Steve and I woke at 5am local time and the boys slept until 7:30, so those early starts a few days ago have paid off :) We were out the door by 8am and went in search of breakfast. The place I wanted to go to wasn't where I thought it was, so we back tracked and went to Mena's Palace instead. The waitress last night had said they did good pancakes, omelets and hash browns. Julian had pancakes, Steve had a Cajun sausage omelet with grits and I ordered a bacon omelet with hash browns. Rohan had a bit of everything. The grits were a lighter, tastier version of a porridge consistency polenta and actually completed the omelet nicely. I would have them again over the hash browns which were just chopped up fried potato. Julian's serve of hot cakes wiped him out and Rohan out and they were finished by Steve - it was a massive serving!
It was a leisurely breakfast, so we got back to the apartment around 9:30am and did some more laundry washing/drying :) We packed the backpack with drinks, snacks and a peanut butter roll and headed down to our Cajun Encounters pick up location. The pick-up time was from 10:30 to 11am and the location was a street corner. Julian and I had a look in a sweet shop and Steve thought it would be better to go and wait for the bus. Thankfully we all met up just as the bus arrived at 10:30am. We climbed aboard and then the driver only made about 4 more stops before we headed out of town to Honey Island Swamp.
On the way out he told us a little about the devastation caused by Katrina and how the rebuild was still continuing. He pretty much whetted our appetite for the city tour that they also run. It was a 35min drive out to the swamp where we went into the gift shop to get our tour wrist bands. Julian was so excited that he nearly refused to go to the toilet before the boat ride. Thankfully the driver scared him saying that he would have to get out of the boat with the alligators if he needed to go - this worked :) The boys had to wear life jackets but thankfully this didn't bother them.
We got on board a long 20 seat flat bottomed tinny and zoomed off down the river. We soon came across 1 alligator which was looking a bit worse for wear. He had been in a fight with another gator and had a ripped throat, broken jaw and a blind eye. He was mad keen for marshmallows :)
We also saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on branches in the river.
Further up the river we saw another 2 alligators just sunning themselves too. It was 80F/27C today and this is cold for alligators, so there weren't many about.
We saw a nice forest of Cypress tress covered in Spanish Moss growing in the swamp. These trees sound a lot like Huon pine.
We also saw a Racoon and a very large pig. We didn't see any snakes much to the disappointment of the captain.
The tour was 90mins and Rohan fell asleep just before we docked. Julian is loving the gift shops and this time he walked away with a 60cm long alligator soft toy. Rohan stayed asleep, in my arms, for the next 90mins! On the bus ride back, I had a nap and so did Julian!
We got off the bus at Cafe du Monde to try their famous Beignets. Julian had to be woken to get off the bus, so he was complaining a lot about having to eat donuts! He just wanted to eat the icing sugar. We ordered 2 serves, along with 2 coffees, and they were devoured by Steve, Rohan and I. Julian had a bite at the end and decided that he did like them. So we ordered more :)
A little bit of sugar put some zing back into everyone. It was now nearing 4pm, so I gave up any idea of riding a tram past some of the fancy houses in the Garden district, and we went for a walk around Jackson Square. There happened to be a Tabasco sauce shop (it is made in South East Louisiana) where we bought a bottle of Chipotle Tabasco sauce and another 2 stubby holders.
Back out in the square, we were walking around listening to the buskers and then we walked past a woman doing Henna tattoos and I thought - why not! So I got a tattoo in New Orleans. We were all fascinated watching her draw on my arm :) Now I had to be careful not to rub it before it dried.
It was a hot day, so Julian needed Ice Cream and there was a Gelati shop around the corner. We all happily ate a dark chocolate and vanilla gelati whilst listening to a percussion group behind us. Rohan was bopping along as usual. It was a short walk to our apartment, so we went back there to change Rohan and give the boys a short break before dinner.
I guy I worked with now lives in New Orleans and recommended a Cajun restaurant about 1km from our apartment. Julian was up for a walk which ended in fried shrimp, so we walked down to Mulate's. From the moment we walked in we knew this was our kind of place. We ordered fried and grilled alligator, southern fried chicken wings, a cup of seafood gumbo, a cup of jamabalaya and a fried oyster Po'boy platter. Julian had his fried shrimp and Rohan had shrimp pasta alfredo. It was excellent and Julian even ate alligator and loved it! Rohan ate everything but he seems to be doing that at the moment. The only bad thing was the pasta which was nearly inedible due to garlic overload.
Even though the dessert menu looked good, we had all decided that a walk back to Landry's Seafood had to happen so we could have their Banana Foster again. It is so good! We were going to walk back along the river but then thought that we were idiots for even considering it at night time! So we went back and had more Bananas Foster. We got 2 serves this time :)
Then we rolled home, bathed the boys and they were asleep soon afterwards.
Today was a cracker! Julian really enjoyed the alligators and he is loving his toy alligator. Every shop we went into commented on his alligator and he happily told stories about it. Rohan was excited to have seen so many turtles - he keep pointing at every log in the river saying "Tur-til". In all it was a wonderful 9th Wedding anniversary!
What an awesome day!
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