Happy Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras began bright and early (pfft, bright, whatever. It's been raining all day) at the Rex Run. This semi-secret run starts in Audubon park with champagne toasts to Rex and his queen, followed by a lap in the park (about 2 miles), then king cake. The rule is, you can't pass the queen! But the king and queen never finish the whole loop - they do about 100 yards and veer off. I love the tradition, and I love that the only advertisement for the "race" is signs posted in Audubon park the weekend before, in which "His Majesty King Rex demands your presence at the Rex Run".

After the run, David and I went home, but this year I'm actually not working. So we decided to extend our run. We headed back out into the 34 degree weather (still raining, too!) and ran to Jackson Avenue, where we caught some of the Zulu parade. David will be 40 next year and is a life-long New Orleanian, and this is the first time he's seen Zulu. And I dragged him to it!

We ran into a friend at the parade whom we hadn't seen in a long time, and while talking to him realized that his father-in-law was Rex this year! Cool! I had some friends riding in Zulu, but we didn't stay long enough for their floats because we started freezing. So we jogged back, having done a cool 12 miles for the day (for David that is extreme, and he's now icing his legs). I made biscuits and fried bananas and now we're having coffee and reading the paper.

Happy Mardi Gras, everyone! Sorry if it's just another Tuesday for you! ;-)