Mardi Gras arrives in the Bywater

I was drawn out my front door late this afternoon by the sounds of drums, horns and cheers from a walking krewe that was passing along Royal Street.

The group, numbering about 100, rounded the corner and stopped at Elizabeth's, a well known neighborhood restaurant.

It looked like one of the many groups that merge on Mardi Gras morning to form the Society of St. Ann, a large eccentric walking krewe that spends much of the day marching from the Bywater to the foot of Canal Street where they toss sentimental items into the Mississippi River for some unexplained reason.

The woman pictured below happily posed for me in front of my house. "A drag queen once told me that you should always open your mouth when being photographed because it makes you look as though you're having fun," she said.