Day 13

After a beignet breakfast, we headed out in our loyal first class coach ride to Mardi Gras World where we toured the 300,000 square foot working warehouse.  This is where floats are made for Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans.  It offers a behind the scenes look at New Orleans Mardi Gras traditions to see the year-long float building process. 

Roy and his son Blaine built their first Mardi Gras float together on the back on a mule-drawn wagon in 1932.  Unable to pay his mother’s medical bills, Blaine offered to paint a mural in the hospital, which caught the eye of a surgeon who was also the captain of a Mardi Gras Krewe.  This captain invited Blaine to design and build floats for his Krewe, and Kern Studios was officially founded in its current form in 1947.  One float led to another, and before long Blaine became the city’s leading parade designer and builder, working with Rex, Zulu and other legendary krewes.

Blaine Kern traveled throughout Europe to apprentice under the world’s leading float and costume makers.  He brought these ideas to New Orleans and developed the monumental scale and lavish ornamentation of today’s spectacular Mardi Gras floats.  Blaine Kern was instrumental in the formative years of some of New Orleans’ biggest parades and “Super Krewes” and is still known as “Mr. Mardi Gras.”

He brought these ideas to New Orleans and developed the monumental scale and lavish ornamentation of today’s spectacular Mardi Gras floats.  Blaine Kern was instrumental in the formative years of some of New Orleans’ biggest parades and “Super Krewes” and is still known as “Mr. Mardi Gras.”
 
The backstage tour was the bomb.  Intimate parties are held in this area.  What a treat that would be!

Always time for a photo op.

We made a memory, a Mardi Gras mask, you gotta have a Mardi Gras mask! 

What fun that was!  I feel sorry for whoever had to clean up our mess.  Glitter and glue was EVERYWHERE.
 
Po-Boy and Cajun Jambalaya lunch was served on the pier with the entertainment we also had while making our memory.  Can’t have too much entertainment

Audubon Butterfly Garden & Insectarium with more than 50 live exhibits and numerous multimedia elements, the 23,000-square-foot facility is the largest free-standing American museum dedicated to insects.  You’ll discover why insects are the building blocks of all life on our planet and along the way, you’ll be shrunk to bug size; wander through a mysterious Louisiana swamp; join the active audience of an awards show for bugs, by bugs; and be captivated by thousands of butterflies in an Asian garden.

While in the butterfly room, they were everywhere.

And of course, always time for a photo op.

or a rest

or food

The rest of us waited for the Creole House for dinner.  It is the oldest existing building on Canal Street, recently updated for your dining pleasure.  Creole House offers Cajun and Creole cuisine, serving up true southern classics and future New Orleans staples to dazzle your taste buds.  We were served shrimp & grits, Canal Street Redfish, crabcake and shrimp alfredo, ribeye steak, or fried fish and shrimp platter.  Dessert of course was New Orleans Style Bread Pudding.

How did we do all this in one day?