Louisana Trip - Part 2

Monday morning we drove west/southwest to Lafayette where we had lunch at Blue Dog Cafe. The restaurant's walls are adorned with paintings by a local artist that each include a blue dog. That, along with the fine reviews of the food lead me to add the restaurant to our to-do list for the trip. We ate entirely too much food, but it tasted delightful. For appetizers, we had Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms, Andouille Sausage, and Crab Cakes. My main course was the Crabmeat au Gratin. Eric was going to have the special (I don't remember what it was), but they were out so he ordered the Crabmeat Florentine. With full stomachs we drove south to Avery Island. Here is a link to view the restaurant and some of the paintings: http://www.bluedogcafe.com/gallery.php.

Avery Island is where Tabasco is made. We took the dull tour when we arrived. Luckily it was only about 20 minutes long, and we also each got miniature bottles of the regular Tabasco and the Green Pepper Tabasco sauces. After that we went to their Country Store where they have samples and sell various Tabasco items (shirts, sauces, and other touristy stuff). We tried some sauces, as well as Tabasco ice cream, and Tabasco soda. There were two flavors of the ice cream. My favorite was the Sweet and Spicy. While at Avery Island, we also toured Jungle Gardens. I had a great time at Jungle Gardens. It consists of a 5-mile drive full of trees and lagoons teeming with plant and wild life. Jim drove through the area and whenever we saw something cool, we pulled over and got out of the car. Shortly after we drove into the gardens we came upon a large pond where the guys spotted our first alligator. I had them pull over so I could take some pictures. When we first walked up to the shore of the pond, the alligator was probably almost halfway across. After a few minutes he headed our way. Pretty soon we noticed that he must have called for his friends, because there were two more nearby. When he was about 10 feet away from the shore, I decided it was time to get back in the car and move on. All of the alligators we saw were fairly small, ranging in size from approximately 4-7 feet long, but they were big enough you wouldn't want to mess with them. I made Jim pull over pretty much every time we saw an alligator, which was very frequent. There were no barricades separating us from them which was cool and also a little chilling. We assume that the gardens keep an eye on the alligators, since they were mostly the same size, and remove them once they get large. Also I think it would be a liability for them to have the larger, more dangerous ones where they could easily reach the tourists. Jungle Gardens was full of beautiful trees and brilliant pink azaleas. One section of the gardens is labeled Bird City. There were hundreds of Egrets (striking, white water-birds). Swimming in the water under the overlook for the birds, were more alligators. Eventually we checked the time and realized we were going to be late for dinner with Jim's family, so we hurried back to the highway.
All of Jim's immediate family gathered at his brother Brett's house in Baton Rouge for dinner, which was fantastic. We were welcomed by tuna steaks, shrimp kabobs, and asparagus fresh off the grill. We had all kinds of other food to go with our meal. We spent the night at Brett's, so we lounged around his house the rest of the evening.

Still more to come...

Louisiana Trip - Part 1

Last week I was on spring break, so Eric and our friend Jim took off work so we could make a trip down to Louisiana to take part in a crawfish boil with Jim's family. We left home early on Saturday, March 14th and spent the entire day driving to Jim's mom's house in Southern Louisiana. We didn't arrive there until around 10:30 that evening so we just relaxed a while before heading to bed.

The next day (Sunday) we got up and prepared for the crawfish boil. It was such a cool experience. Jim's uncle went to the crawfish pond in the morning and brought back almost 4 full bags of crawfish, which was around 150 pounds. Eric and I watched the entire process enthusiastically. Outside, a gigantic pot was used to cook the crawfish. In the pot was a bag of crawfish, sausage, onions, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, garlic, crawfish seasoning, and oranges. When it was ready the mixture was dumped on the picnic tables that were lined with newspaper. Eric and I received some lessons from Jim's family on the proper technique for getting to the crawfish meat. (We later discovered that various people have their own preferred way of doing it.) I was a little nervous that I wouldn't like the crawfish. I was happily surprised that it tasted marvelous. I still can not believe how much I liked it. Quickly, everyone had a large pile of empty shells in front of them. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for the next batch to be ready. All too soon we got full, when there was still so much delicious fool to be consumed. After a while, I had to help myself to some apple pie a la mode. We spent the afternoon eating, drinking, and socializing with Jim's family. Besides enjoying the food, I loved listening to everyone's southern accent. I found myself envious that I'm not from a region that I would develop a cool accent.
After everyone left, Eric, Jim, Brett (Jim's brother), and myself drove a short distance to see the family's old plantation home. Jim's aunt gave us a tour of the house and provided us with interesting historical facts about the home. We stayed there for a while and had a few drinks with his aunt and uncle before heading back to his mom's.

The remainder of the evening was spent relaxing in front of the TV and planning for the rest of the week.

(To be continued)