Wallet Card: Griffey Goes to Mardi Gras Day 6 - Thoth and Bacchus

It's Day 6 of the Wallet Card Mardi Gras Extravaganza, and today we look at Thoth (pronounced Toe-th) and Bacchus, King of the Uptown parades. These photos were taken Sunday, February 15th in our usual parading spot at St. Charles Avenue and Delachaise.

I'll go ahead and mention here that this was by far the rowdiest night we had. The liquor flowed on this night, my friends. I personally had to step in to prevent a few fights, but in the end all was well and everyone had a great time. Still, gird your loins.

I've mentioned numerous times that pacing should always be a part of your Mardi Gras game plan. So is laying down a good foundation for prolonged day-drinking. For that reason we went to Louisiana Purchase Kitchen in Metairie and filled our bellies with greasy soul food. This beauty was parked outside the restaurant. It's not an uncommon sight down here, but I thought you might want to check it out.

This is a real place. I do not own it.

The Bead Tree is still far from full capacity. Sadly this is the last day I would get to photograph it as we were not uptown for the rest of Mardi Gras after Sunday.

Oh, yeah. It's gonna be one of those days.

Does he recognize me?

Oh, yeah. He does now.

Yes, people get arrested at Mardi Gras. Them po-po's don't play. God bless 'em.

That jacket...

There's the Clydesdales again.

One of my favorite Mardi Gras photos pretty much ever.

The King of Bacchus this year was John C. Reilly, also known as Chest Rockwell, Cal Naughton, Jr., and Dr. Steve Brule. That's him on top. I got a few doubloons from him.

Sadly all my photos came out blurry, but he looked like he was having a great time.

My buddy who rode in Bacchus got a much better picture before the parade started:

You can see he's clutching his doubloons which look like this:

For your health!

These guys are Indy card drivers. I don't really follow the sport, but someone out there may recognize them.

These guys didn't break all Mardi Gras long, and then....

Yeah!!!

If you look above and behind the guy in the mask you can see Craig Robinson who you may know from The Office and the Hot Tub Time Machine movies. He's in town a lot.

There's Craig again.

This is my friend, Jason. He bombarded us with pearls, then the parade paused for a moment so we took a few pictures.

What's that through the tree?

It's Bacchusarus!!

Where Endymion's floats are gigantic, Bacchus' are iconic. There were a couple I didn't get on camera that I'd like to have shown you (the Bacchagator is pretty cool), but I do have a friend who works where they make the floats, and thanks to him we have this picture of King and Mrs. Kong.

You're not allowed to throw beads back at the floats, but that rule is suspended for the Kongs. These things get bombarded with beads as they pass.

The Bacchagator I mentioned earlier? It has its own wifi network:

With all these pictures being taken from inside the crowd, you don't really get a sense of the mass and density of the crowds at Bacchus. Here's a picture my buddy took at Canal St. from on the float:

Solid humanity. If you bring your sense of humor along, Mardi Gras will give you some of the best people watching you've ever had in your life.

One more picture:

That's our friend, Lindsey, marching with the 610 Stompers past the Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. How fun is that?

Okay, that does it for parades I went to as a spectator. The final post will be of a parade I actually rode in. See you then!