Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 2

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Tara Lynne

I already wrote about the awesome first part of Lundi Gras in my post detailing my absolutely amazing trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras…but now it’s time to talk about what we did that evening, because it was probably the best 6-ish hours of our vacation!

Our hotel was on Canal Street, but future experiences (read: the very next day) and my anxiety about being pressed in among strangers for long periods of time (or well, ok, at all – NOT my thing) made me SUPER happy that I ignored the “advice” I received on Reddit to not bother with stands.

Knowing that we only had these two days and needed to make the most of them, I took a chance – despite the aforementioned “advice” – and booked two spots in the stands at a hotel on St. Charles Ave. My ONLY complaint is that they advertised that there would be local food available for purchase, and I…don’t believe that was the case. (You could go inside the hotel to use the bathrooms, which was a HUGE plus, and also purchase drinks at the bar – and there was also a food cart outside, but it appeared to just have the basic fried chicken, burgers, etc. type options – no big deal, but maybe don’t advertise you’ll have true NOLA food if you, ya know, don’t.)

But hey, at least we got very close seats for these parades!

Anyway, we got to sit in the stands with a great mix of people – locals and tourists alike! – and we made a LOT of friends! (Let’s be real, that’s what two extroverts do, right?)

It was a LONG night, by the way – we arrived at the stands around 6 PM and waited quite a bit for the first parade – Rex – to come by. But WOW, was it worth it! As I already mentioned, we met so many friends – including the Australian couple who was sitting next to us (and who we convinced to check out our favorite brewery, Brieux Carre, the next day)…

….as well as a local woman who was there with her two little girls 🙂

Because by the way – us being tall people, we caught a LOT of throws from both Rex and Orpheus that night – which meant we also got to pass them around to the little kids who weren’t quite tall enough to catch them. Let’s just say that I caught a seahorse plushie from Orpheus that I absolutely wanted to keep, but let’s be real, the kiddo wanted/needed it more 🙂

But that’s the true spirit of Mardi Gras, isn’t it? It’s celebration, it’s giving, and it’s loving the city and the people around you. And when one of the little girls was admiring the hat that I’d made especially for this trip, I realized…what was the point of bringing it home, when I could give it to a child who lived in this amazing city, a child who appreciated it and would hopefully continue to appreciate it for years to come? So…I did 🙂

At the end of the night – and it was a WAY later night than we prepared for, considering we had to get up pretty early the next morning – we realized that we’d had the best experience we could have, well, experienced. We met new out-of-town friends who had never been to NOLA and were able to give them suggestions about the places we loved…and we got to meet a local who was actually part of the Zulu crew the next day, and were able to give her two amazing little girls a great night by making sure they got the throws they wanted and passing on my hat to a kiddo who was super excited to perch it on her adorable little head 🙂

Needless to say, as much as we enjoyed the next day, I think our Lundi Gras experiences were the highlight of our trip!

Whirlwind NOLA: Mardi Gras Trip Part 1

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Tara Lynne

For Christmas 2021 I surprised my partner Dean with a trip to Maui for his big present, and while I knew I would be hard-pressed to outdo that, for Christmas 2022 I surprised him with a trip back to what we affectionately call “our place”: New Orleans, of course!

But not just ANY trip to New Orleans – a whirlwind 3 night/2 day trip for Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras!!

So unfortunately, our trip did NOT get off to an auspicious start – before I even got through security at the local airport, the connecting flight was delayed by 30 minutes. This was the first time I had flown Southwest since their holiday meltdown, and when we flew to and from Hawaii with them in March 2022 we had experienced delays (albeit minor ones), so I wasn’t feeling super great about actually getting to NOLA in a timely manner.

In the end, I was right to be concerned. I was supposed to land in New Orleans at 11:10 PM….but it was after 1 AM before I arrived. I’d already planned on collecting my bag, grabbing a rideshare to the hotel, checking in and going to bed…but there’s a big difference between a just-after-midnight and a nearly-2-AM bedtime at my age, haha.

But hey, no need to let that ruin a vacation as a whole! We were up and at ’em by mid-morning on Lundi Gras, and hoping to grab some beignets at Cafe Beignet on Canal…unfortunately, the line looked like a 30+ minute wait, and as my layover had happened in one of those airports that had next to no food options later in the evening, I was STARVING.

And truth be told, I also wanted bergnerts. Begnets. BINYAYS. (Okay listen you had to be there.)

Luckily, we found “Hot Benny’s” on Canal – which to be honest didn’t have the local feel we love, and also had very few drink options outside of hot/iced coffee type drinks, but the bergnerts were great and my iced latte hit the spot…plus, there was basically no wait, even on Lundi Gras 😉

After that, it was back to the hotel to stock up – aka grab a mixed drink from the bar – before we meandered through the French Quarter on our way to our favorite brewery, Brieux Carré!

Now to be fair, I knew that the Krewe of Red Beans was parading through this area starting at 2 PM, but also, I will never pass up a 90s Power Ballad or one of BC’s delicious schwarzbiers…so it was a fun midday break with great beers while we waited for Red Beans to make its way through the Marigny 🙂

After Red Beans, it was time to make our way back to the hotel to freshen up and head to the Zulu Lundi Gras Festival! This is where Dean and I parted ways for a bit because his aim was seafood (and I can’t eat most shellfish, unfortunately) and my aim was making sure I saw the the Zulu King and Queen arrive…but hey, I got some amazing King Cake bread pudding along the way!

