Baton Rouge Bucket List - Mardi Gras

I'm not a huge fan of crowds. Especially crowds that are all about free things. That's why I don't go midnight Black Friday shopping. It's also why I'm not a huge fan of parades. However, since we are saying goodbye to Louisiana for a year, we want to do some quintessential Louisiana things before we go. One of those things is Mardi Gras. We didn't really feel up to trying to get a Nola parade with a toddler so I decided about an hour and a half before parade time, that we'd hit up a BR parade and run the risk of Thomas hating it and staying up late which would make him a little hard to handle.

We barely made it, but we got downtown and a pretty good spot shortly before the parade. We weren't overly crowded, nobody around us was smoking, and the people seemed to be pretty well behaved. Once the parade started, the kids around us got a little feisty but it really wasn't bad. Thomas sat on Matt's shoulders for about half of the parade but then we switched out and I held him. Thomas actually got more beads when I was holding him - I guess because the krewes didn't want to risk hitting him and I am not especially tall. He got TWO footballs which he is crazy about - one of which a girl-dad gave to him! Now all he wants to do is put beads around his neck....

We left early but only missed a couple of big floats. It was eight o'clock and Thomas was ready.  And now: pictures!! The headphones went on as soon as the parade started. Surprisingly, he didn't try to take them off. I think Thomas knew that they were a good thing....

On Sunday, we went to the dog parade. It was Star Wars themed so there were quite a lot of dogs dressed up as Yoda. And Darth Vader. It was cute, but overwhelming. So. many. people. And dogs. Thousands of people.  We left early from that one too because Thomas didn't really seem to be enjoying it and I couldn't see the doggie floats because of all the people.

We're hoping to go to some parades in Mobile next year (you know, the birthplace of Mardi Gras...). We'll see how they compare...

He did love it, he was just tired. 

On the way to the dog parade! With football and puppy in hand.