I am sure that most of my readers have at least heard something of Mardi Gras. Perhaps you might know of the celebration that takes place every year in the United States most popularly in New Orleans. But it is not exclusively celebrated in New Orleans. In fact, it was not even celebrated originally in New Orleans. In 1702, when French Catholic settlers founded the original capital of Louisiana which is now Mobile, Alabama, they began the first tradition of Mardi Gras in the United States a tradition that they brought over from Europe where it had been celebrated long before. Once the capital of Louisiana was moved to New Orleans in 1723, the major celebration was moved there and was then celebrated by most citizens of the city beyond the French Catholics. The celebration has been spread to many communities in the neighboring states of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as along the Mississippi river going as far as here in St. Louis.
Soulard is historically a French neighborhood in St. Louis which now hosts the St. Louis version of the celebration. It has been said to be the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States coming after the New Orleans celebration. This year's Mardi Gras includes several events taking place as early as January 6th to February 21st. Some favorite events which I have took part in during past years are the 'Run For Your Beads' 5k, the Barkus Pet Parade, and partying in the streets on the weekend of the Grand Parade.
Run For Your Beads 5k
As I previously mentioned, Chris and I had signed up to take part in this year's 5K. It was to take place on Saturday at 9:00 AM in Soulard. For us, the morning was pretty disastrous.
I typically do not get much sleep the night before a run. I get nervous and end up thinking about the race all night and simply cannot sleep. I have come to the point where I do not even try to sleep the night before a race anymore. I just expect to be up that night. Chris, on the other hand, does not typically have as much trouble sleeping the day before a race as I do. She fully expected to sleep Friday night. She did not. Not one ounce, according to her. This was only the first in a series of incidents that made Saturday morning a wreck.
Once we did get enough energy in us to start preparing to head down to the starting line, we ran into all sorts of woes. First, we could not find the backpack that we use to carry extra clothes and other items for after the race. While looking for said backpack, Chris had a bunch of luggage attack her in the closet. Eventually I found the backpack just where we put it before we moved, but then Chris could not find her running gloves. It was a cold, glove wearing, kind of day. I found her gloves in my jacket pocket with enough time for us to leave and get to the start line just as the gun would be going off. We left the house and about five minutes later realized that we forgot our race numbers. Crap! Back to the house. There was no way we were going to make it by the gun now, but we still wanted to run.
Once we finally got down there, we handed the car and the boys off to Antijen, and started heading for the start line. It was now twenty minutes after the gun had gone off, but we thought maybe there was still enough of the course set up for us to go. We took a wrong turn on the way to the start line adding another ten minutes to our late start. When we finally got to the start about thirty minutes late and asked if we could still run the course. We were warned that the course would probably not be marked very well anymore. We went anyway. It was not marked well at all.
Generally I run a race faster than Chris, but we were both starting very late and I did not want either Chris or I to run an unmarked course alone. I decided that I would go her pace and we would finish this messed up morning as a couple. At this point things started turning around. It was very cold and we really did not know how the course was supposed to go, but we muddled our way through it together. The part that went through the Budweiser plant was already blocked off by the time we got to that point near the end of the course, so we had to skip that. Other than that though, we did finish the race. Together. Dead last.
You know, it was a shit-hitting-the-fan kind of morning. But Chris and I rolled with the punches and we ended up with a couple of firsts on Saturday. It was both of our first time finishing a race last, which may not be something to brag about, but was a first none the less. It was also the first time we ran a race together. I liked that.
Sorry to Tom and Antijen for having to put up with our crazy morning. Tom did pretty well as a standard, start at the gun, participant of the race. Antijen was a lifesaver when we were frantically trying to figure out what the heck we were trying to accomplish. Thanks guys.
Barkus Pet Parade
Yesterday was Barkus. We took one of our dogs, Sunny, to march in Barkus last year. This year we have two kids, one of which is still an infant, so we elected to go as spectators.
It was, again, a very cold day so we bundled up tight. Despite the cold weather, there was quite a few people on the streets of Soulard for the parade. There were so many dogs there that it actually set a new world record for "most dogs in costumed attire gathered in a single location." At a count of 1,326 dogs in the parade, it shattered the record set in Japan last May of 603.
Compared with Saturday's experience, it was relatively uneventful. We sat around eating sub-par vendor food, which is somehow always extra delicious for sub-par food at event such as this. We shared a hurricane, which we both agreed seemed to have less rum in it than the cocktail's recipe calls for. Then we each had a beer from one of the obscure microbrew vendors who had something other than the always watery tasting Bud Light. Soon after that, the parade started.
There were some pretty good dog floats out there. One float had two dogs riding a tandem bike which was pulling along an organ. Another was an alligator float complete with several dogs dressed as alligators riding atop it. We collected our beads from the folks who were tossing them out, as well as some free Beggin' Strips, which were plentifully tossed out by the parade's sponsor, Purina. Then as the boys were indicating that they were getting cold and tired, we went home.
