaning Audrey and I each got a row to ourselves.
A little bit more than an hour later and we touched down in the Big Easy. With no checked luggage we quickly got out of the airport and hailed an Uber to take us to our AirBNB in the historic Uptown part of the city.
Our AirBNB was unbelievable. Easily the nicest we’ve ever stayed in. Our host Andrea was in constant communication with us as we kept her updated about our delayed flights. When we finally arrived around 5:00, she was there to greet us and give us a warm welcome and a tour around the home.
She included nice little extras such as snacks, coffee, a home made guide for stuff to do around the city, and a schedule of all the parades during Mardi Gras.
Since we were going back to the south, we thought it would be fun to go to Mardi Gras with people we knew, so we invited some friends from college to meet us down there. Our friends Lauren and Jacob arrived shortly after we did after driving to New Orleans from their home in Orlando.
Our AirBNB was located three blocks from some of the parade routes and as luck would have it, the Orpheus parade was beginning at 6 PM.
We headed down Magazine St until we reached the parade going down Napoleon Ave. All the streets were lined with beads. We each grabbed a few so that we didn’t start the festivities with bare necks.
Led by the Trojan Horse float, the Orpheus parade is known for having arguably the most beautiful floats in Mardi Gras. Notable floats include the Dolly Trolley, a horse-drawn bus that was used in the opening of Hello Dolly with Barbra Streisand. There’s also the Smoking Mary, a six-unit float that looks like a steam locomotive.
