Lamardi Gras!

Today was fun, fun, fun!  We went to Lamar, Texas, on the mainland, to the Lamardi Gras parade and festival.  Lamar is about 40 miles north of Corpus Christi and has a population of about 1600 souls.  So, a wide spot in the road, basically.  Anyway, for 10 years, the Volunteer Fire Department has put on a "Lamardi Gras" two day event to raise money.

There is a parade, food and beer tent, Texas Hold 'Em tent and lots of live music.  Everyone is dressed in purple, yellow and green, traditional Mardi Gras colors.  According to the internet, Rex, the King of Carnival, selected the Mardi Gras colors and assigned meaning to them in 1892. Purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.  They have a King and Queen...

a few floats...

Lamardi Gras float

Bunco Ladies float

Lamardi Gras float

The Red Head's float

(They were all wearing red wigs and dancing up a storm.  The men liked this one pretty well!)

A lot of golf carts....

Lamardi Gras golf cart

Lamardi Gras golf cart

A few antique cars...

And some unexplainable things....

It was all in good fun and all the floats threw LOTS and LOTS of beads.  Even Sid and Bob got into the swing of things:

Sid and Bob after the parade

Even the dogs watching the parade got into the mood.

What a good puppy!

And I have to tell on Nancy. Can you imagine Bob being more decorated than her?  Here's proof:

Bob outstylin' Nancy!

After the parade, we headed to the food and beer tent for lunch.  We ate jambalaya, red beans and rice and ribs.  YUMM-O!  Some great music played and the people watching was interesting.

Now we're heading to the beach as soon as the million mile an hour wind stops blowing.  Later, gators....