Mardi Gras Parades--FAT TUESDAY

I am finally able to catch my breath and put a few pictures of our very own Gulf Shores (morning) and Orange Beach (afternoon) parades on the blog.

I got an invite to ride the Chamber float and it was fun....a long day...but fun. I had to set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. , of course I hit snooze a few times. The Chamber president, my friend Mark , show here sporting some of Britney's hair that he ran across, picked me up and we had to meet up w/ the float over in Orange Beach at the Sports Plex. Then the float drove back to Gulf Shores and they all lined up along the street the post office is on. We got our beads out of the boxes and opened our cans of breakfast.

I wore my tiara that Marti Choate had bought for us the week before, I put it on the straw hat that Perdido Beach Resort had provided. We all wore shrimp necklaces, as the Chamber is the sponsor of the Shrimp Festival. I already had another one that Joy got me a while back.

There were big crowds as the parade turned the corner and went down Hwy 59 S towards the public beach (soon to be called Gulf Place)

I learned more about who gets the throws by being one of the throwers. We had some good stuff like past Shrimp Fest T-shirts, hats, etc... and I can tell you that the two main things that get you a good toss is enthusiasm and locking eye contact. (We don't do bare boobs in Baldwin County )

We are very 'family friendly' here. Of course school is out for Mardi Gras....hey kids, don't you wish you lived here !!

Our Mardi Gras Parade includes floats from the churches. The Episcopal church that had a float had a big sign that said, "Come to church in casual dress,... Jesus did". Now, how they know exactly what he wore to Synagogue I am not sure, but they may consider the toga looking wardrobe in the paintings we have come to rely on as casual dress after seeing the party scene in Animal House.






After the Gulf Shores parade ended, I jumped off the float and realized that I had a pretty long walk down to Silver Beach condos where Picard Rentals was having their annual Mardi Gras snowbird frolic and pot luck in the parking lot before the Orange Beach parade. I was trotting along and spotted the Chick-fil-a truck. Knowing that C-f-a hires very noble people, I kindly asked them if they would consider giving me a ride down to Orange Beach for 5 bucks. We struck up a deal and off we went. That same truck was later in the O.B. parade !


At Silver Beach Millie and Tom and various guests threw all sorts of good stuff off of the elevator lobby roof. I barely made it in time, good thing I got a ride.
They even threw a coin worth a 30 buck restaurant gift certificate.

Heather and her husband Russ and his mom showed up there too and we all took lots of photos for the Picard Rentals website.

We all had lunch too.

The Orange Beach parade was good. Lots of floats and bands. The sun came out strong and we all got summer-warm.

My Chamber bunch were all going to Lulu's after the parade ended, around 4:30 but I opted out. I came back to the house and took a very short nap before I drove over to Pensacola. Dave and I shopped for a large format printer in P'cola.
I departed and got back here about 11 .








And what could be more Alabama than the Confederate Flag going past the Winn-Dixie....
we have a lot of show of the Confederate Flag in our parades.

COME ON DOWN !!