The weekend of October 31st is the 3rd craziest time of the year in New Orleans, bested only by Mardi Gras and Jazzfest. October 31st, 2010 was no different.
The hostel was PACKED, we were selling dorm beds in crowded 8-person rooms for $35 bucks or more, and the energy in the city was practically a tangible object. Customers were dashing from room to room to bathroom as they scrounged up costumes, painted faces, took group photos, borrowed the hostel scissors a dozen times to cut some piece of fabric or another and generally built excitement into the walls.
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| A group of superheroes (and gladiators) from room 16 |
We were catching the fever ourselves, because we were going to get to
participate this evening! One of our fabulous bosses was giving us part of the evening off to go enjoy Halloween for several hours, so Adam had run to the costume shop that morning and picked out a brilliant set of costumes for us.
It took him a while, probably because he kept trying on wigs. But eventually, he focused, purchased the costumes and came back to join in the hostel bustle of preparations.
Here was the end result of our efforts:
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| Perfect Halloween irony for a married couple |
We actually shaved Adam's head to give him that tonsure, and he had drunk people touching his head all night, to check if it was real or a wig. :)
It was obviously the right choice of costume - God approved:
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| Holy beam of light |
We hit the town as soon as we were relieved of our duties, squeezing onto the St. Charles Avenue streetcar with an appropriate companion, the Devil, to get to the French Quarter:
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| He's a pretty neat guy - good conversationalist, friendly, etc... ;) |
The first costume we saw after reaching the French quarter was by FAR the
most amazing one I have or ever will see in my life. Unfortunately for you, this is how my photo of him turned out:
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| :( |
His/her costume was incredible - it was on stilts, covered head to toe in some sort of Dragon/monster costume, complete with lights running down his spine and glowing eyes. He was super impressive, and Adam couldn't stop talking about him for days after - he asked every single guest who'd been to Bourbon Street that night if they'd seen the Amazing Monster On Stilts. (sadly, no one had)
Anyways, we sauntered the length of Bourbon and then Frenchman Street, gawking at costumes and enjoying the laughs people had when they saw
our costumes - some people took pics of us, which was further affirmation that we'd picked appropriate costumes. And then there were all the people who couldn't believe Adam had actually shaved his head. :)
We saw some other really hilarious and well-made costumes, and I tried to get photos of a few of them:
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| Cheetos guys with body paint |
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| This was a group of Spidermen, including venom and other variations. There were heaps of superheros - the girls all had "sassy" versions, and we saw just about every superhero on the books at least once |
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| This car wasn't technically made up for Halloween, but it was SO COOL. Those are matchbox cars lining the rims. And there is a carousel horse on the hood. |
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| NEAT-O - reminds me of my childhood :) |
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| These vikings had a "vessel" that actually rolled around |
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| Perhaps my personal favorite of the evening: Antoine Dodson |
I may have been really tired the next day, but it was totally worth it.
Thanks for the crazy, happy Halloween, New Orleans!
P.S. This post is a request from my Hubbs, and I dedicate it to him. Sorry I took so long, Hon! <3
