Swamp and Bayou Tour

Thursday, May 19 - Well, today we went looking for gators.  We took the shuttle back to the river and took another grayline tour, this one of the swamp and bayou in the Jean Lafite National Historical Park.

There were only 8-10 of us, so we had lots of room to move around on our pontoon boat.

We headed out through the first canal, into a second larger canal, then that opened up into a bayou.  A canal is man-made (most of these were made by the oil companies to haul their equipment in and out) whereas a bayou (defined as  "a sluggish marshy tributary of a lake or river") is a natural body of water.  Many canals dead-end.   You will see in later pictures that the canal gets wider.

 We saw lots and lots of turtles.  Actually, this has been the year of the turtle for us, because we have seen turtles throughout our entire trip, in Missouri, Indiana, Texas and now in Louisiana.  We probably saw a couple dozen on this boat ride.

Most of them were like this one, but we did see a soft-shelled turtle just under the surface of the water.  And back at the camp, they had a large alligator turtle, and a large soft-shell turtle in a tank.

Then we started seeing gators.  Most of them were fairly small, but they were really hard to see in the mossy stuff on top of this water.

Our boat driver explained some of the foliage we were seeing.  This is a cypress tree, and around its base are what is called "knees" which help support the tree.  He said that if this tree fell into the water, it would not rot, and years later the wood would be the same as if it were still standing.

Alligators are territorial so the guide knew where to look for the gators, but he said there is one big one here called "Big Joe" (of course) that rules the roost, and he roams this entire bayou, starting at this sign.

He said they don't always see him, he just comes out when he wants something to eat, and, fortunately or unfortunately, we did not see him today.  But we saw more gators, some a little larger than the first ones we had seen.

On this middle picture, the gator is lying on the log.

Along the way, we passed some structures including this cabin, which has been used in a couple of movies.  This bayou was used in the movie "Pelican Brief" and some of the jungle scenes from the Survival TV series were also filmed here. 

We saw a lot of Spanish moss hanging on trees, and we have seen this throughout the south as we drive.  On these trees, though, we also had to watch out for any snakes that might want to drop in on us.  We didn't have any of those visitors, thankfully.  We were told that they used to make pillows and mattresses out of this Spanish moss.  They would soak it in water to get rid of any living varmints in it, then dry it out and bundle it.  But they had to do this about once a month because bugs would re-inhabit the moss.  Another source of bedbugs, I guess.  As we went into the bigger bayou, we same a couple of different species of birds.  The white one is an egret, I forget what the blue one was.

Our boat captain then got out his show and tell.  He had an alligator skull, which was very heavy.  He told us they measure alligators in the water by the inches between their nostrils and their eyes.  Each inch equals a foot in length, and this is useful when they are trying to capture gators in the water, so they know how big a gator they are dealing with, even if they can only see its head.

Then he got out his real surprise -- a live alligator.  He showed us how to hold it, and pointed out that it's mouth was taped shut.  Guess who was the first brave soul to to step forward!

We all took our turn, the Joe decided he needed a second look.

This gator is about 3 years old, so you can see he has a lot of growing to do.  The largest gator we saw today was a female back in the weeds.  The boat captain tried to get her to move by throwing ice toward her (they used to feed them marshmellows but since this is now a national park, that is no longer allowed), but she never did come out where we could see her very good.  So we headed back in, still keeping an eye out for any life in or out of the water.  Just before we got to the dock, a gator led us in, and we later found it lying right by the edge of the water.

We finished the tour and headed back to town, for lunch at Bubba Gumps.  Joe opted for some shrimp dish, of course, but I stayed safe with a cheeseburger (which was very good).

They have 2 license-plate size signs on each  table that say "Run Forrest Run" or "Stop Forrest Stop" and if you need a server, you turn up the "Stop" one and any server going by will stop to see what you want.  A rather unique idea, I thought.

We finished our nice lunch and started heading back to the bus stop, stepping in and out of gift shops along the way (there were a lot of them.  As we waited for the bus, a very colorful gal walked by us, and we had seen her yesterday in similar garb.  She said she was a teacher, and ran a summer dance camp, and this was her way to raise funds for her summer program.  She expected a tip for her picture, so we finally dug up $1.

