Don't tee-tee on someone's ladder.....

That was the lesson of the day. HA! Sunday, we went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We went with our friends Kitzia & Dave & their kids, Devyn & Thomas. We were meeting our other friends, The Smiths, in New Orleans. Suzy's parents live off of St. Charles Ave. (The Ave. if you're a local). For those that aren't local St. Charles Ave. is the place to be to watch parades. It's also a street full of GORGEOUS old homes! If you're ever in New Orleans make sure you drive down The Ave. & check out these houses. After hanging out at Suzy's parents for a bit we started our walk. Suzy's sister & bro in law own a restaurant called Vizards, on Magazine St. & that's where we were watching the first 3 parades. The restaurant was closed so it was just our crew hanging out. We had a BATHROOM!!! For those of you that have been to Mardi Gras you know just how huge this is.  Sooooo awesome!

What's even more awesome is there are like a bazillion people down there & we still ended up running into people we knew. This is Dean & I with our friends Katie & Sean.

They live in Houston. We went to their wedding last summer & now they're expecting their first bambino.

We picked up poboys & bloody mary's along the way.

Suzy claims these are the best Bloody Mary's EVER. I'm thinking she may be right because I don't like Bloody Mary's but this thing was delish!!

We saw a lot of unusual things.....

Yeh, it's a chicken. Not so unusual, EXCEPT that it was in someones front yard. What's even more unusual is when we told Suzy she said "Oh, I know them. They have pot bellied pigs too". OK. Then she pointed out a house & said "that's the house?", um no. So there are two houses in the middle of the city that have chickens in their front yards!

Judging by the number of tutu's we saw, we clearly didn't get the memo that we were supposed to wear them.

Our friends, Dave & Kitzia with Dean. He caught a snack!

Me, Suzy, Kitzia & her daughter Devyn.

This was the float that Suzy's hubs Matt, was own. That's him on the top.

Stafford wanted to make sure her daddy saw her from the float.

Devyn, me & Miles.

Me & Stafford taking a break inside Vizards. Please excuse my hair. I promise I fixed it but there was a ton of wind & then with the sunglasses on my head, well, it just wasn't pretty.

This is me & Thomas (aka Stoic Boy). Thomas is Kitzia & Dave's son. They went to Disney with us & you know how on every ride they take your picture? Well, we all were screaming & looked ridiculous in every picture & Thomas was just sitting there like he was riding down the street in a car. It was the funniest thing ever! So, him smiling in this picture is HUGE!!!

No, I do not have silly string or flowers in my hair. It's just the picture.

Part of our crew. Yes, a few of them are dancing on the bar.

While all that was going on, this was going on in the other part of the dining room.

Native New Orleanians are always prepared!!!

Once the first 3 parades were over it was time to start the trek to our next stop. I do mean trek too! Here are some of the sites along the way.

Lots & lots of trash. Once the parades are finished the street sweepers come by & clean everything up. The amount of trash collected is also how the city determines how many people were in town for Mardi Gras.  I don't know if you can tell in this picture but those are ladders lined up. They have seats on top where the smaller kids can sit so they can see & not get trampled. The really ingenious people have wheels on them so they can just roll them along rather than carry them. It's so funny to see them lined up all along the parade routes. This was a tree covered in beads. I wish I could've gotten a better picture because it was really cool looking but we were amongst a crowd of people & I couldn't stop.

Most everyone has a wagon to carry all the crap that you catch. This was Kitzia with our crap!

Our next stop was Fat Harry's for cheeseburgers. Suzy had talked about how great they were all day. I was ready for one. I was having a cheat day on my diet & was ready for some great food. While we were in line Suzy amended her statement with "At 3:00 in the morning when you've been out drinking they're the best cheeseburgers!". Um, yeh, well that totally changes things. I sure wish she would've said that 4 hours earlier. We got our cheeseburgers & they were ok. Nothing special at all. To think we're in New Orleans & that's what we ate is a bummer. Thankfully, we had good po boys earlier in the day! After the great cheeseburger debacle we were off to our final destination.

Tita's (pronounced T Ta) house on St. Charles Ave. This is where we'd watch Bacchus. Tita is a friend of Suzy's family. Funny thing, we never met Tita! We hung out in her house, used her bathroom & watched the parade from her front yard. She was at another party & didn't make it back before we left. When we asked Suzy about this her response was "Oh that's how we roll". OK.

All the floats in the night parades are lit up. Most of them were huge!

Once Bacchus started we watched from the front yard while the kids fought for beads.

And that's when it happened. A random guy that was hanging out with a group of people in front of Tita's house decided that he had to tee-tee & he did. He used our groups ladders as a urinal. Gross, I know. Luckily, a couple of the parents saw. One yelled at him while another one got a policeman. The police were nice to him & told him to be on his way & not to come back so he left. Well, apparently he didn't take the police seriously because he came back. I'm pretty sure he was rethinking that decision when the policeman cuffed him & took him away. That's when Suzy said "The lesson for the day is don't tee-tee on someone's ladder!"

Toodles!!!