My first Mardi Gras in the United States and I'm already on top of the float.
Happy Mardi Gras!
A few hours earlier
Mardi Gras.
What does a Sunday morning ask for? A good brunch,
so we are here for a brunch of Cajun food at Blue Dog.
My first time having Cajun food for brunch.
[Waiter] everybody wants a mimosa?
So here is the blue dog.
And some more blue dogs here.
Actually, several blue dogs.
Here they transform a Christmas tree into a Mardi Gras tree.
We know this is a Mardi Gras tree because it has the Mardi Gras colors,
the gold, purple and the green.
Dirty dog rice
That is interesting.
[Counter Lady] Ground meat, green onions and rice, and some seasoning. It's delicious.
It's crab cake benedict. That's the egg, ham, and the crab cake itself, so delicious.
Wow, this food looks so good.
Okay, round two.
Today, the day will be all about Mardi Gras. Parades have started in Lake Charles already
We are not only going to participate, we are going to ride! We are going up there.
This is our float.
It's our float.
So here I am!
All these here waiting for us.
This is so cool
Here it didn't even start yet, we are just going to the place where the parade will start.
[Lady] Happy Mardi Gras!
Just a warm up!
These guys sell out every year.
There is a carnival here at the departure point, so people come here before they go to their floats
and kids just love it.
Wow!
[Bryan] This is the first part!
[Bryan] Regular hat, and then the mask.
Show me your bag
[Bryan] Hope you brought the bag, I carry everything in it.
[Bryan] Got the pants and then we got the vest.
That's a lot of Crown Royal! [Bryan] Oh yes, ma'am it is!
You had them all?
[Bryan] I've had them all, I was a bartender for a long time and I made one of these right here,
[Bryan] so it's happy Mardi Gras.
Happy Mardi Gras! [Bryan] Yes, ma'am.
So let me explain to my international friends the traditions of Mardi Gras here in the United States.
To get started you have the colors, this is why I'm dressed in green.
Remember: green, purple and gold. Then, the music; they play comtemporary music
but there are also some traditional Mardi Gras songs.
Then for the parade, it's a sequence of floats but the main thing: there's something called beads
It's this necklace here.
It's made of plastic and people, on top of floats, they throw to whoever is watching the parade
down there and people go crazy, asking for more, more, and more!
So, this is what you guys can expect for today.
Here there are a lot of Miss Mardi Gras' too, from various ages; children, adults, teenagers.
[Isabel] It's a lot of fun.
[Isabel] Everybody lines up on the streets
[Isabel] just to see the whole parade
[Isabel] and all the krewes and everything.
[Isabel] You throw beads, it's a lot of fun.
[Bryan] She came from Brazil to Mardi Gras.
[Kelcie] Hi!
[Bryan] She is Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras' main queen.
Wow! Awesome, congratulations! [Kelsie] Thank you, thank you!
[Bryan] Take your hand and put it in just like this right here
[Bryan] and then that way, you barely pull it off.
[Bryan] And you can just pull it off and throw them.
Let's go!
This is so crazy!
I'm feeling powerful here! The power of the beads.
All this to go!
That one is smart with an umbrella.
Happy Mardi Gras!
Oh my, so fun!
Kim, good job!
[Kim] Good job! That was so much fun!
[Kim] The little kids, oh my God!
People get hundreds of these.
[Bryan] Yes ma'am, hundreds. What do they do with them later?
[Bryan] A lot of people have trinkets, they make extra beads out of them.
[Bryan] They will break these and use fishing string and they will make their own little concoction,
[Bryan] and they twine it up like this right here, or they'll make anything.
[Bryan] People even make baskets, like foreign countries make weave baskets out of straw and stuff?
[Bryan] They will make a bead basket out of this
[Bryan] Or they will just go to a plain, white purse for a woman and they will hot glue these
[Bryan] to a purse to make it all "beadazzled"
That was amazing, you know, you are on the other side, and you see people's faces, their happiness
I love it, I want it again, you know, two hours went by just like that.
This area here has two great casino resorts: the Golden Nugget, where we are, and there's also the L'Auberge
over there. So there is a trolley connecting both, you can get it, it's free, and enjoy both.
This is what we are doing tonight, we are having dinner over there.
Jack Daniel's
Oh, wow!
Gator, my new favorite.
[Lyle] This is beef shortrib
[Lyle] St. Louis style pork ribs.
[Lyle] This is Andouille sausage and Kobe brisket.
[Lyle] Our own house made pickles.
[Lyle] These are our baked beans, we've been making the same recipe, we haven't changed it since we opened
[Lyle] and our own barbecue sauce.
Barbecue time!
Love Lake Charles!
That was totally amazing, I'm loving the food here,
you know, if you haven't tried southern food,
especially food from Louisiana,
you don't know what you are missing.
Tomorrow there is more Lake Charles
and Mardi Gras. Have you seen my first video here yet?
So go take a look, it's really fun.