We got back to the campground about 4:30 and rested for a while, although today was not nearly as tiring as yesterday.  We decided to walk over to the bar area, where they serve pizza and wings, so we relaxed on the patio overlooking the navigational canal we are camped on, a very pretty, restful view.  It was a good day.

French Quarter

Wednesday, May 18 - This moring we took the campground shuttle down to the French Quarter for the Katrina/City Tour.  We had a few minutes before we boarded the tour bus, so we walked down to the river, which was just right there.

They were also getting ready for the Riverboat Cruise, so the steamship Nathez was right there in port.

A lady played the calliope as they boarded the boat, so we could hear her playing from our tour bus.  As we toured the city, we saw lots of historical statutes.  New Orleans is a very old city, with lots of history, especialy during the civil war.

The bus driver drove us through the Lower Ninth Ward, which sustained most of the damage from the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.  Remember, the flooding was due to the levee failure at Lake Pontchatrain, not the hurricane itself.  We saw many homes in various states of disrepair, a lot of vacant lots -- the driver said this used to be a densely populated neighborhood so all the vacant lots used to have buildings on them -- some construction going on.  On some of the houses still standing we could see the water line left from the flooding, and the markings put on by the rescue people checking that the houses was vacant.  The Brad Pitt Organization as well as Habitat for Humanity have been very active in this area, and our bus driver said that the Brad Pitt homes are very unusual looking because they are built to be efficient, wired for generators, built on stilts to be safer.  They look different than the other homes being constructed there.

Our driver was pretty good, he narrated the entire time we were on the bus, so we learned a lot of New Orleans' history - historic and more recent.  We stopped at one of the above-ground cemeteries that are so popular here. 

Then he took us through the City Park and to Lake Pontchartrain.  The community beside the lake is very nice, with huge homes.  He called this a "tear down" community, because often people buy these big old houses for hundreds of thousands of dollars, then tear them down and built a new, huge house on the lot. 

The bridge over this lake is the longest bridge in the world that is continuously over water.  The lake is 40 miles long and 25 miles wide.

Back on tour, he drove us past some of the grand, old mansions.  Some of these have been divided into apartments, but many are still single-family homes.

They still have an active street car line here, and the streetcars traveled this street, which took us past Tulane and Loyola Universities.  There were also lots of churches in this street, on the streetcar line.

This is also part of the Mardi Gras parade route, and there were lots of beads hanging from the stately trees lining the street, and even on the overhead power lines.

Another old tradition still alive in New Orleans is the mule-drawn carriages that go up and down the street moving tourists from one location to another.

Some of these animals are just beautiful, and the carriages are decorated with flowers (so are some of the mules).  We didn't ride on any of these, but we saw lots of them.  We had lunch right on S. Peter Street, which is the one right along the river.  A jazz band entertained us while we ate.

Then we walked through some of the shops in the French Quarter, including a flea market area.  Joe found some hot sauce named after him.

I found a solution to my bad-hair days.

I didn't buy this mask, but I did buy a similar one, not quite as impressive as this one (if I had time to go back for this one, I would have).

These streets here have solid buildings, two to three stories usually.  Most of them have balconies on them, and may of them are decorated with flower boxes, very colorful.

We then walked up the famous Bourbon Street, but it was only 3:00 p.m., so there wasn't too much activity; we did pass a few strange-looking people, and there was bar after bar, but they weren't jumping yet.  I'm sure by nightfall there was a lot more going on down here.

We decided to stop for a drink, back on the corner of S. Peter Street and Toulouse, and I talked Joe into going over to Harrah's Casino so we took the later shuttle back.  The World Series of Poker was going on at the casino, but we didn't try to go to whatever floor that was taking place on.  We don't know if was open to the public or not. We are enjoying "carnival margaritas" here.

We had about a 3-4 block walk, and we passed by Bubba Gump's restaurant.

So we spent a couple hours donating our funds to the casino, then we walked back and had the famous "Cafe Du Monde beignets" (french donuts), which were delicious.  We didn't even know at the time that this was a "have to" if you visit New Orleans, but we found out later this is a landmark, so we were glad we indulged.

So we caught our shuttle back to the RV, and were glad to rest our feet.  This was probably more walking than Joe needed on his newly-repaired foot.  But it was a good day, and we enjoyed seeing what we did of New Orleans.