Life At The Camper: Down in the Bayou

Saturday afternoon was spent on the bayou. We signed up for an airboat tour to take us around the swamps. It was about $75.00 a person but so worth it. We had a great time. The day was extremely sunny and warm so we all came back with some funky tans, but since I am not trying to find a summer romance on the boat I'm not that worried about it. Jon and Josh are a different story : )

Our tour guide was Jay. He is from Louisiana and he knew these waters extremely well and was able to answer all the questions we had. Actually, me and Ken had. We were the only ones who did any talking. Even Jon was quiet. Which is so weird for him.

This is like the boat we were on but ours was only a six passenger. Which worked out great for us because I hate being crowded. These boats can go fast and move over land or water. Since the marshes are losing so much land every year it is now illegal to move these boats over vegetation. Punishable by fine and/or jail.

Jon got to sit up in the co-captains chair for the first half of the tour. Then he switched with Josh. He looks natural up there doesn't he. He absolutely loved it.

Yes this boat is sideways but we are moving forward. All I could think of was how my camera would be ruined if we tipped.

Since we were in the marshes we all expected to see alligators. I just didn't expect our guide to call them right up to the boat. Apparently screaming words in french causes them to surface. I can't get my dogs to come to me when I call them and all he does is yell and six alligators show up. I am doing something wrong.

See that handrail? That was my seat. I moved.

He was feeding them raw chicken but telling them he had rabbit. Do alligators eat rabbit?

Can you say close up?

Part of the marshy swamp. We have seen mountains, oceans, desert, plains, but never the marshes. This is a totally different ecosystem then what we are used to. I really enjoyed being out there. So beautiful and peaceful. Except for the 10 airboats flying by us every few minutes. Guess they need to make their money somehow.

This was our extremely stupid guide grabbing the tail to show us that she is a female and was getting beat up due to mating season. He didn't have to show me, I would have believed him.

Hello Mr. Alligator

They call this the cajun mohawk

This baby alligator will be raised on an alligator farm and released when it is about 4 years old. Alligator farms actually take eggs from wild alligator nests and raise them for food, clothing, and souvenirs. Because they take them from wild nests there are required to put 25% of them back into the wild. They wait till they are around 4 years old so they have a greater chance of survival. 1 in 6 wild alligators survive to maturity. 6 in 6 survive on the farm.

Here's another tidbit of information. The sex of the alligator does not depend on x or y chromosomes. It depends on the temperature of the eggs they are developing in. If the eggs are cool they will become females, if they are warm, males. Don't ever say this blog didn't teach you anything : D

The Barataria Preserve is a national park. And I love national parks. And I really love getting stamps in my national park passport. So this find was especially exciting. We didn't spend a lot of time here, but there were quite a few trails we could have walked. I didn't even know about it until I went to the national park website to watch a geyser in Yellowstone erupt and saw there was a park/preserve by where we were going to be. Proceed to happy dance. STAMP!!!

See those little stumps in front of Ken? Those are called Cypress knees. They are actually the roots of the Cypress tress coming through the soil to get oxygen. I had never seen that before so I thought they were pretty neat.

View from our balcony. Jon is just looking so much older to me : (

Bubba Gump bench in front of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. We didn't eat here but I had to take a picture. These two wear me out!

We ate dinner at the New Orleans Oyster Company. Oh look, Ken had jambalaya and oysters on the half shell. I had crawfish queso and chips and Jon had Alligator and a burger.S