Feathers, Beads, Food and Fun

In a couple of weeks, Downtown Dad and I will be taking a trip to Lake Charles, Louisiana to decorate and ride on floats wearing feathers and throwing beads.  We will also be eating our weight in crawfish and gumbo, and chasing a chicken through the back roads on horseback. 

Why would a couple of yankee Midwesterners be doing that you ask? Well, to the Cajuns of Southwest Louisiana, it's obvious - Mardi Gras!

I know what you're thinking.  You're picturing the New Orleans version of Carnivale.  The one where millions of drunk and disorderly people jam Bourbon Street, and the overhanging balconies in various states of undress.  Well, not that there won't be a fair amount of drinking, and a maybe a little disorder, but the best part about celebrating Mardi Gras in Lake Charles is that it is the Cajun version, and therefore it has a family friendly atmosphere.  Our kids are as much a part of the celebration as we are.

1999

Our relationship with the Krewe de Charlie Sioux started many years ago, when we lived in Sioux City, Iowa.  A sister city relationship was established which married parts of each city's name and each region's culture.  Representative Sioux Cityans travel to Lake Charles each year to take part in and experience the lavish costumes and pageantry during Mardi Gras, then in July, a whole cadre of Cajuns show up in Sioux City to put on a glittery feathery gala, followed by a bead pelting parade, ending with regional free Saturday in the Park concert. It's magical.

The Krewe de Charlie Sioux is one of over 50  Krewes licensed and registered with the City of Lake Charles. A Krewe elects royalty - a king and queen and at least 2 dukes and 2 duchesses, who preside over the meetings, and during the week leading up to Fat Tuesday, take part in several galas, and parades wearing the lavish costume and headpiece (some weighing 50 pounds or more!) designed especially for them according to that year's theme.  Downtown Dad and I, while we haven't been King and Queen, have each had a chance to be Duke and Duchess.  

We've even added some uniquely upper Midwest touches of our own by bringing Viking horn helmets into the mix.  They were quickly adopted and dubbed bead catchers, allowing the wearer to use both hands for - what else - drinking!

New for DD and me this year will be a Cajun Chicken Run. The costume for this event is more humble and native than for the galas and parades, but still requires singing, dancing and of course drinking! This is a traditional rural Mardi Gras celebration, based on begging rituals - like trick or treating, except you don't beg for candy, you beg for gumbo ingredients, namely a live chicken, which apparently must be chased and caught. Don't worry, even though it's fate used to be the gumbo pot once caught, nowadays the chicken's role is mostly symbolic. 

Over the years, we've established some deep friendships with the ever-changing cast of characters that make up our Krewe. We've also added some colorful terms to our vocabulary

• Pinch tail and suck head - to eat a crawfish Cajun style
• Mudbugs - another name for crawfish
• Throw me something mister - what you yell when you watch a parade
• Feather up - to prepare and be strapped into your Gala costume
• Coonass - the affectionate name for a Cajun to call another Cajun
• Boudin (boo dan) - hot spicy pork mixed with rice, stuffed in a sausage casing
• Chachere (sash er ay) - The Tony Chachere Cajun seasoning that's on everything  
• Laissez les bon temps rouler - (lay zay bon tom roolay) Let the good times roll!

Feathers, beads, fabulous food and fun can only mean one thing - Mardi Gras in Lake Charles!
Laissez les bon temps rouler!!!

NYC Day 2 and 3

After the mad-rush of our trip into NYC, we did get a couple of hours to relax and try to take in the magnitude of the city and the opulence of our Trump Soho hotel room.

From the personalized welcome on all four phones - two of them in the bathrooms,

To the his and hers robes,

To the amazing view of Upper Manhattan from our corner window... Everything, "creates the sense that every guest is a VIP"... or so says the Trump promise, framed prominently on the leather appointed desk.

The other thing prominently displayed is the Minibar menu...

Seriously?! $95 for a SMALL bottle of vodka?  Sheesh!

But New York is not made for rest and relaxation, or frugality! 

The next morning we took the first of our scary cab ride, and $20 dollars later, we were delivered to Rockefeller Plaza.  

The cab ride, in comparison, turned out to be pretty tame, when we found ourselves in an elevator, being rocketed up 76 floors in 38 seconds!  

If you don't know, (I didn't know this) the 30 Rock building is what was being built in that picture of the construction workers eating lunch on the girder. For only $29.99, the friendly guides are happy to let you recreate that...

We then ventured outside, and were treated to a view that in my opinion is better than that from the top of the Empire State building.  You can see practically all of NYC from there.

And if you're curious as to what you're looking at - there's an ap for that.

