In New Orleans for Mardi Gras!

It surprises me that I'm the type of person who likes to travel with a lot of people, but here I was on my ninth or tenth trip with a bunch of people. We went to New Orleans for the first weekend of Mardi Gras. Five of us in one house, two in another, and two more in a hotel.

I've really trained these people to just deal with me sketching during a lunch stop or at a bar.

The house we stayed in was so nice. It gave each of us enough privacy, but I could also hear when it was time to get up by the sound of someone else making coffee.

I rediscovered my love of the Lamy Safari right before this trip. I filled it with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts, a lovely waterproof blue-black.

No trip to New Oreans with this group is complete without a visit to Felix's. It's right across the street from Acme Oyster House, and dare I say better, even though I've never been to Acme because the line is always too long? Short if no lines at Felix's.

We went to the Chewbacchus Parade - love this one! We went a couple of years ago, and it's a big hit with this crowd. Several of us got our faces all glittered up, donned tiaras, and grabbed lots of goodies from the paraders. I just sketched, while my buddy Jimmy held an umbrella over me when it started raining.

On Sunday we just watched parades all day (and napped). We stayed off of Napolean and were close enough to walk to St. Charles, an ideal location for parade watching. As I painted this I took breaks to catch beads. I even caught a cup!

Such a great time! (Click images for more detail.)