February 24 - Mardi Gras Madness

Today we moved to the Hyde Park Inn, where we met up with Ellen and John Kelly.  John and Ellen live a couple of hours south of Sydney in St. Georges Basin.  We first met Ellen and John in 2011 while on the Rhine River Cruise. Along with Joan and Ken Rockburne and Sue and Dave Fahrner, we became good friends. It turned out that it was the Kelly’s honeymoon. Since then, we have vacationed with John and Ellen multiple times. Together we did the Rhone/Soane river cruise and an Alaska Cruise. They came to Ontario, where together we visited Niagara Falls and we went to St. Georges Basin just before Covid hit.

The temperature was warm, and the sun was out in a clear blue sky. It was a wonderful day for a parade.

Hyde Park is right across the street from our hotel.  As luck would have it, this was the marshalling area for the Pride Mardi Gras parade. It was estimated that there would be 12,500 marchers, 200 floats and 500,000 spectators. This an annual occasion made even bigger this year by the World Pride event.

We went over to the park in the late afternoon to view the costumes. There we saw more than an eyeful. There were angels, village people look-a-likes, rough boys in the bare ass leathers, drag queens and zombies.  Nobody can say they weren’t having a great time.

Before leaving the park, we went for a walk around the it.  It is well maintained and very serene away from the madness.

For dinner we went to Mazzaro, which is a nice Mediterranean restaurant next door to the hotel.  I had duck and Marg had white fish.  No complaints, but nothing to rave about.