The Who Dat Nation

I am officially a Saints fan. I'm still a Bears fan but unless they are playing each other I will root for the Saints. What an incredible experience to be in New Orleans for the Saints big win in Super Bowl XLIV. The city was out of control, in a good way. We watched the game at Marc's house and dined on craw fish bread and shrimp soup courtesy of Chef Marc. Delish! When we headed back downtown we couldn't get within 7 blocks of the hotel by car. We were staying about 3 blocks from the French Quarter in the Central Business District. Well, let me tell you, the entire downtown area, the Quarter, the CBD, the Warehouse District, was wall to wall cars and people. All celebrating the time of their lives. Eventually we ditched the taxi and walked the remaining 7 blocks. Never once did we see or hear of anything bad happening. No burning garbage cans, no gunfire, no overturned cars. Just a joyful crowd of New Orleanians. What a sensational thing to happen for such a terrific city. New Orleans needed that victory and they deserved it too. Good for them.

Aside from the Super Bowl, we also took in some local parades that lead up to Mardi Gras. I was all consumed with the parades. They throw you free shit! And lots of it. Yeah, most of it is crap but it sure is fun vying for the treasures with fellow parade goers. Marc warned me that my competitive spirit would take over when the beads started flying. I landed lots and lots of beads (in spite of popular belief, you do not have to show anything to get beads!), including some glass beads which apparently is a good haul. I will actually wear those beads. I also got a stuffed purple monkey, a Krewe of Carrollton go cup (which I left at Marc's, damn!) and some black and gold beads with a fleur-de-lis pendant. According to Marc and Ashley we did well our first time out.

And the food.......the best there is. Had to eat at Drago TWICE. Dined at Mr. B.'s Bistro with Mashley and took in the famous Brennan's for breakfast one morning. We did lots of gambling at the conveniently located Harrah's. No, we didn't win but we had a helluva good time and scored a couple of "free" t-shirts!

Our last night was the Super Bowl Victory Parade. Right in front of our hotel. The parade began at 5 but we were far down the parade route and knew it would be quite awhile before they reached us. So I stood on the street starting at 4:45 while Rick gambled away more money at the casino. Rick showed up around 6 as did Mashley. Although Mashley was just across the street from us there were so many people and barricades that we couldn't actually meet up and watch the parade together. Rick and I had a front row seat, or maybe it's a stand. Hmmm. The parade got to us finally around 8 and I was so cold! But when those floats were rounding the corner toward us and the crowd began to whoop and holler it didn't matter. My biggest score from all the parades was catching a strand of beads from Drew Brees himself. Followed by a great picture of Drew proving what a great spot we had on the route. Check out all our NOLA pics.

Super Bowl in NOLA 2-2010

And a few pics of Midwestern Sectionals.

IllinoiSkating Mids Cedar Rapids 1-2010