St. Patrick's Day Parade - Metarie Road

Today the roommate, another friend, and I decided to enjoy the taste of gorgeous spring weather that Southern Louisiana is currently experiencing by attending the St. Patrick's Day Parade along Old Metarie Road in Metarie! We went there with no expectations about the parade, other than to see cabbage being thrown from floats along with beads! Since Mardi Gras was only a few weeks ago, the three of us were all beaded out and waiting for the cabbage. In fact, we were purposely not trying to catch beads!

We parked near the intersection of Metarie Road and the Railroad tracks near Winston's Pub. Parking near the pub off the parade route was perfect because it gave us access to a clean bathroom in exchange for purchasing a beverage, thus allowing us to avoid the port-o-potties!

After a pit stop and re-hydrating, the three of us walked up Metarie Road to Metarie Village Shopping Center and picked out a spot. While the parade was entertaining and had some great music, it was quite different from the Mardi Gras parades we saw a few weeks ago: no marching bands and lots of marching groups. The variety of Irish music playing from the floats was great, too! Definitely recognized a few of the floats as being recycled from Mardi Gras!

Since we were at the end of the parade route, we chose not to stay for the whole parade since it was getting later in the afternoon and we'd been in the sun for most of the day. Plus, we wanted to beat the traffic! In addition to the enjoyable weather and parade, the people watching was absolutely fantastic!

Parade Location:

2nd Saturday Art Walk

Last night I went to Downtown Lafayette's Art Walk and was surprised to find that there were quite a few of the smaller galleries with displaying works that I liked, and little at the Acadian Center for the Arts that I liked! The three smaller galleries featured in the slide show had lots of local art containing many motifs of Cajun life - oysters, crabs, and crayfish. Also, many of the pieces in these smaller galleries contained really vibrant reds, blues, and greens!

I also visited a new gallery, Adrian's Fine Arts and Antiques, that I had not previously been to that featured a charicature artist, which I am usually not a fan of this genre, whoever I was really impressed! This gallery also featured really great live music! By far my favorite stop last night!

As I mentioned, the Acadiana Center for the Arts (ACA) usually contains my favorite works for the evening, however this was not the case last night. The only collection that I enjoyed at the ACA yesterday was one in which the artist had painted various musical instruments (i.e. violin, cielo, bass, French horn, etc.)with different themes from the celestial to a violin made to look like it was wearing a tuxedo. The Vault at the ACA contained some local pottery from the rice patties that didn't really do anything for me, which probably had a lot to do with the drab colors that were used. In the main gallery, there was a photography and acrylic collection in which the artist had taken blurry photos from the back seat of a car and then painted an even blurrier interpretation of the photos. Personally, they were not to my taste because they reminded me of my vision when I take out my contacts: one big blur of colors.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening: good art and some great weather!

On a side note: My friend and I strolled through Park San Succi and found ourselves participating in a hula hoop class demo. Why Red's does not offer this class, is beyond me!

Location:

Ice Gator Game

Saturday night I went to a Lafayette Ice Gator game with some friends. As odd as ice hockey in South Louisiana sounds, so does snow in these parts and that's obviously happened three time since I've been here.

Anyways...

Despite the fact that I am not an avid hockey fan, I am always up for any spectator sport involving speed and body slamming. A friend of mine asked if I was interested in seeing Lafayette's pro or semi-pro (it's up for debate, depending on who you ask)ice hockey team play that evening, and my first response was too Google ticket prices. While at the Ice Gator's website checking out ticketing, I noticed that the March 6th game was list a "guaranteed win night," so I was definitely in!

What is a "guaranteed win night?" According to the Ice Gator website, a "guaranteed win night" is a game that the Ice Gators are so confident they'll win, that if they don't, then they will give every member of the audience a free ticket to the next home game. Since I love FREE things, I was sold on this and obviously went to the game without even knowing who the opponent was (still don't), yet hoping GUEST would win! Unforturnately, things did not work out that way and the Ice Gators won the game in over time!

However, I got into Saturday night's game for free because a girl outstide the stadium was giving away FREE tickets to people in line to buy the $10 game ticket. Therefore, things still worked out and I got my FREE ticket!!

The game was really exciting, but I was surprised by how many times the Gators fell down during game play: definitely don't recall that many face plants on the ice from the Olympics!

Despite the fact that the Ice Gators won and I did not get a free ticket to a second game, I still had a blast and would DEFINTELY go to another Ice Gator game!

The zambonie (see slideshow) was really unique because never before had I seen one designed to look like a gator!

WARNING: I'm a picky eater, so I usually eat at home or take my own snacks along in my purse. After reading that statement it should not surprise you that I ate dinner at home before the game and was really glad that I had, based on my visual appraisal of the food served at the Blackhem Colliseum concession stand. Also, a friend of mine described her hamburger from the concessions. Personally, soggy is not a word I like to associate with any food other than a French Dip. So, eat concession stand food at your own risk! YUCK!

BONUS: We did not stay for the ULL hockey game that began immediately after the Ice Gator game. However, if you attend and Ice Gator game on a night that ULL is playing after them, then you can take advantage of a two for one hockey game!

http://www.icegators.com/

Map:

Mardi Gras Day, February 16, 2010

from the roommate:

Lundi Gras, February 15th

Ludacris Performing at Lundi Gras Festival on the Riverwalk


Pics from the roomie:

Parade Schedule:http://www.mardigrasparadeschedule.com/

Mardi Gras Weekend - Feb 14th

Mardi Gras Weekend - Feb 13th

Endymion - Tom Benson Lombardi Trophy Float


View of opposite Parade Stand and Dance PAR-TAY


Photos from THE ROOMMATE:

http://www.mardigrasparadeschedule.com/