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<\/a><\/p>\nOur morning fun was a tour of Mardi Gras World, a place where floats are sculpted in the form of papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, fiberglass, and styrofoam and dreams are made real for New Orleans Krewes. For some reason I find the Mardi Gras Krewes and festivities far more palatable than the Mummers of Philadelphia. Maybe because I feel like it’s more than a bunch of showgirl feathers plumaged to an edge of drunken stupors. Unfair no doubt but let the good times roll, no?<\/p>\n
I found a livingsocial.com special that got us two tickets for $20. It was absolutely worth $10 a person. From our costumed photo ops to a slice of King Cake, to a tour of the float graveyard\/warehouse, it was definitely a Mardi Gras World.<\/p>\n
As an added bonus, we ran into fellow Mainly Marathoners Clyde and Kelly who snapped this great selfie portrait of us all. You never know who you’ll meet up with when traveling for a race!<\/p>\n Quick side note: our shuttle driver taking us back from Mardi Gras World to Canal Street was named Tim. \u00a0The other driver shuttling people around was named Ken. \u00a0Over the CB radio dispatch airwaves, Ken and Tim sounded similar so Tim said he would call in to confirm if the call was for him or Kenneth. \u00a0And if they needed him, he supposed to be fair they should call him Timothy. \u00a0The flirty dispatcher said she could just call him Tiny Tim. \u00a0Tim laughed and said that’d work and then asked is on the bus if we remembered Tiny Tim. \u00a0When we said we did, he asked if he was still alive. \u00a0I was pretty sure he’d long since tiptoed through his last tulip but I googled it to be sure. \u00a0Tiny Tim died in 1996. \u00a0Our driver Tim whistled and said, “Wow, ten years ago?! \u00a0That long?!” \u00a0When somebody in the back of the bus pointed out it’s been 20 years, we all felt punched in the face by 1.21 jigawatts. \u00a0So on that cheery note…<\/p>\n As we killed time post lunch, we rode the local trolley up and down Canal Street, out to the cemeteries district. I think the first time I learned about the exclusively above ground tombs in New Orleans due to its below sea level attributes was when my brother wrote “Old Friends<\/a>,” an ALIAS novel that opened with Sydney Bristow teaching Francie how to drive stick in a NOLA graveyard.<\/p>\n In any case, after a short, creepy stroll through the cemetery (I’m not a fan of cemeteries, above or below burials), we rode back and hopped a waterfront trolley out to the French Market.<\/p>\n And what a dinner it was! Bayona bills itself as a pioneer in the slow food movement which I gather encourages leisurely paced eating, good times, good conversation, good vibes. It’s no wonder my brother, a Dinner Club founder, would love this place. My biggest complaint would be that Steve wasn’t here with us. He is a good time, a good conversation, and a good vibe unto himself.<\/p>\n As far as carbo loading before a marathon goes, it was a decadent indulgence in quality and richness. Not sure if it’ll properly fuel a marathon tomorrow but it definitely fueled the soul. And lord knows it was enough calories! Whether it was the right calories the best thing to say may be, as they say in the bayou, laissez le bon temps rouler<\/em>, no?<\/p>\n And so we continue to eat our way trough New Orleans. This morning the make your own waffle complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel proved tasty but overwhelming. A poor timing plan on my part, coupled with plummeting blood sugars led to a culinary crisis. The wait time outside Mother’s proved cronut cringe worthy (Mom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[322,324,316,315,323,327,326,325,328,19],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayona","tag-friends","tag-gras","tag-mardi","tag-old","tag-shuttle","tag-tim","tag-tiny","tag-trolley","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>I think Steve had originally typed the ensuing action scene was set amidst bullets flying in the graveyard. This had to be changed to gunfire splattering crypts and tombs because there are no graves with plots of buried coffins in the Big Easy.<\/p>\n<\/a>From there we ambled along until dinner at Bayona.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"