Mardi Gras, Plantations, and Museums

First stop in Louisiana was the small town of Vinton--just in time for their Mardi Gras parade.  It lasted just 15 minutes but we collected almost 50 strands of beads.

Costumes were in abundance in Vinton.

The Mardi Gras Museum in Lake Charles had hundreds of costumes from past years.  Some of the headdresses weighed over 40 pounds.

We couldn't get an estimate of costs but I'm sure it ran into the thousands.  And only worn one time.
Do some people have TOO MUCH MONEY??

Then on to Baton Rouge where we were parked on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Most mornings we woke to the fog.  Here the riverboat Hollywood Casino.

Huge barges were on the river--often 4 wide, 7 deep, and all pushed by one tugboat.

The Capitol Building in Baton Rouge, built during the terms of Governor Huey Long.

The Senate chambers where a bomb was set off and although no one was hurt it did blast a pencil into the ceiling--it's still there.  Also within the building Huey Long was shot and died 3 days later.

Nearby is the Louisiana State Museum--3 floors of wonderful exhibits and information.  It took us 2 days to traverse it all.

Another day we toured a nature center.  Here cypress knees in the swamps.

The Magnolia Mound Plantation was built in 1791.  Originally 900 acres now open as a museum with 16 acres.

Rare in its time are the cove ceiling with Federal accents.  The oppulance here compares to...

the slave quarters.  And they tell us at Magnolia Mound the slaves were treated VERY WELL.  Pardon me.

While still in Baton Rouge we took in 2 more Mardi Gras parades.  Beads were thrown from over 65 floats.

We were loaded down with beads.  And this doesn't show the bags we had filled.

We moved on to New Orleans.  But wanting to avoid the Bourbon Street crowds like this (from TV)...

we went to the parade in Metairie on Fat Tuesday.  Over 100 floats, all throwing beads, toys, hats, footballs, etc.

The floats here were much larger, elaborate and plentiful.  More beads...and more beads.

My pile of "throws" from the Metairie parade.  It was all boxed up and sent to my grandkids in Colorado. Well, I didn't send ALL the beads--I didn't want to be disowned.

On other days we drove to the French Quarter, ate beignets, shrimp creole, jambalaya, and more Cajun foods. We saw the beautiful homes along St. Charles Street, the wharfs, French Market, the Mardi Gras World (where the floats are made and stored), the Confederate Museum, the WW II Museum, the Garden district.  Some folks braved the rainy windy weather and rode the paddle boat Natchez for a 2 hour river cruise (I opted out).

And so ends my travels with the WINs for now.  I'm headed to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, TX to work as a volunteer for a few months.  The current group of WINs continues along the Gulf Coast, through Mississippe, Alabama, northern Florida, then up the East Coast to New Jersey and perhaps on the the Maritimes in Canada.