Mardi Gras: Beads, Boobs and Booze

Although we have been and seen what Galveston Island has to offer, we were drawn quickly back in by drinking in the streets Mardi Gras style. Houston lifers boast it to be the party of the season with 19 balconies, 5 masked balls, live music, tons of beads, and over 300,000 people!!! After a couple weeks of hard work we met up with our traveling nurse friends, Krisitn and Mariah. We all decided that this Mardi Gras would be practice for the real deal in New Orleans in a week. This event is a fenced in area of streets with very strict rules, so before we went in we had to play a quick game of pass the bottle and downed everything we had brought. Sounds like a great start to the day! 

We were quickly drawn in by the beads falling from all 19 balconies and so we played around trying to snatch up as many as we could. At this point we were in a battle for the beads with a bunch of crumb snatchers aka children. Needless to say we didn't hold back and got A LOT. We also taste tested the award winning gumbo brought all the way from Louisiana. It was good, but it nearly cost Mariah a trip to the ER in the middle of the night YIKES! They should have posted a sign that said "INTESTINES BEWARE: Eat at your own risk". While we were complimenting the gumbo Jenn and Sara were immediately stuck in a speechless trance. We were gazing around and out of the corner of our lower eye we saw an unusual bouncer. NUGGET BOUNCER!!!! He was doing his job well as he mean mugged every person who walked by. It took every ounce of will power not to go up and hug him and spin him around. We had to vacate the area before we this lil guy got the best of us...literally could have beat us down. Now both sets of girls have already experienced Galveston on their own so we each took the time to show each  other the "golden" spots we had found. At each stop the workers remembered us and their days were immediately brighter. Kristin and Mariahs friend happened to own a very fun bar. 

He offered us free drinks and pizza and never specified a limit. So we sat ourselves at the bar and had free drinks for the majority of the evening. Before we headed out of there we all took a basket of crackers and dumped them in our purses...what if it isn't free don't leave it laying around! You never know who might want a snack for later. (Plus they were really good with our chili the next week). Basically the rest of the night turns into more beads and more booze.  Overall, a very successful pregame practice round for the real deal.

Then it was back to work for 3 whole days, but don't worry that was followed by 7 whole days off. Unfortunately, Sara ended her 3 day work week on her death bed and didn't leave it for 3 whole days. Jenn didn't want to go to far in case Sara died so she stayed in and made soup! Good roomie! In the mist of this delusional couple days a friend we met at Chuy's invited us to his play. Side note: Chuy's is not owned by the nugget Chuy and he is not in any of the pictures, but your waiter will serve you on his knees if you ask :). There was a little miscommunication and we ended up not leaving our house in a enough time to make it to the play. So when we got there the nice old lady told us we were not allowed in, but we could come back at intermission. We tried to class it up a bit and came soooo close, but lets face it that just is not us. It was back to the apartment for more nursing back to health for Sara in hopes that she would feel better for the upcoming trip to New Orleans. 

With Sara about 60% better, glitter and feather masks made, and our bags packed the four gypsies headed out of the damn state of Texas. 

Kristin struck gold with an expedia gamble and got to stay at a hotel way to nice for us right in the french quarter. With our feather glitter masks and gear on the four of us walked down the center of the street like we owned it (it felt like slow motion, movie style stuff), with beads were just raining down around us. We passed numerous characters on the streets from Santa to naked painted grandmas. We also saw the oldest Jazz player on a float through the streets and then meandered to one of the bigger parades. On the walk back from the big parade we were stopped by some bible thumpers who were trying to save our lives. Little did they know that we are already doomed and there is nothing they could do about it. 

 In between trips to the balcony we taste tested all the finest drinks new orleans had to offer. Hand Grenades, hurricanes, and slushes were some of our favorites and they helped carry us for the rest of the evening, Mardi Gras is an experience you will never forget and may never experience something quite so outrageous ever again. The next morning we ate the most amazing omelet ever and even got compliments by the waiter he said, "You must have been hungry you ate that WHOLE thing". Don't judge we like food. The ride home was a rough one. We tried to all flap our arms and fly home but unfortunately Mariahs car does not turn into a plane like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang does. Until next time....