From there, we moved on toward The Museum of Natural History. We decided to get there via Central Park, which was beautiful, but I really had to use the restroom, and wondered how I was going to find one.  

Well, if you're curious - there's an ap for that too.

And, finally, after walking several miles of trails in Central Park, in 95 degree heat, we arrived at The Museum of Natural History.  I'm not sure, but I will venture to guess that Kelsie expected to find this

What we actually found was this

But it was cool inside.  We wandered around, only getting separated and lost twice, until it was time to head back to the hotel to refresh and get ready to go to the Gershwin Theatre to see WICKED!

While we were getting ready, Downtown Dad, ever ready with his camera phone, caught this of fellow Trump Soho guest, Carlos Santana, as he was leaving for a gig somewhere in the city...

We decided to take the subway uptown to Wicked, it was cheaper, and faster!  As for seeing Wicked on Broadway - It was Amazing!  From our first glimpse of the stage, which was an awesome confection of steampunk, all through the show, not only was the company from the two leads down to the smallest flying monkey, spot on and perfect in their acting, dancing and songs, but the stagecraft and set itself became a stellar character as well.

The next morning, we took the Staten Island Ferry round trip for a pretty close look at the Statue of Liberty, with no lines and for free!

We actually got much closer than this picture would imply.  It was also very cool to stand on the deck and listen to many languages besides English excitedly talk about this national icon.

I was anxious to get home, back to normal. While I truly enjoyed the lavishness of our surroundings, you just never knew what was going to happen next...

As we left the hotel for a quick lunch, before heading out to the airport, we ran into Carlos again.

NYC Day 1

Monday morning, when we normally would be in our final hours of REM sleep before starting our work week, Downtown Dad, and I, along with Tessie Wee, woke at 3:15am.  To our amazement, according to plan, all three of us found ourselves loaded in the car and travelling eastbound on I-94 by 4... OK 4:08am. This would give us plenty of time to get from Moorhead to the Minneapolis airport, given the 3.5 to four hour travel time..

....unless, of course, we forgot to figure in rush hour traffic, and oh, construction delays... five of them.  Which we did.

The air was electric with stress and tension during the final 15 miles of our trip, as the pace of traffic slowed to a crawl, and the pace of the clock seemed to speed up, ticking perilously close to our departure time. We eventually got parked, got into the right terminal and into the line to check in, with actually 3 or 4 minutes to spare to be within the 40 minutes before takeoff time frame that would ensure our bags made it onto the same plane as us.  The ticket agent slapped bright orange LATE stickers on them, and advised us to hurry!

Whew.  Right?  Sure.


...unless, of course, someone left her ID at home. Which Tessie Wee did.

The good news is that in the Minneapolis airport, if your mom grabs a security guard by the collar, and, wild eyed, pleads ignorance to the Homeland Security laws that have been in place for 11 years, that security guard can call upstairs to Sven, who will be waiting with a supervisor to make sure your boarding pass matches your US bank card, and with nothing more than a stern look, send you on your way through security.  Yay for "Minnesota Nice."

However, as we sprinted to the gate, stocking footed, clutching our shoes and assorted carryon items, it occured to Downtown Dad and me, even as they politely called out our names for last call to board, that while this was all well and good in good old midwestern Minneapolis, there was no way that those shenannigans would fly, so to speak at New York's LaGuardia airport when we flew home in a couple of days.

Still panting from our run, I watched anxiously out the window to see if our luggage would make it onboard, while DD texted Bearly, who luckily was home, and awake, asking him to overnight Tessie's ID to the Trump Tower hotel on Spring Street, before one o'clock!  Just as the cabin doors were closing, and we were being advised to turn off our electronic devices, we saw our orange tagged bags slide up the conveyor belt safely into the belly of our plane, and the cheerful text tone on DD's phone signaled Bearly's reply "on my way."

Whew. Right? Sure.

...unless, of course, someone overnighted the ID to the wrong Trump Tower hotel.  Which Bearly did.

Luckily, "His Hairness" The Donald, runs a pretty respectable outfit, and in the time it took for us to travel from the airport to our hotel, through a series of phone calls, the concierges had arranged for our package to be couriered to the correct hotel and delivered to our room when it arrived the next day.  This happy news was delivered to us, along with warm lavender scented towels, as we checked in. Also, as if our package dilemma was somehow the hotel's fault, along with the fact that our check in was delayed 5 minutes, and the fact that we had our daughter along with us, the smiling desk clerk asked if we would accept an upgrade from our single room to a corner suite at no charge.  Yes please.

From that point on, things smoothed out considerably.  Tomorrow - Top Of the Rock, Central Park, The Museum of Natural History, cab rides, and hopefully any additional drama will be limited to the stage when we finally get to see WICKED!