NO 2003

We had never been to Mardi Gras but were always intrigued about New Orleans so on a free weekend in December we decided to see what The Big Easy was all about. Flying down on a red eye Thursday night gave us a chance to take a nice nap and rest up for the evening ahead. Our hotel was the very nice Renaissance Hotel, which is just a short walk from the historic French Quarter. Not that we were in New Orleans to do much sight seeing, we wanted to find out what really does happen every weekend. Now we know, it's like a small Mardi Gras every Friday and Saturday night without the parade.

After the nap we decided to take a walk down Bourbon Street just to get

a feel for the night ahead as we had heard about all the flashing the women do for beads. Cheri had to give it a go but no beads were thrown this early.

So we figured out that the best place to get a feel for the party atmosphere is up on one of the balconies overlooking the street. A nice doorman invited us in at the far end of the street and escorted us upstairs.

There we found a group of guys in for a weekend baseball convention having a "slow" night. OK, rugby players in St. Martin and now baseball players in New Orleans, but their night was going to get better as Cheri wanted a few beads.

What a fun night but it was turning a little cold so we had move inside plus Cheri needed some rest so we could see some of the city tomorrow.

Saturday turned cold and wet so it was a quick walk around the old town area , lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe and a little shopping for Cheri as she only had a little black dress to wear tonight and she was freezing.

After a great dinner at The Renaissance we headed back to Bourbon Street, that's all we needed - more beads. This street has everything from fine dinning to strip joints to great music and of course a lot of flashing. How do people survive weeks at Mardi Gras? Well we found the same bar as last night and the friendly doorman was working. He sure was happy to see Cheri again.