NEW ORLEANS (AP) — People across New Orleans Tuesday are marking the culmination of the Mardi Gras season with elaborate floats, eccentric costumes and marching bands. Mardi Gras is the city's biggest tourist attraction, and thousands of people have converged on the city in recent weeks to see the elaborate parades, floats, marching bands and dance groups that wind through the city's streets. Families often make specially designed ladders with seats attached on top for young children to sit in so they're better positioned to catch things. Members of the tribes spend months preparing elaborate costumes resembling Native American dress and on Fat Tuesday they travel through various neighborhoods, chanting and dancing to songs passed down through generations. [...] while much of the city's Mardi Gras activities are family-oriented, in the French Quarter many people will be partying and celebrating into the evening.