Krewe de Vieux Parade

Saturday began with a trolley ride to Two Chicks Cafe.  It's located next to a Subway in an unassuming strip mall across from the Convention Center.  You might not even notice it walking by, but it's listed on Trip Advisor as the #5 restaurant in all of New Orleans.  I believe this was my favorite meal of the whole trip.  I like grits okay, but rarely order them.  After reading some reviews though, decided I'd better try them.  Holy amazing cheese grits.  I would eat these every day if I could.  I also had the Under the Sea omelet (minus the shrimp).  There were so many things on the breakfast menu alone that I could eat for a week without repeating. 

 Fat and sassy from breakfast, we walked around, watched people and street performers.  This group of young men were the most energetic jazz band and were so fun to watch.

 After a good long nap, we headed out to watch the parade.  This particular parade, the Krewe de Vieux parade, was the only parade on the Mardi Gras parade schedule that said it was "adult themed."  We weren't quite sure what to expect, but our server at Desire had told us that it's also very political - VERY - she said.  And the woman in the park had laughed and said something to the effect of "oh it's something!"  So, we were getting pretty curious!

 Until it was time to claim a parade spot, we stood on Bourbon street and just watched the world go by.  If you are entertained by watching people just be themselves, as we clearly are, there may be no better place to go than the French Quarter.

 We claimed our parade watching spots and prepared to wait.  Every now and then, a group that wasn't the parade would go down the street - a wedding party, a bachelorette party, a sweet 16 party, and an occasional band.  It made the waiting entertaining!

 Finally, the parade began.  Everyone was right, it was quite political, and not especially flattering to a certain current president, which we admittedly found pretty entertaining!  It was also pretty adult themed as we'd been told, but I think we'd prepared ourselves for it to be so over the top, that we weren't especially shocked.  Now, if that parade was taking place in our town, that might be a different story. ;)

After the parade, we walked back down Bourbon to another place recommended by the man at our hotel - Clover Grill.  It is an old fashioned diner that has been there since 1939, and I would say largely unchanged.  We sat at the bar and watched in amazement as the cook kept track of all the many orders in a space no bigger than our kitchen.  I don't know if it was that it was late and we were just exceptionally hungry, but that was the best greasy burger and tots.  Great way to end a day in NOLA!