I also met some awesome people who hung out and chatted with me while we watched the Zulu King and Queen give their speeches. I’ll just say that I had some incredible experiences over the two days we were there, and this was absolutely one of them.

That’s just part one of our amazing first of two days in NOLA for Mardi Gras…stay tuned for more fun, because we LOVE this city and it’s always an amazing time when we experience it 🙂

Red Wed Redemption: A NOLA Wedding Weekend

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Tara Lynne

When you’re a coupla geeks in love, and you bonded over Red Dead Redemption, what else would you do but go to New Orleans to celebrate your nuptials? Thus, a Red WED Redemption Weekend!

Our wedding ceremony “script” was something that I wrote all on my own, and I’ll be honest, I’m really proud of it. It, like us and our relationship, was non-traditional, non-religious, and peppered with geeky references. There was no “husband” and “wife” nonsense. We are partners in life, and what I wrote reflected that.

Our best friend Nami officiated, and did an absolutely amazing job. We had the most perfect and beautiful experience, and that was entirely because of the people who were there. We missed everyone who was invited and couldn’t make it (almost entirely due to health issues/COVID), of course, but I can never express the gratitude I feel for those who were able to be there to support us.

We ate amazing food, including a lot of beignets (burgnerts? bugwats? binyetts? buhlwahrs?) We drank good beer. We also drank…a lot of other stuff, lol. We listened to awesome music. WE. FUCKIN. DANCED.

Things were broken – arms, phones, car windows. People got lost in NAWLINS from time to time. It was all as it should be. I don’t regret a single moment (okay, except maybe Nami breaking her elbow). We gathered. We got in trouble for gathering. There was oatmeal and there were a lot of mimosas and there was a strip club and there was hanging out at the hot dog bar because yes, of course, there is a hot dog bar in Nawlins.

I am so beyond grateful for the people who love us. For the fact that we all, whether we are related by blood or not, became FAMILY that weekend. I feel so HASHTAG BLESSED for the people in my life who made this weekend happen, who made our WEDDING happen, who made it all so. Darn. Amazing.

I love that so many of our friends and family have become friends with each other now, because of us, because of this time in NOLA.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for being there. My life – OUR lives – wouldn’t be the same without you.

And PS

NAWLINS GOT US NOW, Y’ALL.

So without further ado, the one script that bound us all 😉

OFFICIANT:
Today is a celebration. A celebration of love, of commitment, of friendship, of family, and of two people who are together in this absurd and wonderful thing called life.

There are thousands of important moments that happen throughout all of our lives, but a wedding is regarded as a moment so critical, it needs to be shared with friends near and far. With us today are guests from South Carolina, Texas, Washington state, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, and Louisiana.

Love, a great unifier and a universal truth, has brought us together here in New Orleans. Everyone here has their own love stories, be they short or long, with friends or partners, already written or yet to be discovered.

Tara and Dean’s tale is one of fan conventions and video games, of a deep and abiding friendship that has become a deep and abiding love. Their relationship blossomed through mutual interests, and has weathered life upheavals and loss and, of course, a global pandemic. It has spanned three years, five months, and twenty-one days…not to mention about 2,300 miles. And they are here – we are ALL here – today, both despite and because of all this.

In stories, love heals wounds, fixes what is broken, allows you to go on. But love isn’t a spell, some kind of benediction to be whispered, a blame, or a cure-all. It is a single, fragile thread that grows stronger through connection, shared hardship, and honored trust.

We are gathered here this weekend to celebrate not just Tara and Dean and their relationship, but their family – because to be part of Dean’s life is to be part of his children’s lives, a choice that Tara made with an open heart and an open mind.

This celebration of Tara and Dean is about what came before, but more importantly is what happens next. They fell in love by chance, but they are here today, now, in this moment, by choice. Tara, Dean, you have chosen each other. You have each chosen to be with someone who enhances you, who makes you think, makes you smile, and makes every day brighter. In that vein, I believe you have each written a little something of your own to say to each other, in front of these witnesses, today.

This is where we both spoke our own vows, but those are reserved for ourselves and our friends and family who were in attendance. Needless to say, they were rife with sweet nothings and Red Dead references.

OFFICIANT:
Tara and Dean, do you take each other as lawfully wedded partners, to love, encourage, trust, and respect each other, to work together to foster a marriage of equality, and to create a home for yourselves, Ben, and Camden that is filled with growth, laughter, and compassion?

In which we both said “I Do” as simultaneously as possible

OFFICIANT:
Love comes from humble beginnings: through a combination of serendipity and effort, imperfect beings shape it into something extraordinary. You are exchanging rings, which are perfect and unending circles, as a symbol of your imperfect and yet extraordinary love.

Dean, as you place the ring on Tara’s finger, please repeat after me:

With this ring, I bind my life to yours.
It is a symbol of my friendship, my love, my trust, and my respect,
And the promise to care for you, stand beside you, and share with you all of life’s joys and adversities.
For this day and all the days to come.