Carnivale

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It's Carnivale day here in chilly Manitou Springs (36° at the moment,) or, as it's called, "Mardi Gras, Manitou style." The festival itself is fairly simple. Starting at 10:30, one of our three downtown parks hosts the annual Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo Cookoff. This, of course, is a Gumbo contest, with trophies awarded to the top three Gumbo's, with awards for both Best Showmanship and People's Choice. After the Gumbo contest, people begin lining Manitou Avenue for the 1:00 start of the Carnivale Parade, your basic small town version of Mardi Gras. You might get some candy and, more importantly, beads (I got four strands this year, and one piece of saltwater taffy. I almost got a pack of Sour Patch Kids, but I would have had to shove this brat out of the way to get to them first, and people were watching.) The parade begins right in front of our apartment, so we always get some beads. We had about 30 strands each built up, but a cat got to them. Needless to say, we had to start collecting them over today. Naturally, every bar in Manitou has been open all morning, and every one of them will be packed into the evening, especially the ones that offer live music. When we have money, we go, however, this year we stayed home. All in all, it's always a good time, and even though the parade was kind of short this year, more than likely due to the cold, we had fun. (Photo by me)