The night, like countless others Bourbon Street has welcomed over the decades, started out ripe for celebration. With temperatures hovering in the 50s (10-15 Celsius) hours after the arrival of the new year, the open-air party pulsing down New Orleans’ famed nocturnal artery was still hot, drawing revelers from near and far.
After a 3 a.m. pizza, a Pennsylvania man whose family had driven more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) to check the city off their bucket list headed back into the music-filled street.
A pair of former Princeton University football teammates joined the crowd so one could show the other what the city’s easygoing energy was all about.
With years of waiting tables in the city’s restaurants behind him, a New Orleans native came down to watch Bourbon Street’s nightly parade of humanity …