Bayou pour deux !!!! Geaux Rosie !!!!

How do you like my Cajun?  Today, I am going to tell you what I did on my afternoon off from the conference. The lectures ended by 11:15. So I went back to my hotel, changed into some comfy clothes and headed out on an adventure.

This bridge crosses over the Mississippi River to the town of Lafitte, named after Jean Lafitte.

Here, I am looking backwards at downtown New Orleans.

We arrived in Lafitte, and entered Bayou Barataria.

We ended up at the destination - Airboat Adventures. This is a guided tour of the bayou in either a small airboat, a large airboat, or the riverboat. I chose the riverboat because the airboats are loud and I don't want to be that close to the alligators.

This gives you an idea. There were about 30 people on it. Everyone in the city was watching the Saints vs Seahawks game.

You don't always see alligators, especially if the weather isn't so great. So they have a dried out head that the guide uses to show us alligator anatomy. I gave it a smooch.

 So you just cruise around the canals and look for birds, turtles, and gators. First, we saw the blue heron up there.

The first sighting!!!

A hungry little guy. He was about 5 feet long.

He snarfed 3 marshmallows ad then swam away.

He circled around a little bit. Maybe he was hoping for something better.

As you can see, he stuck around for quite a while. The guide, who was dressed like the Crocodile Hunter, cut him off at 3, because more would give him gas.

A little later, there was more activity .

This was a little smaller gator, maybe 4 feet.

He came near the boat, but wasn't too interested in the marshmallows. There were a lot of airboats buzzing around, and they are very loud.

Then the guide pointed out something in the bushes along the bank.

See him hiding in there? I had a hard time finding him in real life.

There was a giant alligator sunning itself on the bank. The guide said he looked to be about 8 feet.

Just in case there are no gator sightings, the guide brings out a little baby gator.

That's the guide behind me.

She was so docile she was almost dead. One woman was holding her and caressing her for a long time. Kinda weird.

One last sighting of these creepy reptiles, cruising around in their own little world.

As we rounded the bend toward the dock, we passed an old Indian cemetery.

It gave me the heebies. Some of the coffins were just in the liners, out in the sun.

Back at the Airboat Adventures headquarters, the had a giant tortoise in a tank.

And a ton of smaller turtles outside, who scampered over when they saw people.

Inside was a very lethargic albino alligator.

And a giant stuffed gator. I would crap my pants if I saw something like that.

After that, I stopped at the Bourbon House for lunch/dinner.

I had wedge salad, shrimp and andouille gumbo, and a martini. I deserved it post gator.

Then I went back to Jackson square, where I took pictures of St Louis Cathedral on the outside.

There was a guy playing an African Harp. It was beautiful and very unusual. Sort of a cross between a digereedoo and a harp.

There were lots of bed and breakfasts all over.

This juggler was really good and had a super funny act.

So today, I flew New Orleans to Dallas, then Dallas to Santa Ana. My first flight was delayed, and so I go rescheduled on the second flight, but they gave me a bad seat number. I thought I was gonna get delayed again, but I ended up with a great seat, right up front.

Back to work tomorrow !!!

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