Apparently this is third in an unintentional series about St. Louis Mardi Gras. Last night we went to the night-time parade downtown. Some people are afraid of downtown St. Louis at night (that whole murder capital of the nation thing) but that's ridiculous when there's an event going on. There were plenty of cops. The crowd was about one-tenth the size of the Saturday parade and the parade itself was much shorter too which was actually nice. I caught some awesome beads including one magnificent strand with very large beads and a heavy resin medallion that had I missed the catch would have surely blackened my eye. The Shriners were back in their fez's and mini-cars, sometimes driving on two-wheels which alarms me. One of the Shriner's decided to forego the fez and had his hair in a dramatic red, white and blue Mohawk with lights embedded in it somehow. He stood out but not as much as the large, regal dog walking nobly along wearing a very real looking crown. The crowd parted to let this dog go by. There were full bars in tents on every block. We shared one $4 beer.
After the parade we were going to go party at the Lumiere Casino who had sponsored this parade. They promised showgirls and balloon boys (whatever they are) and green, gold and purple pizza. It was enticing but we decided to go elsewhere instead and ended up at Hodak's, a St. Louis fried chicken institution. (Roadfood people take note.) Hodak's is usually pretty busy but last night it was quiet although we were not the only people wearing beads there. I had the sticky wing dinner with a baked potato and applesauce and two glasses of Pinot Grigio from unknown origins. It was delicious. Mike had a beer and the Half A Golden Fried Chicken dinner which is their speciality. The chicken pieces are served on top of white bread. The bill before tip was $29.59.
We walked in the house at 9:30pm. Five minutes later we were both in our pajamas. Five minutes after that I was snuggled on the couch in front of the TV making my next move in Words With Friends with my friend Michelle. Michelle knew of my Fat Tuesday plans and I used the chat function to inform her that I was home, in my pjs and had fun. She wrote back "fun and early is good". Michelle was right. Fun and early is good.
It isn't just ridiculous when there is an event going on... the city, South of Martin Luther King, is very safe statistically. It's mostly looks bad because of the ratio of of crimes to citizen (which is distorted due to the whole city-isn't-county silliness).
ReplyDelete