House Floats – Lower Garden District

New Orleans has been celebrating Carnival in a safe, socially distanced way with City Park’s drive-thru Floats in the Oaks stationary parade and “Yardi Gras,” thousands of homes and businesses throughout the city decorated as parade floats. Krewe of House Floats, a grassroots organization promoting this safe parade concept, encouraged people to use local businesses and artists to help decorate their places as house floats, or go DIY, then register on their map.

I’ve already covered Magazine Street, the Irish Channel and Mid-City. The next neighborhood we meandered in search of Mardi Gras merriment was the Lower Garden District. I loved the giant tropical fish of the Realm of Poseidon house.

It was a nice night so we kept wandering back into the Irish Channel. We took a different route and several more homes had joined the festivities since our last walk there – many in their neighborhood theme of “Channel Surfing.” The Bob Ross house was genius. The Xanadu house was super cool – even just as a work of architecture.

Several house floats featured Elect Moira Rose Honorary Muse signs – a nod to the Schitt’s Creek character and the Krewe of Muses parade. One house had wigs hanging all over the door in her honor. Bernie Sanders and his mittens continue to pop up on many porches. But my personal favorite house float in that area will have to be the Friends house. They nailed every detail from the empty golden frame (on the perfect shade of lavender house) and the umbrellas from the show’s opening, to the cast wearing masks and episode titles like, “The one with the T.P. shortage,” and “The one where we relied on our friends.” Of course I’m biased since I was in the episode called “The One with the Screamer” with Ben Stiller.

Next up – more house floats from the Garden District and the French Quarter.