Greetings from Breaux Bridge, La.  Right in the middle of Cajun country.  This  is our second night staying here as we wanted to experience the real southern lifestyle of these Cajun people.

First thing this morning we booked a tour on the Atchafalaya Basin swamp tour boat and what a tour it was.  We were surprised that it wasn’t more like you might imagine in the Florida Everglades.  This was completely different.  It was kind of like motoring on the Willamette with a full carpet of swamp plants and ancient dead trees all around you.  Oh and full of alligators...more on that later.

Our tour guide was a true old salt whose family has lived in the area for centuries.  In fact as we got off the boat someone asked him his lineage and he said on his mother’s side their  family name is Breaux.  Thus  the city was named after his family.  He was full of stories of hunting and fishing in the bayou and of his ancestors living on the water.

Claudia made a point of saying that she had never seen an alligator and he was amazed.  It was like you mean you haven’t seen rain before?  Pretty funny.  So he proceeded to point out a small gator just for her enjoyment.  We didn’t see more as he said that it has been too cold for them to be out as they are cold blooded animals.

He talked about this complex river swamp ecosystem with tales of frog hunting which he does often (at night with a light and his bare hands), hunting for deer, and all kind of animals that you wouldn’t think lived in this habitat.  Oh and he explained with some reverence all of the species of venomous snakes.  It’s definitely not for the timid.

We couldn’t muster enough people to book a tour on an air boat so I might not be able to report on that experience.  I did get some good pictures of these boats so you kids can copy with your Legos.

We chose this park because right outside the fence is a famous restaurant called Crawfish Town USA.  It was a blast.  Zydeco music in the background and real southern families enjoying their favorite delicacies.  Mainly mountains of crawfish.  We kind of don’t get as all you eat are the tails after spending time peeling the shell off.  Definitely “Stickiness” involved and not for me!

Claudia had jambalaya and I had shrimp gumbo.  As you know I had gumbo in Texas and this was completely different.  LA style gumbo is made with a flour rue that is browned in a skillet which makes it have a brown tone.  Texas style apparently is made with tomatoes.  When we told the waitress about tomatoes in gumbo you would have thought that I taken the Lords name in vain.  Oh and for dessert we had bread pudding.  I’ll never taste anything better.  Mal, it was ambrosia!

Tomorrow we are leaving the area.  We will meet our new friends from Colorado at a state campground outside of New Orleans.  Talk to you then.

Kyle, take care of yourself and Luke too.  Love to all.

Papa/Grandpa