So far, Mardi Gras has been bittersweet for us. I do not know if we will participate in any more of it this year. The boys and I may go down to the Grand Parade next weekend, if the weather cooperates a bit better, but other than that we look forward to next year's run and pet parade.
Soulard is historically a French neighborhood in St. Louis which now hosts the St. Louis version of the celebration. It has been said to be the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States coming after the New Orleans celebration. This year's Mardi Gras includes several events taking place as early as January 6th to February 21st. Some favorite events which I have took part in during past years are the 'Run For Your Beads' 5k, the Barkus Pet Parade, and partying in the streets on the weekend of the Grand Parade.
Run For Your Beads 5k
As I previously mentioned, Chris and I had signed up to take part in this year's 5K. It was to take place on Saturday at 9:00 AM in Soulard. For us, the morning was pretty disastrous.I typically do not get much sleep the night before a run. I get nervous and end up thinking about the race all night and simply cannot sleep. I have come to the point where I do not even try to sleep the night before a race anymore. I just expect to be up that night. Chris, on the other hand, does not typically have as much trouble sleeping the day before a race as I do. She fully expected to sleep Friday night. She did not. Not one ounce, according to her. This was only the first in a series of incidents that made Saturday morning a wreck.
Once we did get enough energy in us to start preparing to head down to the starting line, we ran into all sorts of woes. First, we could not find the backpack that we use to carry extra clothes and other items for after the race. While looking for said backpack, Chris had a bunch of luggage attack her in the closet. Eventually I found the backpack just where we put it before we moved, but then Chris could not find her running gloves. It was a cold, glove wearing, kind of day. I found her gloves in my jacket pocket with enough time for us to leave and get to the start line just as the gun would be going off. We left the house and about five minutes later realized that we forgot our race numbers. Crap! Back to the house. There was no way we were going to make it by the gun now, but we still wanted to run.
Once we finally got down there, we handed the car and the boys off to Antijen, and started heading for the start line. It was now twenty minutes after the gun had gone off, but we thought maybe there was still enough of the course set up for us to go. We took a wrong turn on the way to the start line adding another ten minutes to our late start. When we finally got to the start about thirty minutes late and asked if we could still run the course. We were warned that the course would probably not be marked very well anymore. We went anyway. It was not marked well at all.
Generally I run a race faster than Chris, but we were both starting very late and I did not want either Chris or I to run an unmarked course alone. I decided that I would go her pace and we would finish this messed up morning as a couple. At this point things started turning around. It was very cold and we really did not know how the course was supposed to go, but we muddled our way through it together. The part that went through the Budweiser plant was already blocked off by the time we got to that point near the end of the course, so we had to skip that. Other than that though, we did finish the race. Together. Dead last.
You know, it was a shit-hitting-the-fan kind of morning. But Chris and I rolled with the punches and we ended up with a couple of firsts on Saturday. It was both of our first time finishing a race last, which may not be something to brag about, but was a first none the less. It was also the first time we ran a race together. I liked that. Sorry to Tom and Antijen for having to put up with our crazy morning. Tom did pretty well as a standard, start at the gun, participant of the race. Antijen was a lifesaver when we were frantically trying to figure out what the heck we were trying to accomplish. Thanks guys.
Barkus Pet Parade
Yesterday was Barkus. We took one of our dogs, Sunny, to march in Barkus last year. This year we have two kids, one of which is still an infant, so we elected to go as spectators.
It was, again, a very cold day so we bundled up tight. Despite the cold weather, there was quite a few people on the streets of Soulard for the parade. There were so many dogs there that it actually set a new world record for "most dogs in costumed attire gathered in a single location." At a count of 1,326 dogs in the parade, it shattered the record set in Japan last May of 603.
Compared with Saturday's experience, it was relatively uneventful. We sat around eating sub-par vendor food, which is somehow always extra delicious for sub-par food at event such as this. We shared a hurricane, which we both agreed seemed to have less rum in it than the cocktail's recipe calls for. Then we each had a beer from one of the obscure microbrew vendors who had something other than the always watery tasting Bud Light. Soon after that, the parade started.
There were some pretty good dog floats out there. One float had two dogs riding a tandem bike which was pulling along an organ. Another was an alligator float complete with several dogs dressed as alligators riding atop it. We collected our beads from the folks who were tossing them out, as well as some free Beggin' Strips, which were plentifully tossed out by the parade's sponsor, Purina. Then as the boys were indicating that they were getting cold and tired, we went home.So far, Mardi Gras has been bittersweet for us. I do not know if we will participate in any more of it this year. The boys and I may go down to the Grand Parade next weekend, if the weather cooperates a bit better, but other than that we look forward to next year's run and pet parade.
[...] our family likes to celebrate in secular way truly has roots in my former religion, Catholicism. I previously mentioned the celebrating we did for Mardi Gras last weekend, in Soulard, but I felt that going to the Grand [...]
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