Mardi Gras

10 February 2010
That cold wind won’t stop! The high today was 45 but it felt much colder. We took a bus tour of the city. Our guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. Evidence of Katrina was everywhere with road construction, detours, and destroyed homes. Some homes have been beautifully restored, some removed leaving vacant lots, and a lot of homes barely standing and not livable. This was true in the 9th Ward and in the middle and upper class neighborhoods. A lot of shops, restaurants, churches, etc. were also damaged or destroyed. Our guide had lived in a FEMA tent for awhile. It took 3 years for her insurance company to come through. She described in detail what happened during and after Katrina. She blamed the Corps of Engineers for a lot of the problems. Levees were built using the wrong kind of soil, trying to get the jobs done fast and cheaply. We stopped at an old cemetery where the technique of above ground burial was described. I wish I had a tape of her talk.
After the tour we had a fantastic buffet brunch at The Court of the Two Sisters in the French Quarter. After eating we browsed some shops and a flea market before returning to our bus at 2:00.
At 6:30 we boarded buses again for the Krewe of Ancient Druids Parade. We had bleacher seats at the end of the parade route so we had to sit for almost 2 hours before we saw anything. The floats were interesting. We caught some beads thrown from the floats. It was hard to take pictures because of the poor lighting, and the people in front of us were jumping up to catch beads. There were about 15 floats each designed to depict an expression with “Hole” in it, like Black Hole, 19th Hole, Hole in One, Blow Hole, etc. Several school bands and drill teams marched. Even though we were dressed in several layers, we were frozen by the end, but it was fun.