Wednesday, March 21, 2012

I Love A Parade!

We couldn't go to New Orleans without learning about the parades!  We took a tour of the main warehouse of Blaine Kern.  He has multiple warehouses that store the floats, tractors, and art studios that build props for Hollywood, Vegas, and the Mardi Gras Parades.  There are some real family friendly parades that take place on St. Charles street.  All of the families have a tall ladder that they put wheels and a box of seats for their little one to see the parade from and catch the prizes.  They decorate them and pass the ladders down for a tradition.  There are 5 parades a day for 2 weeks.  Blaine Kern's studio is responsible for 65 of these parades.  There are clubs and groups that are responsible for organizing each parade and its theme.  It looks like a lot of fun!  We got to see the Italian parade going on while we were there.  It was a "small" parade for New Orleans, but we were excited to see some in action.

The Italian Parade, See Rook trying to catch the beads!

On of the dance crews during the Italian Parade





This is the ticket that you wear on the tour

I was trying to show the huge 3 football field size warehouses that store the floats, tractors, and studios.

I'm a Queen

One of the floats from the 1800's

My Prince Charming


Molly eating King Cake With A King

The Chic Fil A Cows are made here


Molly tried to smell the huge paper flowers