Our first Easter in New Orleans began pretty much like any other day here in this hotel:  We slept later than we would have preferred, since the room is so dark we can never tell when it’s morning.  See, the dawg likes to bark, loudly, whenever anyone passes by the hotel window.  The only way we can keep him from raising his ruckuses is to keep the curtains closed…that, and it’s a little creepy to sleep at night feeling like you’re slumbering in a diorama.  Much like parrots with a blanket over their cage, however, this lack of  light gives us no way to know that, “Hey! It’s daytime, wakeup!”  And it makes it way too easy to ignore the alarm.  That sort of thing.

Anyway, we still woke up well before noon, and did our groggy milling around, and I got some artwork done on The Tshirt Project.  And THEN we decided that since it was Easter, or Ostara, or what have you – a time of rebirth and new beginnings – that we should clean up and venture forth and see what was what and celebrate our new beginnings here in this city.

So, venture forth we did.  Until we accidentally found ourselves on Canal St. BEHIND the first Easter parade of the day.  Ooops.  I thought they were rolling earlier.  I could see them from the car, about 8 vehicles back, so at least being stuck was entertaining.  Eventually, we were able to roll forward enough to shortcut through the Quarter to a parking lot.  We were gifted some free parking by a couple who was heading out as we were coming in, as their ticket didn’t expire until around 9:30 that night.  Perfect!

I was happy to discover that, although we pretty much missed the first Easter parade (being stuck behind them doesn’t count), we WERE there in time for the Gay Easter Parade that was set to start an hour and a half or so from the time of our arrival.  Yippee!  So we grabbed a beverage at Pirate’s and did some daytime ambling, wandered up into the French Market, said hi to some folks at Erzulie’s, chatted in passing with B who was about to grab lunch pre maybe-tour, that sort of thing.  We veered over to Bourbon in part to snag another beverage and also so I could capture what I’ve been thinking of as The Easter House since we got here, since it’s all dressed up for spring.

We were in Lafitte’s when the parade rolled by – they started early!  After I was done gettin’ a kick out of the girl who was wearing a dress made of Peeps (no photo, it was dark and she was gone quick), I realized I was hearing Parade sounds.  GAH!  We ran outside in time to catch the last couple of carriages…I got a flower for my hat, which was gleeful since I’d JUST been wishing that I had a flower for my hat.  Then we hauled tookas up a block to Royal St. so that we could catch the entire thing from the start when they came up that way.

Required photo, looking up Royal St., while waiting for parade action.

And then LO!  They came!  We had a great time at this one – the Gay Easter Parade definitely rules, they were way too much fun.

J was definitely scoring on the throws.  His method – jumping up and down and waving his arms and hollering, “Love me!  LOVE ME!!” – seemed to work out well for him!

I didn’t do too badly either, though!  And I got more flowers.  YAY FLOWERS!

Even the fire hydrant scored.

After all was said and done, we wound our way through the Royal St. partay that followed in the parade’s wake back to Pirate’s, where we ran into B again, and our irish pirate buddy, and met some new folks, and had beverages and eventually un-hung the bunny that was starting to look mighty uncomfortable in his predicament.

Then it was time to slowly make our way back to our car and head back to our room so that I could tidy up my monkeysuit for Monday’s job interview.  But first, FOOD!  I’d been craving crab cakes for a while.  But not just any crab cakes.  They had to be OCEANA’S crab cakes.  So, we swung in for Good Mojo Crab Cakes smothered in their yummy crawfish sauce, and all was right with the world.

And that was it!  Of course, we had to take the Loot Shot:

Toby the dawg inherited the green elephant.  He was so happy, and jumped around and played with it all the rest of the evening!  He hasn’t really put it down since.  His green easter elephant from the Gay Easter Parade is officially his New Favorite Toy.  That’s my boy!

Now we’re poring over the French Quarter Festival lineups so we can figure out where we’re going and who we’re seeing and when.  Gasp, Pant, Life is Good!