Gators, Plantations & Obama: St. Bernard State Park, LA 6/3/08

We woke up early this morning, about 6:30, and sat out on the deck overlooking the bayou. It was so peaceful watching the fish jump and feeling the coolness of the morning. At first we couldn’t believe it, but we saw two alligators swim right by us. Yikes! Really, this place is just amazing. This inspired us to take a swamp tour, so by mid-morning we were at McGee’s Swamp Tours on a boat cruising thru the Atchafalya Basin. Our guide was a darling old Cajun who had a very strong, lilting French accent. (See photo of Curtis and me after the tour). Unfortunately, I only understood about half of what he said. We went on about a two hour tour and saw osprey, egrets, cypress trees hanging with moss, and yes – even another alligator. We stopped at a little town in the heart of Cajun country, called Breaux Bridge and had lunch at Café Des Amis. (Crawfish pie for Ned, grilled crawfish on a croissant for moi). After that we headed for New Orleans via the Great River Highway and Old Plantation Road. It was so beautiful to drive thru miles and miles of sugar cane fields. We stopped along the way and saw some of the stately old plantations. Our favorite was Oak Valley Plantation. What was really bizarre was driving down this windy river road, with the mighty Mississippi on our left with the huge tanker ships poking up over the levy, the plantations and sugar cane fields on our right, and an occasional big industrial refinery every so often. It was weird having all these worlds collide. We pulled into St. Bernard’s State Park, about 18 miles outside of downtown New Orleans and were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful and new it is. Apparently, it was totally rebuilt after Katrina. The best part – it has free wi-fi!!! Well, the first thing I did was fire up the computer to check on the election results. It was great to sit at the campsite and watch the early results. Ned had to pry me away with promises of touring the French Quarter (oh – all right). We went to Mother’s Restaurant and had a cup of jambalaya (for me) and a cup of gumbo for Ned. We then walked all thru the French Quarter, stopping later on at Café Du Monde for a cup of café au lait and beignets. Absolutely delish!! We continued strolling thru the French Quarter and eventually ended up on Bourbon Street, getting caught up in the vibe of music and people. Every bar had sports playing on the tv, but we actually managed to find one that was playing the election results on CNN. Does it get any better than this? Hanging out in New Orleans, after an incredibly wonderful day of seeing gators and graceful plantation homes, and then watching Obama secure the nomination