Week of February 15th

Unless you’re from here you probably don’t know that St. Louis hosts the 2nd largest Mardi Gras celebration in the country. There are a whole week’s worth of parades (including dog and drag parades), costume balls and tasting events. On the Saturday before Fat Tuesday a neighborhood in south St. Louis, Soulard, comes alive with revelers, Hurricanes, Cajun food and music and beads, beads, beads. The finale is a Fat Tuesday parade which winds through the streets of downtown St. Louis. Although there aren’t as many floats in this parade as the Grand Parade on Saturday, the general feeling is that there are more beads, beads, beads. And let’s face it, that’s the ultimate prize.

Even though Louisiana isn’t just New Orleans and New Orleans isn’t just Mardi Gras, can you think of a more appropriate way to celebrate the state? Before you think that this is another one of those weird “50 plus 2” coincidences, let me tell you that we actually selected Louisiana for this week because of our great local Mardi Gras events.

So on Tuesday night we donned our down jackets, gloves and ear warmers (they probably don’t need those in New Orleans) and went to join the partiers along the parade route. When I was younger my girl friends and I never missed a Saturday Mardi Gras parade but I have never been to the Fat Tuesday celebration. Bottom line, its true what they say. A little over an hour later we had collected so many beads that we couldn’t move our necks. And despite the rumors, we didn’t have to show anything for them. Another successful outing!

Every year I have the hardest time taking down our holiday decorations so I try to stretch it out as long as I can. One of the ways I do this (and I’ve been doing this for years) is to turn 2 of the garlands into Mardi Gras decorations, full of beads, ribbons and masks. So when we got together the next night for Jambalaya, Cajun salmon dip and Hurricanes, we had the right atmosphere.

Color in the “Pelican State” with beads of purple, green and gold and travel north, northeast to the “Bay State” - Massachusetts. 17 down - 35 to go.