NOLA/Mardi Gras write-up: the FUN part

I am writing up my weekend trip to New Orleans in chunks, because it was too much experience for just one blog entry! Read about the road trip, a cemetery, and the rugby tournament too.

Crawfish and Mardi Gras


A few Stingers with our second place trophy

Post-tournament, fifteen members of the Stingers headed out to a crawfish boil. Q later reported in the Stinger's Weekly Buzz that the fifteen of us consumed:
25 lbs of crawfish
8 lbs of potatoes
15 ears of corn
1 dozen crabs
1 lb of shrimp
3 baskets of crackers
2 baskets of fries

and of course...

9 pitchers of beer

After that, it was time for showers and MARDI GRAS. We failed a little bit on Saturday night (although we did receive a truly beautiful second place trophy boot – painted silver and decorated with beads – at the tournament social!), but we made up for it on Sunday.

We spent the afternoon and evening exploring Mardi Gras New Orleans, doing line outs in the crowd to get MORE BEADS (even though our necks and shoulders were already sore from the weight of the ones we had!) and singing “Saturday’s a Rugby Day” as we strolled down Canal Street. We also enjoyed our share of NOLA cuisine, including beignets drowning in powdered sugar, hand grenades complete with little green plastic grenades, and hurricanes in souvenir glasses eighteen inches high. (Yes, I am counting beverages as cuisine.) Finally, we ended up dancing the rest of our night away at a bar called the Rugby Fruit Jungle.

All in all, a weekend that lived up to expectations.


More photos on Facebook: one and two and three