Swamp Tour

Today we drove down south of New Orleans to Westwego and took a swamp tour with a company called Ultimate Swamp Adventures. Before we left on the tour we ate at a little place by the dock.  We ordered a shrimp po-boy and a catfish po-boy.  We each ate half of each one and they were delicious. They also sold many different kinds of cajun meats and seasonings.  A very interesting and friendly place.

 

 

 

 We still had a little time to kill before the tour, so we walked through these fresh fish stores.  They were selling shrimp, crawdads, crabs and other freshly caught fish.

 

 

This is the dock where our boat will leave from.  There are several fishing boats in the background.

 



 

 Here is our tour boat pulling up to the dock.

 

Loaded and ready to go!

 

 

 Gary was our boat captain and tour guide, he was born and raised in the swamps and makes his living fishing and trapping in the swamps along with doing the tours.  He gave a very interesting tour and answered a lot of questions.

 

Here are some more fishing boats that we passed on the way down the canal.

 



 

In the swamp, we saw turtles.

 



 

 

And alligators.

 



 

 

 And cypress knees sticking up out of the water.

 

 And Spanish moss on the trees.

 

 And more alligators.

 

I believe that he said that this was a blue heron.

 

 

And last but not least, more alligators.  It was a very interesting and enjoyable day!

 

 

 

The Big Easy

 

Arrived in New Orleans this afternoon. Rented a campsite for a week. We ate at a little deli/restaurant down the street. I had jambalaya and red beans with sausage and neck bones. Awesome!!!! Then we drove around the French Quarter a little bit.  Had to take this picture at a rest area coming into Louisianna.  Our Jeep looks pretty good there, I thought.

Dauphin Island and Gulf Shores

Yesterday was a long day for us.  We decided to visit Gulf Shores by way of Dauphin Island.  We headed south from Mobile and had to cross a long bridge to get to the island.  You can see a big hump in the bridge to let the boats go under it.

 

 Getting ready to go up the hump.

 

 At the top, looking down the other side.

 

 The island is long and narrow with beach houses on both sides of the road.

 

 The beaches are all white sand.  You can see a couple of oil rigs in the distance in the gulf.

 

 We stopped at an estuarium and walked on the boardwalks and read the informative signs.  We thought that these flowers were very pretty.

 

 And what is growing here?

 

 Here is a sign showing where we were.

 

 We walked across the street from the estuarium and toured Fort Gaines.

 

 This is the ferry boat that we will take across the bay later.

 

 Dad with oil rigs in the background.

 

 The fort had many room and tunnels built into the walls.

 

 400 men used these latrines....

 

 And 1 woman.

 

 We were hungry after the fort visit, so we went to Barnacle Bill's.

 

 A nice quiet place with good food.

 

 Then it was time to line up for the ferry.  They could take 18 cars for sure and more if the cars were small.  We were 19th in line and had to wait and see....

 

 Yes! They could squeeze the Jeep on board.

 

 We were the last ones on.

 

 We passed a dredge that was working hard.

 

Some kids on board were feeding the gulls.

 

 

And a few took a ride.

 



 

 We passed by some more oil rigs.

 

 This boat must have really been feeding the gulls!

 

 We are about to reach the dock on the Gulf Shores side.

 

 And then we just drive off the front of the boat.

 

After exploring Gulf Shores for awhile, we drove back up the other side of the bay, across the bridge and through the tunnel.

Downtown Mobile

Mom wanted to hang around the motorhome today, so I did a walking tour of the downtown area.  I had downloaded an ebook with a walking tour on it on my ipod, so it was my guide.  The tour started at Fort Conde.  This is a rebuilt revolutionary war fort.

 

These rooms are built into the thick fort walls.

 





 

 

 

 

 The roof was ringed with cannons.

 

 A view of the wall from the roof.

Bienville square, a nice park with a fountain in the center.

 

 

 Many of the buildings had balconies with wrought iron work like this.

 

This it the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

 

 

 Some of the small alters in the back of the cathedral.

 

 

Not enough light to get a really good picture of the interior

 

The main alter.

 

The rear of the church showing the pipe organ and the small alters shown above.

 

 

 This is the Mardi Gras museum celebrating the fact that the tradition of Mardi Gras was started here.