Mardi Gras - Alexandria Krewe Parade

Our catches from the Alexandria Krewe Parade!

Mardi Gras weekend looked to be very wet but the weather forecast continued to change. Lucrecia and I kept up to date and as the weather forecast would change so would our plans.

As I wrote in my previous blog we had gone, with the kids, to the Krewe of Bonaparte Parade in Lafayette on Saturday night. This was a fun parade. Unfortunately, with the weather looking so bad for Sunday we figured it would be our last parade of the year since I had to work on Fat Tuesday.

When I woke up Sunday morning and checked the weather I found it was not going to rain until around noon. I also found out that the Alexandria Mardi Gras Association had moved their parade to 10 AM.

I woke everyone up and said let’s take a chance and go to the parade in Alexandria, LA. We quickly got ready, grabbed some towels in case it rained, and headed to the parade.

We arrived about 9 AM and started our wait. There was hardly anyone at the parade route. I talked to a few people and they all said the parade should arrive in our area around 11 AM. This gave me a little pause for thought because the rain was supposed to start again around noon. We decided to wait it out.

During our wait we occasionally got a 30 second type rain shower but nothing soaking. We were able to park our car near us and at one point just sat in the car while it sprinkled rain.

At around 11 AM the parade had not yet arrived and we could hear distant thunder. I looked at the radar on a cell phone and there was a heavy batch of red cells on the radar heading our way.

At about 11:15 AM we could hear the Grambling Marching Band. Soon the parade was upon us. The floats began passing and the beads began flying. The beads were not as big as the Lafayette Parade beads but they were plentiful. In this parade several floats threw cups, small Mardi Gras colored footballs and small Frisbees. I had not seen these items thrown in Lafayette.

I would like to send a special shout out to the Paragon Casino Resort Krewe for throwing some of the best throws. This Krewe had some really nice beads, fuzzy dice and stuffed Mardi Gras Alligators. The kids really liked the stuffed alligators.

As the Krewe of Paragon passed the rain started coming down in a small shower. We had just 4 more floats to go so we stayed. As the last float passed we turned to go but Finnegan, my youngest, wanted to see the fire truck.

As the fire truck passed the rain really started coming down hard. We ran for our car, jumped in, dried off with the towels, started the heater, and headed home.

The Alexandria Mardi Gras Parade was a success for us and those that attended. I think the turnout was so low due to the weather and the fact that the parade time had to be changed to avoid the severe weather.

I have been to this parade in the past so if you want to avoid the really large crowds down south you can always head to Central Louisiana and catch the Alexandria, LA Parade.