Friday we started out trying to find a place to do a swamp tour. Our GPS unit led us wrong a couple times and then we found out that the critters (like alligators) mostly don't make themselves available for viewing in the winter. I didn't know that alligators hibernated! Anyway, so we dropped that plan as we're going to take an airboat ride in the Florida Everglades in a week or so. A cemetary with beautiful white headstones next to a church made us stop for a little picture-taking. We learned from a previous trip that here in Louisiana, graves have to be aboveground as the water table is so close to the surface. We drove to a Wildlife Gardens and saw the most beautiful peacocks then headed back to the 5th wheel to do some mundane household things. That night we dressed up and went to dinner at a Cajun Restaurant. There was live Cajun music being played so we ordered up some authentic Cajun food......shrimp stew, chicken/sausage gumbo, fried catfish, boudin bits (fried cornbread balls with sausage and rice cooked in), and fried okra. Yeah, it sounds different but it was yummy......and fattening!
Yesterday it was time to head in to New Orleans. How could we be so close and not even visit?! We've been here before but it's a neat city and worth seeing over and over. On the way in, we didn't see much that could be attributed to Hurricane Katrina damage and certainly everything was fine in the French Quarter. We might not have been in the right areas to see the most damage. I think probably work is still underway to beef up the levees and make everything livable again but we didn't see it. A sign pointing to the River Road sidetracked us on the way in to NO and we stopped off for a tour of a restored plantation. At one time, these plantations lined the Mississippi River and life was pretty opulent for white folk. (in 1811 there was a slave uprising right on the river in front of this plantation but it was quelled by the militia within a couple days) We learned about how the plantations were all pretty much self sufficient, feeding and clothing all who lived there. Rice, beans and corn were the staples. Wheat and other grains could not (and still can't) be grown well in the area because of the wet. Because grains had to be shipped in at high cost, cattle and other animals who ate grain, were a rarity too. The Destrehan Plantation started out planting indigo (for dyes) and then switched to sugar cane which was more profitable. The owner's brother developed the process for granulating sugar, they built a processing plant right on the plantation and made a fortune by processing all the sugar in the area. In the 1900s, the plantation was purchased by an oil company and an oil refinery was built on the property. Luckily in later years the oil company got a conscience, tore down the refinery and gave the plantation over to a non-profit conservancy group who has painstakingly refurbished and re-outfitted the plantation.
In NO, we spent a frantic (I was driving) half hour trying to find a parking place for our big truck. I never learn to let Ed drive when we're going into the cities because Bruzer is just too big to drive in traffic and narrow streets!! Finally parked in a casino parking lot and then (of course) had to play the slots awhile (to get our parking ticket validated) and eat at the buffet. We did eventually make it out to the streets to walk around in the hordes of people left over from Mardi Gras and the Saints Super Bowl win. We soaked up the ambiance of the French Quarter and ate beignets (benyays - a big puffy square pastry liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar) at Cafe du Monde. After a bit more walking around, we headed up to the levee along the Mississippi to enjoy the view of paddlewheels, tugboats and barges....it's a busy river.