Second line and gardens

Happy Valentines day!  Steph decorated the trailer with hearts and a paper heart chain and the younger two kids made drawings for the family.  Caden created a compliment box…it dispenses a piece of paper with compliment on it for you to give to someone.  It was quite a hit and Dacen and Brielle both started writing new compliments to add to the box!

Steph had found a second line parade to go to so we navigated back into town.  But we decided to try to find parking closer to the parade.  We found street parking right by Louis Armstrong park and when I went to pay the machine it said, free parking on Sundays.  SCORE!!

We walked through Louis Armstrong park to get to the place where the parade began and there was quite a crowd gathering.  Several trucks with BBQ grills smoking and others selling beverages.  These weren’t proper food trucks…just pickup trucks with grills and coolers in them.  We kept seeing signs for Yak-mein so Steph and Caden tried that while Brielle, Dacen and I had sausages.  They were good, cheap and local.  The crowd got big pretty quick and then the brass band started.  There was a slow procession of people coming out of this building all decked out in fancy outfits…big feathery things.  As they came out they loaded onto floats and then the whole mass of people started down the street.  We did not follow but the route was something like 3 miles with stops along the way at several bars and/or restaurants.  This was very fun to see!

Steph and I got some coffees and we went back over to Louis Armstrong park to relax and the kids played hide and seek.  After some time there we headed over to the garden district to check out some of the cool houses.  We found a walking tour online to guide us around.  The homes are really elaborate and the yards are awesome.  I was particularly struck by the ornate iron work.

We got home at a reasonable hour and so the kids watched a movie before bed.

Decorations and gift exchange

Chocolate 'stache

Pancakes!

Armstrong park...get it?

Part of the band

With Satchmo

Street food

Eat it up!

A float before the parade

The crowd

The old building is the Ex-Treme Center

Faces

Fancy

Fountain at park

Louis Armstrong park

Stroll through the park

Hitchin' post

Mamma and the boys

Smile

Beads on a pole

Wood beats metal

Check out the roots!

Pretty flower

Iron work

More iron work

Garden District

 

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