Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

*where a Krewe has pictures of its floats for 2016, I link below*

Our first parade of the year was Oshun, followed by Cleopatra, both rolling by our house on Jan 29, a Friday.  Cleopatra was formerly a West Bank parade, but it moved Uptown, along with most West Bank parades (it’s easier to consolidate parades for police and support services, meaning a ridiculously large number of parades roll by our house now, more than did when we used to live here).  I sadly cannot really remember what the theme for either of these parades was anymore – I’m recounting this too late – but it is always a nice parade because it’s not so crowded.  We stood with friends, and other friends rode in the parade and dumped great throws on us when their float rolled by.  It was a pretty low key one, and the boys got tons of great plush toys (which, shhhhh, their father immediately packed into his own bead bag to throw on his parade a few days later!!! Hahaha!)

The next Sunday we saw three day parades in a row, for about 4 solid hours of parades – Carrollton, King Arthur, and Alla.  We stood by our next door neighbors and the boys met a new friend named Kayla.  The three of them became inseparable.  They caught this giant blow-up dragon and tons of knight gear during King Arthur, and had a ball frolicking around the street with their new buddy.  It was a warm and sunny day, and again not too heavily attended, giving us lots of elbow room.

After a couple of days off, we saw daddy ride in Druids on Wednesday night, followed by the ever-amazing Nyx – now the largest all female krewe in New Orleans.  Nyx was really beautiful, with a theme of “5” for each float given it was its fifth anniversary, and it had great walking krewes and bands.  (Some of the sorrier parades have pretty lackluster ‘filler’ groups between floats, with eye-rolling high schoolers blowing half-heartedly on their band instruments, little girls’ dance academies with very disinterested little marchers, or walking krewes that clearly had choreographed dance moves and clearly didn’t practice them enough.  The better the parade, the better the walking krewes and bands – only the best parades get the 610 Stompers, the Saint Aug’s Marching 100, the Rolling Elvi, Camel Toe Lady Steppers, and other top notch groups.)  They are one of the fancier krewes now, meaning that each float had its own costume (with elaborate headgear), and there were lots of branded throws.  The Nyx ladies throw hand-glittered/beaded purses, which are a prize catch.  I have a couple of friends in Nyx but couldn’t get their attention to get a purse this year . . . ah well.

The next night was stunning Muses – a magical event, with a Sweet Sixteen theme.  Muses is always jam-packed.  It’s the original female super krewe – Nyx was formed by the Muses waiting list, basically, because it’s so popular and hard to get into and the waiting list got tired of waiting.  They always start their parade with a giant light-up shoe, with a famous host standing in it – plus a bunch of Muses in a bathtub float.  The celebrity this year was Solange Knowles, and Jack caught a kaleidoscope that she threw (alas, he did not catch her wedding ring). The Muses theme this year was candy – with some pretty biting floats, most of which went over the kids’ heads, thank heavens (“Reefer’s” for Reese’s, for example). All of the ladies in the krewe wore light up masks, which was a cool effect. Donald Trump was an atomic fireball, Obama was a PREZ dispenser, Hillary and the emails got herself a Whoppers float, and poor Mayor Landrieu and his Confederate statues once more got skewered by a candy hearts float.  A girl I was with that night, a visitor from Germany, caught a shoe.  I’ve still got mine!

Friday night was d-Etat – a biting satire always, and very skillfully done this year.  Hillary was a pin the tail on the donkey, the Republican candidates were a barrel of monkeys, Bernie Sanders was Candyland (handing candy out to everyone), Trivial Pursuit for that tired-old controversy about the Confederate Monuments; Operation sending up the plastic surgery loving Kardahians (plus Caitlyn Jenner fronting the thing as the actual Operation game).  Dating Game stood in for the Ashley Madison data breach, and the Donald appeared on a Trump Card float, with the back of the float including a pic of Hillary and Trump shaking hands and Hillary thanking him for all his work destroying the legitimacy of the Republican field. D’Etat was followed by Morpheus, which I had to miss as Liam and Craig were dragging, but we caught a stuffed moon or two on our way back to the house.

Today we watched Iris midday (followed by Tucks, which we had to skip due to naps).  This one was a couple of miles from our house, so we walked – and it’s hugely attended, so we didn’t have a great view of the floats.  I’m glad we went, but the walks to-and-from with kids in tow kinda wore us out.  Endymion is tonight, and we’re trying to muster up the energy to go.

Sunday – the best day of the season – will be Okeanos, Mid-City, and Thoth rolling by our house – we’re hosting, come on by!  Proteus and Orpheus follow on Monday, and Rex wraps it all up on Fat Tuesday.  Then I’m giving up everything but steamed broccoli, mineral water, and chicken broth for at least a week.  Post MG detox!  Followed immediately by that darned bar exam!

More to come on the last few parades.  I love this time of year!