Today is our last day in New Orleans. It's been a good two weeks, but we're ready to move on, especially since the weather is supposed to turn even colder here.

It rained most of the day, so we spent most of the day inside, reading and practicing playing Lamsy (look out, Gil!) . We were happy that the rain stopped late in the afternoon, as it was a big parade day in the New Orleans area, with at least five different parades going on.

We chose to go to the "Krewe of Oshun" parade on St. Charles at 6 pm. Oshun was the goddess of fountains, love, wealth and religion (like the Roman Venus) for the African people of Brazil, Haiti and Cuba, so the floats were all based on those themes. We went where we understood it would be mostly families watching the parade. We had heard that people have step ladders with boxed seats attached to the top for their kids to sit in, and we saw several of those tonite.

We ended up next to three guys (Brian, Troy and ... can't remember) who gave Roger a beer and then adopted us for the parade. They explained things, teased us about being Canadian (Troy was excited because he was wearing a Team Canada hockey toque), and caught trinkets for us. I'm sure we have 5 lbs of beads, plus a boa, a Mardi Gras shot glass, and ... a pair of Mardi Gras panties. Troy caught them then insisted on putting them on me. Well that was fun! They made the parade a blast for us, and were very good ambassadors for New Orleans. They really want us to go back to the same spot tomorrow, because they (the three guys) are setting us stands, tents, heaters, a DJ, food, etc for the parades there tomorrow. However, we will be on our way to Galvaston by then.

That was a nice way to end our stay in New Orleans. :)