This block of photos was snapped on St. Charles Avenue Uptown ten days before Mardi Gras Day. There are several smaller Krewes rolling in New Orleans that draw reasonable crowds and give everyone a chance to be near the front and get loaded up with beads and other throws.

The parade routes uptown, day and night, are family events very different than the Bourbon Street experience. If you asked most New Orleaneans about Bourbon Street they would prefer to take a beating than to go anywhere near the French Quarter during Carnival.