Hello everyone! It’s been a pretty cold week here in Washington and it’s been tough to get out and do very much, so this will probably be another short post. We have begun our Mardi Gras celebration in earnest and are looking forward to a long weekend of food and music to come. Mason and I have continued our adventures in the woods, mostly smashing anything and everything made of ice. And I sorted through a bunch of pictures this week from my two years in Japan which was an interesting trip down memory lane. Other than that, I’ve been sticking pretty close to home this week.
Mardi Gras is early this year falling next Tuesday, February 16th. Mardi Gras is one of my absolute favorite times of year, and I always try to celebrate it with as much vigor as I can. My first Mardi Gras was in 2008 when I was living in New Orleans and it was such a wonderful experience that the following year I encouraged my folks to come down and celebrate with me although not actually on Fat Tuesday which is a bit hectic and very expensive to get a room. For me, the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras are a bit quieter and more enjoyable anyway in New Orleans, with parades mostly for the locals. When I left New Orleans and moved to Japan, I had a big Mardi Gras party at my apartment for all of my friends, many of whom had no idea what Mardi Gras was, and when I lived on St. Thomas I celebrated with my friend, Will, who was from Louisiana. I’ve been lucky to have been back to New Orleans for it several times since. Since starting this blog, I celebrated Mardi Gras in tiny Marshall, North Carolina (which they called “Marshall Gras”), and then spent the last two in New Orleans, one of which my folks once again joined me for. This year I’ll obviously be home for it, but we’re going all-in to celebrate. Our house is decorated with all the beads, lights and masks that we have and we’re going to have a great Mardi Gras weekend which we’re all looking forward to.
As I mentioned, the week has been a cold one but that hasn’t stopped Mason and I from getting out into it and seeing what we can get into. We’ve found a lot of puddles iced over and he takes great delight in smashing through the top layer of ice and watching the splash. We’ve found some really cool places in the woods where something iced over and then the water underneath either ran out or absorbed into the ground leaving wonderful ice bubbles which are incredibly satisfying to smash through with our walking sticks. He’s having a great time and getting a good dose of winter, although we’re both starting to notice the buds on the trees and are looking forward to the return of our friends: the bumblebees, caterpillars and ladybugs. He continues to grow and learn every week and it’s cool to be on this journey with him. A couple of weeks ago, Mason’s mom got him some books about physics and this week we had a nice long discussion about gravity. While he kept hoping that everything I dropped would fall up instead of down, I think he really understood the basics of it. I’ve also been doing my best to talk about snow and ice.
Friday night last week we celebrated the Courir de Mardi Gras which is the more rural, Cajun influenced Mardi Gras that happens out in the Acadiana region of Louisiana. I cooked up a whole-chicken and andouille gumbo and we listened to some great Swamp Pop and Zydeco music. When my folks came to visit me in Louisiana in 2019, we headed out to Fred’s Lounge in Mamou (the Capital of Cajun Music) the Saturday before Mardi Gras weekend and saw one of the big parades in Lafayette, so they had a good idea of what we were celebrating although neither they nor I have actually been to this particular celebration on Mardi Gras Day itself. It was another successful Friday night.
It was a pretty quiet weekend, which was just fine by me. One of my friends, who lived in the next town up from me when I lived in Japan, is building a website and wanted to use some of my photos. This was a great reason for me to go back and look through those two years’ worth of photos and try and pick out some of my favorites (a couple I’ve included with this post). I had plenty of struggles while I was there, living in a tiny fishing village and teaching in rural public schools, but some really good memories as well. It was nice to relive some of the better times and see some of the beautiful places I traveled to while I was there. I also got a little work on my van done over the weekend. I took the television out to make some more storage space. I don’t use the TV at all and the cubby it sits in will make a nice addition to my kitchen. I’m definitely enjoying having some time to think some of these little things out, and I’ll be sharing an updated look inside my van in a few weeks. Saturday night my mom cooked up a wonderful, non-Mardi Gras related Italian feast which we enjoyed in front of the fire with a few glasses of wine. Then on Sunday I went over to Mason’s folks place to watch the Super Bowl. The game was on a little too late for him to watch with us, but we enjoyed some delicious wings and tater-tots for dinner together beforehand.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the final week of Mardi Gras, so we took a little Mardi Gras themed journey to Arlington, Virginia. There’s a wonderful little spot there called Bayou Bakery which is one of the only places in the area where you can get an authentic King Cake. While we were there we picked up some muffaletta sandwiches as well which turned out to be some of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time. We enjoyed them on a somewhat warm and sunny afternoon at the Marine Corps’ Iwo Jima Memorial overlooking the city. From there we headed down to the closest Total Wine n’ More to stock up on some Abita beer and even found their seasonal Mardi Gras Bock (not my favorite, but ‘tis the season). It was a fun day out, and got us well on our way to being prepared for the upcoming festivities.
Tomorrow will be Dinner and a Movie on its new day and time, and we’ll be watching Back to the Future, a definite classic from my youth. Then the big weekend will begin. Friday we will celebrate the Lunar New Year and then Mardi Gras will take over and run through until Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m hoping I’ve inspired you to cook up a pot of gumbo or jambalaya, pick up a 6-pack of Abita, turn on some Dixieland Jazz and join us. While I won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day myself this year, I hope y’all will be celebrating with the ones you love over the weekend as well. And here in the United States we’ll be celebrating Presidents’ Day as well on Monday, so it is a BUSY weekend ahead with no real plans but to enjoy it. They’re calling for cold and snow all weekend, so it’ll be just fine by us to be warm and dry inside. Have a festive week y’all, and I’ll see you right back here, same time next week.
Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler (Let the Good Times Roll),
-Mike