Our fun day with Rex

Late last night, we decided that we would try the Rex parade this year. It is one of the most famous, and Rex rules over all of carnival. You don't say "King Rex" because it is redundant, since Rex means "king".


The Uptown branch has a chapel right on St. Charles Avenue! Through Doug's work connections, we were able to get all the details and we headed there around 9:10 this morning. By 9:40 we were getting off the freeway, and were able to catch the end of the Zulu parade as they left their den.


We weaved our way through crazy parade traffic and made it to the church parking lot at about 10:10. We parked, went in and used the bathroom, and before we knew it, we were hearing the LSU band!! So we quickly ran out and set up our chairs and watched the parade.


It was so awesome to be right there at the church. We had potluck food, and it was great to have a safe place to park and be so close to restrooms and water!!


Below are a few random photos that I thought I would explain as we go. Then there are some posts that follow a theme.


First photo:

A lot of parade goers dress up. We saw all kinds of things! But we thought these 5 friends who dressed alike were cool.

Oh, the mess!! This is just as we were leaving. Following the Rex parade there is a truck parade and we stayed for about 1/2 of that. I took this looking down the route to remember how messy it really gets.

We decided that Mardi Gras really is kind of stupid. You sit there and scream for cheap made-in-China beads and other items and then most of it ends up on the ground anyway! It is really messy. I think the general consensus with our family is that Rex was something we were glad we did, but it's a "once in a lifetime" thing - meaning we most likely won't try to go again.

I had to post this one, even though you can't really see the whole reason I took the picture. This was as we were crossing the street back to our car. Notice the little puppy in the center of the photo? His fur was dyed in purple, green, and gold. Too cute! I don't know if you can see any of the colors, but the girls got a big kick out of it. Unfortunately, it took me a minute to get the camera ready so I pretty much missed a good picture.