Fairview Riverside State Park

"Down on the Bayou"!

We are now perched on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain which places us directly across the Lake from New Orleans. We have visited New Orleans twice, once prior to Hurricane Katrina and once after. So, visiting the city is not on our itinerary this trip. Besides, with Mardi Gras only days away, the city is full of revelers warming up for the big day. Can't see getting into that chaos. However, we found a little celebratory food that could be for Mardi Gras, or St Patty's Day. See picture below.

Despite our desire to avoid all the Mardi Gras chaos, we found ourselves stuck right in the middle of a very large celebration. At first our adventure started innocently with a local shopping trip. By chance, we found ourselves at a side street staging area for Mardi Gras parade floats. We wandered around the floats admiring the festive colorful presentation. The parade would take place that evening as one of the many local festivities leading up to the big parade in New Orleans. Our adventure continued as we elected to celebrate Birthday Boy's number 71 with a special dinner at Trey Yuen Cuisine of China restaurant only a 15 minute drive from camp. We enjoyed a great dinner! Little did we know our night was to get more adventurous. Leaving the restaurant, we found ourselves in the midst of closed streets, thousands of people, and of course, a Mardi Gras parade. We're talking a very big parade. We could have been in New Orleans. Even with the GPS it took 2 hours to get back to the campground. All part of our camping adventures.Read more