My heart's in New Orleans

Published Feb. 19, 2007

Happy Lundi Gras!
It's the day before Mardi Gras and if you were in New Orleans today you would be dragging from your wild weekend on Bourbon Street.
But, you would have to get your act together because your hotel room is probably about $400 a night and that's way too much money for sleeping.
The parade tonight is Orpheus. It starts at 5:45 at the intersection of Tchoupitoulas and Napoleon, up in the Garden District, and ends at the New Orleans Convention Center, just a few blocks from the French Quarter.
(Yes, that is the same Convention Center that housed all those people driven from their homes by Hurricane Katrina but let's not think about that. Today is a day to celebrate. The people of New Orleans would want it that way.)
A perfect Lundi Gras Day begins at Cafe du Monde, where you order beignets - square, hot, powdered sugar-covered donuts - and cafe au lait, coffee with cream.
Then you would wander around the French Quarter people-watching and shopping. You would have to stop periodically to get a hurricane, the official drink of Mardi Gras, a fruity rum concoction.
Mid-afternoon, you would make your way up toward the parade route and find a good spot behind one of the waist-high metal barriers that line the route.
And then you wait, drinking hurricanes and eating po' boys - submarine sandwiches overfilled with breaded shrimp - that you buy from street vendors.
By the time the parade comes, people are packed like sardines on both sides of the street. Everyone waves their hands in the air to beg for the beads the riders on the floats are throwing.
The parade won't actually stop when it gets to the end. It will drive right into the Convention Center, where hundreds of people with tickets to the Orpheus Ball will be gathered.
And that's where the real bead-throwing begins.
I know that because I have been to an Orpheus Ball.
We were there seven years ago when the big doors opened and the gigantic floats came in. It was different than being along a parade route. People weren't packed in and there was no reason to beg for beads. More beads and trinkets than I had ever seen rained down fast and furious from every float.
Big fat fancy beads hit me in the head when I bent down to pick up ones I had dropped. Riders threw entire bags of beads and stuffed animals and doubloons in the colors of Mardi Gras - yellow, purple and green.
And the crowd in tuxedos and ball gowns scrambled for all of it.
After the floats, the ball resumed with live music and dancing and a buffet.
When we were there, we danced while Irma Thomas sang.
Tonight, you would be dancing to the music of the Top Cats.
And when the ball is over, you would make your way back to the hotel to rest up for Mardi Gras.
The Zulu parade is in the morning and you really must have to have a good spot for that one because the black-faced riders on the Zulu floats have the most prized "throws" of Mardi Gras - Zulu coconuts. They are real coconuts painted gold and adorned with beads and feathers. Riders aren't allowed to throw them - it's dangerous to get conked on the head with a coconut - but if you can get close enough to a float, you might be able to get a rider to hand you one.
And somehow, having a Zulu coconut on your lap on the plane ride home makes the trip back to snowy Ohio not quite so bad.