As Mardi Gras revelry ends with a party, Lent begins
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — After a day of parades, blaring marching bands, elaborate costumes and crowds screaming for beads, another Mardi Gras celebration is over.
[...] the festivities were marred in the Alabama beach town of Gulf Shores where police said a car participating in the city's Fat Tuesday parade accidentally plowed into a band, injuring 12 people.
Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club strutted from the famed Commander's Palace restaurant to the French Quarter, tossing beads and doubloons to recordings of his music.
In another part of the city, people dressed in costumes took part in the St. Anne's parade — an eclectic walking parade that starts in the Bywater and Marigny neighborhoods and ends in the French Quarter.
Linnea Eitmann and her husband Adam were dressed in hand-made purple and cream colored costumes inspired by French royalty and the Brazilian samba — an homage to the French and Brazilian Mardi Gras traditions.
Linnea says the couple takes part in many activities leading up to Fat Tuesday but this is the day to really "show people what you are made of" when it comes to costumes.
Government offices and many businesses were closed in Mobile, Alabama, for the festivities as many towns and cities across the Gulf Coast also celebrate Mardi Gras.