We love our front patio! It’s the perfect place to watch parades, like the Mardi Gras parade coming up on March 6, 2011. The parade, often referred to as the Joe Cain Day Parade, is an all-weekend event. It starts on Saturday, March 5, with the Masquerade Ball at the Miners Foundry and ends on Sunday with the parade where they have booths set up with Cajun-style food on South Pine Street. There are a variety of floats and performers that strut down Broad Street tossing Mardi Gras beads to the parade-goers. Kids always go home with handfuls of candy and a neck heavy with beads. This parade is fun for the whole family!For information on how this New Orleans tradition ended up in Nevada City, read this article published in The Union, our local newspaper.