What ever you call it, it was awesome. In true NOLA style, the city threw a victory parade for the Boys in Block & Gold. This morning, the local news estimated that 800K people were in attendance to see the Saints roll thru the CBD on donated floats. Well, the girls and I were 3 of those crazies.
I knew it was going to be a madhouse. But I figured how many times do you get to celebrate the first Super Bowl win for New Orleans. I left work early got the girls from school and picked up my nephew. (My nephew, James, is 18. He tagged along with me to help with my maniacs.) After an hour of gridlock from other people trying to park downtown, we finally managed a spot.
For some reason, the City of New Orleans in it's infinite wisdom decided to shut down the entire parade route before the parade even started. (Usually, they shut in down in sections.) This threw off my game plan. But I'm a seasoned Mardi Gras girl. I adapted. We just parked as soon as we could and told Jamesy we were going to huff it. I mean, hey, I'm a distance runner, he's 18, and I had the double jogger.
We made it there in plenty of time. My parents didn't fare as well. They couldn't find a spot, at all, to park in. So Mel, my niece, and Ted hopped out and Don just turned around and went home. [This was for the best anyway. He doesn't like parades, crowds, or the cold. He'd have been miserable.]
Luckily, my husband and parrain belong to a KoC on the parade route. We stand there for Mardi Gras. They have a bar, pottys, food, and it's warm inside. What else do you need? Once I saw the crowds. I decided the girls and I would be watching from the windows. Like I said, I'm a seasoned Mardi Gras go-er. But that was crazy. Two to three times the amount of people for the largest parades.
This is the crowd on the opposite site of the street. It doesn't do it justice.
Like I said, we watched from the windows. And the pictures are from thru windows. So you'll have to take my word for who's in them.
Li inside the hall holding a hand made sign
Sean Payton holding the Lombardi Trophy.
You'd think his arm would get tired. I don't think he's let it go since they handed it to him. When they got off the plane, he drove out of the airport holding it thru the sun roof of his car. He said it slept in the bed with him the first night. I love how proud he his and that he's not afraid to show it.
Drew Brees & Co
The KoC hall is just past Gallier Hall and the mayor was toasting the players as they road past. Drew still had the bottle of champagne. He was drinking straight from it andspraying on the crowd. Everyone was loving it. Unfortunately, they didn't have him tied to the float and the mom in me was thinking how unsafe that was.
Garrett Hartley
The parade organizers put our kicker, Garrett Hartley, on a light up shoe from one all female parades. That just cracked me up. Get it, a kicker in a shoe. I love obvious humor. Garrett was show cased on his own float because he kicked two +40yrd kicks in the Super Bowl and the winning +40yrd kick in the NCF Championship. I'm so glad I braved the crowds and kept the girls out late again to see the parade. It was totally worth it. And as I turned out, me having to park further away than I expected was a blessing. I was close to I-10. Once we were in the car, we didn't wait thru any traffic on the way out.
