Mardi Gras, Dallas-Style!

I'll be the first to admit that the idea of celebrating Mardi Gras in Dallas with the MystiQal party at Victory Park was a bit hokey - especially when New Orleans is only a short Southwest flight away. But, it was a gorgeous night and what better way to enjoy the warm weather than to walk down to Victory Park to partake in the activities. Although the original plan was to get there early, grab at table on the patio at Dick's Last Resort, and be heavily lubricated before the activities began, we ended up arriving promptly at parade time when hoards and hoards of people had already lined the streets and every patio table was taken. So, we joined the masses across the street from The Terrace and got our hands ready to catch some beads!

I always laugh at the concept of catching beads. I mean, you can buy a hold bagful for pennies and even though I seem to have collected many of them over the years through various antics in New Orleans, they always seem to end up in the same place....the trashcan! Nevertheless, my hands were ready and of course, I caught many beads during the night. I even seemed to "out-bead" the rather large women next to mean who were all about getting beads last night (thank goodness for height!). Here is a pic of us and one of the random floats in the parade:

We ended up watching the parade and then decided the crowd was a little much. I mean, it's one thing if you are fighting crowds on Bourbon Street, but I refuse to do that here in Dallas. Besides, we already had plans to spend Super Bowl Sunday at Victory Park so why do the same venue back to back nights? So, we headed over to the Elbow Room to enjoy pizza, beer, and a few too many games of PhotoHunt. If you have to ask what the latter is, you clearly haven't spent too many nights in seedy bars with a few dollars and nothing to do but play video games. But, I will say I do hold the record in PhotoHunt at various bars around Dallas thanks to Roger Hayes so be on the lookout for our pseudonym Jim Shim.