New Orleans Day 2

On Monday we headed down to the river walk for the free “mardi gras week” music and festivities and then drove thru the garden district. Man there are some serious mardi gras parade goers in New Orleans. People had staked out viewing areas with tarps and special ladders to help catch “throws,” the beads and crazy stuff they throw at the crowds from the parade floats. We then returned to the French Quarter and I hit a jazz club and headed out to take more photos

 A Real Zulu Group from South Africa

Mardi Gras is one giant costume party where anything goes

Bourbon Street mid day 

Your basic balcony bead throwers 

Everyone seems to want to pose with the craziest people. . . . I love taking pictures of people having their picture taken 

Is this guy sharp or what? I love the bottle in the bag!

Nice Mardi Gras Bow tie 

These guys were partying on the Gay end of Bourbon street and they were having too much fun. I asked them if I could take there picture and where they were from. They told me Chicago and I jokingly said they looked more like they were from my home town, San Francisco, and they totally cracked up 

This is 22 year old trumpeter Steve Lane with his group. He is from Baton Rouge and is largely self taught which is pretty much unheard of on the trumpet. Oh by the way, he was burning!! He had some Miles, some Clifford and some Freddie goin on. He told me to go grab my horn and come back and sit in . . . not today, he would have smoked me. 

Oh and this is me creating art !! LOL 

Monday night we were invited to the Lundi Gras dance that is sponsored by “Your Friends,” the African American social club that Ray belongs to. When the officer’s procession happened we quickly learned that Ray was not only a member but CEO of the club. Hello!

Thats Dr Raynard Sanders leading the processional (iphone photo y'all) 

 Shake Shake Shake . . . .Shake your Bootie 

This is funny. Ray told us to dress up for the dance and so we put on the one nice outfit we each brought on the trip. We put on our mardi gras beads as well and headed into the hall where the dance was happening. Upon entering we observed a few hundred very well dressed African American professionals, most in their 40s 50s and 60s none of whom were wearing any mardi gras “stuff” at all so we slipped out quietly to unload our excess jewelry.  We had a great time after that meeting some wonderful folks and I sat in with the band on a couple of tunes which was lots of fun.