Mardi Gras in Mobile

 

This morning we started from just outside Tallahassee and drove to Grayton Beach State Park on the panhandle. It's a very beautiful beach, but today the red flag was flying, which means no swimming. We could see why - the waves were wild! There are lots of beautiful sand dunes at this beach, and Travalon took many photos of them. I am posting some of my favorites.

And here we are, on the beach.

This tiny sandpiper kept running after the receding waves and then away as fast as it could from the oncoming ones. Travalon made a fantastic video that I will try to post at some point.

Here is another view of the beach with the crashing waves.

And here are more sand dunes.

This big plane flew right overhead.

A couple of larger sandpipers appeared, and they waded right into the water.

We had lunch at a local brewpub, sampling four of their beers. We had very tasty grouper sandwiches and our last key lime pies in Florida. Then we drove to Mobile, Alabama, the birthplace of Mardi Gras. Of course, today was technically Jeudi Gras, since it's Thursday. We stopped at the Alabama Welcome Center, and the guy working there gave us some helpful tips about parking in a residential neighborhood. The houses there were beautiful, and many of them were decorated for Mardi Gras.

There were big, moss-covered oaks along the streets.

This tower downtown was so interesting.

We hear this is a Catholic church but don't know any details. The bells did play "Now Thank We All Our God" at six.

The streets were decorated with lights overhead.

And lit-up crowns were in the trees.

Here are some photos from the parade. It was like Christmas and Halloween rolled into one, because some of the floats were spooky, and masked men threw all sorts of random things off of them: stuffed animals, moon pies, other snacks, footballs, fake money, and of course beads. The woman next to us, who was a native, said we should have a bag to collect goodies. She hollered up at someone looking out a window, who threw a bag down to us.

This is the decorated street.

Here I am, with a vuvuzela I purchased and all the beads I acquired during the parade, hanging out with a musical statue.

On the walk back, the oaks were smoky with purple lights.

And the beautiful latticework was spooky with shadows.

Here are some photos from my phone of the decorated streets.

And me, decorated with beads.

And this was our haul! Except for the vuvuzela on the left, which I purchased. The rest was thrown to us from the floats.

I think this was the ideal way to see Mardi Gras, because Mobile is not as crazy as New Orleans (plus it's more original), and things weren't as crazy on a Thursday night. Tomorrow and Saturday there are a ton of parades, and I imagine it gets crazier. The unpromising weather forecast may have helped as well; there were thunderstorms expected, but fortunately not a drop of rain fell. I have to say that Mardi Gras was everything I had ever hoped, and Travalon enjoyed it too. Now we are staying outside of Mobile in a hotel with a pool so cold that we didn't even try to swim. Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we have adventures we haven't even planned yet.

Famous Hat