Mardi Grads

Man, it took me an entire week to muster up the gumption to post about our Mardi Grads trip, but here goes. The Wednesday prior to Mardi Grads weekend, Danny got his marching orders. Friday night we were all sitting around thinking that we better do something fun because it could possibly be our last weekend together. After debating about driving down to New Orleans for Bourbon St. we came up with a more rational idea of going to Soulard instead. Saturday morning after being somewhat productive, we crammed into the Capri for the drive to STL. In the car was Danny, Lauren, Kendrick, Matt, Diane and myself, the caprice handled the load nicely.

Leaving Rolla

First stop was the Schnucks to load up on booze. The last thing we wanted to do was spend a bunch of doe on over priced beer. Kendrick had the great idea that we'd drink Gatorade and Vodka and maybe they'd balance each other out (didn't work for me). We walked out with several gallons of Gatorade and Vodka ready to go.

We made it to the Hotel (the Millennium) around 3:00. Parking the car took some time because the garage was sooo packed. We finally invented a spot in the corner of the garage and headed inside. Six of us crammed into the 15 x 20' hotel room and began to mix our drinks and ready for the 1.5 mile hike to the action.

Pre-gaming in our hotel room.

With drink concoctions in hand, we marched down to snow covered sidewalks to Soulard. On the way we encountered several herds of partiers calling it the day already and heading back. Fortunately when we finally arrived the celebration was still happening. We walked around for awhile taking in the "sights" to be seen.

The Young Couples out on the Town.

Once we finished our tour of the town and our drinks, we headed back to the hotel around 8:30. We freshened up and went down to the landing to continue the good times. We ate at The Spaghetti Factory then went searching for a bar for the rest of the night. The cover charges were high that night, so we settled on heading to the top of The Big Band Piano Bar (where the cover was free) and listened to a great 90s cover rock band for an hour or two. After a few drinks here we were ready for some better entertainment. I went downstairs to the piano bar to see if I could get a discount on the cover since we had already purchased drinks upstairs. To my surprise, they obliged and let us in FOR FREE (cover was originally $10 a person). We spent the rest of the evening drinking a singing to the familiar 80s tunes.

Posing at the piano bar.

"Don't Stop, Bee-Leaving..."

We closed down the Piano Bar and found a cab ride back to the hotel around 2:00. Once at the hotel, the guys (Matt, K-dick, Danny and I) headed down a couple of blocks to White Castle to ward off the beer munchies. We took the food back to the hotel with us, consumed, the hit the hay.

We checked out and were on the road by 11 the next morning. We were all moving quite slowly but no one was too hung over...yet. We wanted some good ol' Hill Italian food but nothing was open on sunday, so we settled for Big and Tasty burgers at McDees instead. We made it back to Rolla around 2:00. By this time, I started feeling REAL hung over. I slept most of the afternoon away until the Super Bowl aired. We watch the super boring super bowl then called it the weekend.

No arrests, no public nudity, and no more money was the result of the weekend, but it was damn fun hanging out with good friends and made for some good stories.

As always, more pics available here.