We came to play. We got stuck inside a lot due to lots of rain. But then we had some beautiful days. Not too hot or humid. Not too cold. They were just right for us to get out and about. Mardi Gras goes on for several days, if not weeks, with parades as Fat Tuesday approaches. This year, Fat Tuesday fell on March 4, 2025.
Lake Charles is known as a family-friendly area. The people are respectful and kind here. I could speak to anyone and receive kind responses back. For instance, our first parade! We weren’t sure where we could put our chairs but it turns out, after asking a family sitting close to their car, we were able to be right up at the barrier! Honestly, I videotaped most of the first parade but it was awful! It was hard to see and had a lot of issues because I was busy catching beads! In fact, Jay and I caught all of these:
Fun! And no, you do not have to show your breasts to get them. In fact, no one we saw, even those drinking a lot, did so. I’ve got a couple of pictures from the parade, though, so here we go:
I wanted to share this one because there is also a “Contraband Bayou” that we pass on the highway traveling from our RV park to the parade area downtown. Because we were on the highway, I couldn’t get a good photo but, hey, come yourself to get a good look at it! Wikipedia says this about it:
Contraband Bayou is a large bayou, a tributary of the Calcasieu River. It runs through Lake Charles, Louisiana, and empties into Prien Lake. The bayou is so named because of the legendary pirate, Jean Lafitte, who built a slave barracks on the bayou in the early 1800s and reputedly hid his contraband somewhere along the shores of the bayou.
I LOVE history and that is just a tiny bit of some interesting facts from the area.
As is obvious from the float’s colors, Mardi Gras uses rich purple, gold, and green as its colors. So I got my nails done for it and got a lot of compliments!
We grabbed a couple of Mardi Gras shirts, too, for the occasion.
Our next parade was called Krewe of Barkus. Can you guess what that one was focused on? Yep, our barking buddies, dogs! Of course, we took our two with us for this one and I think they loved it! I have to say, my photos are not good as I was sitting with our little dog on my lap most of the time and we had several little kids in front of us. And let’s face it, it’s all about the kids! Here are some photos:
That’s just a few of the dogs there. I had beads on both our dogs at the beginning of all this but they kept falling all over and they would step on them. So, off they came and we simply enjoyed the parade. Don’t let this picture fool you. Tristan spent his time on my lap, too.
This was at the beginning, while we waiting for the parade to start. Tristan seems to be asking, “You’ll keep me safe, right Mom?” And I always do.
In the next post, I have a lot of parade pictures. We did attend several others. A “Boat Parade” on Lake Charles is supported by residence who want to participate. The Lake is lined with very large homes, all with boat houses in the front of them. But there were only three boats. Yep. Three. I did not take any pictures…
On Hummingbirds Wings 