Day 3 of Mardi Gras

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We were supposed to get up at 7:15 to see both of the last two Mardi gras parades, but some of the people in our house had a difficult time getting out of bed, so we opted to sleep in a little bit and just go to the second parade.  I was not prepared for what I was about to see.  Fat Tuesday is a day for the crazies.  We got to the parade site about an hour before the Rex parade began.  Everyone and their mother (literally) were dressed like it was the most extreme costume party they’ve ever been to.  My favorites included babies in a wagon decorated to be a pirate ship and a man dressed in an all black box that was a blackberry and was passing out blackberries.  The floats in the Rex parade were my favorite; they had Robin Hood, Wordsworth’s daffodils, and Beatrix Potter.  We didn’t catch nearly as many beads as we had during the night parades, but we attributed that to the fact that we were further uptown.  As the parades get downtown, they want to get rid of their beads and aren’t nearly as stingy.  After the parade we all went back to Dylan’s house to pack.  We decided during the parade that we wanted to go to the Gulf Shore house with the group.  After packing the cars and driving for several hours, we arrived at our final destination along the Alabama/Florida border.  Our car had Brendan, Jake (one of Dylan’s fraternity brothers), me and most of the supplies.  We arrived about an hour before everyone because we were supposed to stop at Sam’s Club with everyone to pick up food, but we didn’t know which state to stop in (Mississippi or Alabama), and we picked the wrong one.  That meant we got to enjoy the ocean for a little while longer.  It was beautiful.  The first thing we did was slip off our shoes and run to the water.  I didn’t even realize how much I’ve missed the ocean.  After awhile, we got some cards from the car and sat on our back porch playing a game of oh hell until everyone else arrived.  Once they did, we unloaded the cars, and Brendan and I went out to grab dinner.  The first place we stopped at was too expensive for our taste, so we drove on until we saw something we thought would fit into our budget. The name of the restaurant was Big O’s Seafood Grill.  It was locally owned, inexpensive, and the people who worked there were super friendly.  It was exactly the kind of place Brendan and I love.  I ordered grilled shrimp, and Bren got Cajun crab cakes.  Both meals were delicious.  The only complaint I had was that although the pennants hung up along the perimeter of the restaurant included four Indiana schools; Butler was not one of them.  And not only that, Duke was. To undo the wrong we felt was done to us, Brendan donated his Butler hat to be hung up.  The owner hung it right above our booth and promised to get a Butler pennant soon.  And to compensate, he gave us free key lime pie for dessert.  After dinner, Brendan and I went back to the house to hang out with everyone.  They had a girl’s NFL blitz game going when I walked in, so I joined in that.  It was both comical and ridiculous.  After playing games and hanging out for several hours, Andy, Jordan, Brendan and I took a midnight walk along the ocean.  It was so much fun.  I think we talked about everything.