Today ist Fat Tuesday, the day the Mardi Gras celebration comes to a peak in New Orleans. Security has been tight in the Big Easy - on par with the Super Bowl - leading up to today. All of the parades, partying and festivities associated with this last day of the Carnival season will continue until Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.
I was fortunate enough experience Mardi Gras a few times with some friends who are "locals" so my experience was better than most. I had access to a viewing stand (way better than in the crowd), to private crawfish boils between parades, and I stayed just off Bourban Street so I had easy access.
I was also on Bourbon Street at the end of Fat Tuesday when the police come through on horseback side by side to fille the entire street and drive the reverls out...
...and right behind them...the water truck that srays out water to wash the building and the street off. You don't want to linger when that happens....