St. Patrick’s Parades 2019

The month of Carnival parades just ended on the 5th but we were back in the streets again ALL weekend starting with the Molly’s (Jim Monaghan’s) Irish Parade Friday in the French Quarter. The Pussyfooters were invited to join in the festivities this year and I love any chance to dance. The weather was awful, cold and rainy, but we were grateful for inclusion in the lively second line.

Saturday, we met family at the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade. The parade features double-decker floats, dancers and bagpipers but the heart of the Irish Channel parade is the many groups of walkers exchanging silk flowers for kisses (mostly on the cheek).

Molly’s (Jim Monaghan’s) Irish parade

Whichever name you call it by, this was its 32nd year. Molly’s at the Market is an Irish pub with game nights, neon cluttered walls and a jukebox full of rock and local favorites. It’s also where the parade was born, begins and ends. A friend of mine from college had just arrived in New Orleans for her first visit to the city. After lunch at K. Paul’s, a visit to Jackson Square, Photoworks Gallery and Maskarade mask shop (all from my list of Fav Things), we headed over for her first parade – ever. The parade is short on floats but big on fun and she loved it.

Molly’s Halloween Parade

Since 1995, Molly’s at the Market has sponsored a Halloween parade in the French Quarter. The Storyville Stompers led throngs of costumed paraders on Decatur along with the Bearded Oysters, the New Wave Brass Band, the Kazoozie Floozies and the Muff-a-Lottas.

Though beads were thrown from horse-drawn carriages and dancing was done in the streets, Halloween is really about the costumes so I leave you with photos, photos, photos.

Favorite Things in NOLA 2011

I continue to accumulate favorite things about New Orleans, but here’s my second year favorites in a nutshell. Anything named previously in my Favorite Things in NOLA 2010 is marked with an Asterix*. Though there are too many “ties,” revealing an inability to “just pick one,” I promise you there were so many more things I wanted to include, so many more people and places I felt deserved mentioning.

A perfect New Year’s Eve

Every year, I look forward to/dread New Year’s Eve. I look forward to fresh starts and new attitudes and celebrations and fireworks and gatherings. I dread parking and crowds and the sinking feeling that I might have no one to kiss at midnight.

Once in a while, a perfect day comes along, a day even better than the one in your imagination. New Year’s Eve 2010 was such a day.