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

Cajuns & Bayous: Lake Fausse Point State Park, LA 6/2/08

First of all, congrats to Josh for getting the internship at KPBS! He'll be a news reporter for the summer. Way to go!!! Today was the day for sinking our teeth into Cajun culture, both literally and figuratively. We started our day in Opelousas, the “Birthplace of Zydeco Music”, “Birthplace of Swamp Pop Music”, “Capital of Louisiana during the Civil War” and just about the capital of everything Cajun including “Home of the International Cajun Joke Telling Contest” – I kid you not. We skipped breakfast at the campground and instead ate at the Palace Café in Opelousas. (Yes, biscuits were part of the egg breakfast.) We spent the next several hours on back roads driving windy roads thru sugar cane fields and lots of bayous. We spent a lot of time in Iberia Parish, playing tourist to such places such as “Evangeline” the historic site that commemorates Longfellow’s poem of the same. We eventually made our way to Avery Island, to visit the Tabasco factory and explore Jungle Island. The Tabasco tour was interesting, but nothing compared to the country store where we sampled everything Tabasco: Tabasco ice cream (2 varieties), Tabasco soda, all different sauces and were even a product development test panel for Raspberry Chipolte Tabasco. We gave it a thumbs up, so if it hits a shelf near you, thank us. We also tasted boudin, but neither of us much cared for it. From there we took the tour of Jungle Island and saw exotic birds, a stolen Buddha statute (in my mind bad karma) proudly displayed, tropical flora all meandering next to Petit Bayou Anse (the original name of the Tabasco product). From there we drove thru more Cajun country where every street corner had someone selling some form of crawfish. My favorite sign was “Drive thru – live and boiled crawfish. Now accepting food stamps!” We were hoping to get in a tour of the Konriko Rice Factory, “America’s Oldest Operating Rice Mill” (and it looked it), but were too late. We did manage to visit their country store and sampled their rice with all kinds of seasonings to choose from. Our favorite Road Food book suggested some local restaurants, but we either couldn’t find them or they were closed. Let me digress and explain the roads here – NOTHING is marked or labeled. Often we found ourselves driving down a windy road only to find that it dead-ended at a bayou or became another road. I’m working between two maps, the one given to us at the Louisiana Visitors Center and a Triple AAA map. Neither map matches up. Anyway, I asked some guy walking down the street if he could recommend a local restaurant, so we took our chances with “Lil River”. It was pretty good. Between the two of us we sampled etouffee crawfish, fried crawfish, bisque crawfish and bread pudding in rum sauce. From there our travels took us to Lake Fausse State Park. I picked this camping spot because it was the most remote one I could find situated in a bayou wilderness. All I can say is that it is UNBELIEVABLE! This is the most gorgeous, wild camping spot I’ve ever experienced. The camping site comes with a “deck” right on the bayou. (See photo. Ned taking a moment when we arrived to experience the beauty). I couldn’t wait to get on our bikes and begin exploring. There is a 3 mile mountain bike trail that goes thru the bayou so even tho it was dusk (about 7:30 – 8ish) we decided to go for it. What started out as beautiful and exhilarating soon turned to sheer terror. I am not kidding. We are literally in the thick of the bayou, the insects are making a deafening sound, several are buzzing our heads and body, and you cannot veer off the path one inch or you will be IN the friggin’ swamp. Before we took the trail it warned us of: alligators, water snakes, 200 lb. snapping water turtles, armadillos, coyotes, bobcats, red fox, & poison ivy. They were not kidding! The first couple of armadillos were cute, then as it got dark they were just plain scary. The snake that slithered on the path inches from my bike was terrifying (I think this is the place where I started crying), and an owl flew over our heads and began hooting. As I was peddling like hell, Ned was behind me reassuring me that everything was okay. Needless to say, when we finally returned to asphalt I was ecstatic. It was a lot like taking an E ticket ride at Disneyland, but without the safety net of knowing it would work out okay. I can happily report that I’m writing this in the safety of the locked winniemobile, as possums wander by.