After the swamp
July 2, 2008
The Harrah's Casino
Along the river we passed by a Holocaust Memorial. It was colorful. The ones that I've seen before were always very depressing, as the subject. On the way back towards the hotel we stopped at "Coyote Ugly" bar. We had one drink and left. Not my kind of bar. Maybe if the hole place would have been full it could have been fun. I just felt too much put on the spot and the bartenders kept spanking each other. Yeah! If that's your thing you'll feel right at home. ;) Not judging. lol
We did end up going up and down Bourbon Street again. Of course. It seems like the place to be after the sun goes down.
The Harrah's Casino
The U.S. Costum Building now hou...
Walking towards the river
Founder of New Orleans
Not a pretty sight.. by our hotel
almost at the river
?
Beginning of the Riverwalk
Nice fountain at the river front
Mississippi river boat
The ferry to cross over
Mississippi bridge
Holocaust Memorial
Holocaust Memorial, close-up
The Natchez
Us in front of the Natchez
Cross roads
good place for steamed seafood
Seafood lovers will go crazy in this place. My hubby loved it. He ordered the steamed seafood bucket for one person, wore a bib and enjoyed the meal a lot. I had Cajun Jambalaya which to my taste was a little dry. That's one of the reasons why I rated this place average. The other thing that was a little over the top was the volume of the live band that played outside on the patio. Our waiter was very nice though. Checked by several times to refill our drinks and bring a new bucket for the lobster fest and extra napkins. Other then that you have a nice view over the Mississippi which I think is included in the price. ;)
Enjoying the steamed bucket
Jambalaya
The Crazy Lobster
Great way to see Louisiana's swamps, the city of New Orleans or the plantations outside the city
To not be misleading, the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour is actually based out of Laplace, LA, about 20 minutes west of New Orleans, but since most of you will probably visit New Orleans and then look for things to do in the area I'll post my review in this existing spot. (I'll be cross posting it in Laplace as well) OK, here we go....
We had booked the tour with transportation from our hotel in New Orleans. The tour bus with our nice Cajun driver Derick showed up punctually at 12:30pm. We got in the cool van and headed towards Laplace about 20 minutes west of NOLA, give or take according to traffic.
We arrived at the location. There's a nice little gift shop here, a place to buy some drinks and restrooms in case you need one.
We were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Lots of people came here by car and the tour before us was a school bus load with kids, probably a summer break event or something. They seemed like they had had lots of fun. :)
But now it was our turn! We were loaded onto the boat and off we went. This tour is great since it's the company's private swamp. No other swamp tour boats that you have to compete with to get a climbs of a gator or ruin the all together picture of the swamp.
It didn't take long until the first gator was headed for our boat. We had a few kids on board who were very quick to spot them and made sure that everyone else knew that they had seen them first. lol Ah, to be a kid again. ;)
Now, here's a surprise! Gators love marshmallows! Our tour guide handed the bag of treats to the kids and they went nuts. haha We kept moving to get a couple of the gators together in one spot. The first feeding started and the kids were allowed to fed the gators one by one with chicken on a stick. They loved it.
I was getting a bit cranky because I kind of wanted to try that too, but I wasn't going to push little kids out of my way to have my turn. lol
We headed deep into the swamp saw a couple of alligators here and there, passed the Swamp Tour Inn (don't want to ruin the "story" behind it) and got to hold a little baby alligator that was in the care of the Cajun Pride Tours. Someone had found it near the highway all by itself and brought it in for care so it might have a chance of survival.
Now, if the baby alligator gets agitated you wanna make a big ssssshhhhh sound behind its head because otherwise it might pee on you! True story! (It happened to one of our fellow TB buddies, if you're out there, speak up)
The technique was used by a couple of us because the poor thing was handed back and forth between the kids before any of the grown ups got a chance. It was pretty cool to hold one though!
We were headed into a dead end of the swamp now. It was pretty hot out. Boy was I glad that I dressed light. By the way, I didn't need any OFF spray, but you might wanna bring it along anyways, just in case.
There seemed to be a nest of alligators in this dead end because a LOT of them started showing up from all directions and they were BIG!! The largest one, appropriately named Big Boy, was 12 feet long. That's 4 meters for my European friends. ;)
Who got to feed him??? I got to feed him!! Weeeeee I ended up having to fight for my stick but I did save it and was honored by the tour guide. lol
People, alligators aside. The swamp is a gorgeous place!! I enjoyed the tour a lot. If you like nature and animals you should definitely go on this tour! I enjoyed it a lot. We didn't get to see a lot of other animals, but I guess it's just a matter of right time right place. You can't force nature. Maybe you'll get lucky and see even more then we did! Enjoy!!
We had booked the tour with transportation from our hotel in New Orleans. The tour bus with our nice Cajun driver Derick showed up punctually at 12:30pm. We got in the cool van and headed towards Laplace about 20 minutes west of NOLA, give or take according to traffic.
We arrived at the location. There's a nice little gift shop here, a place to buy some drinks and restrooms in case you need one.
We were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Lots of people came here by car and the tour before us was a school bus load with kids, probably a summer break event or something. They seemed like they had had lots of fun. :)
But now it was our turn! We were loaded onto the boat and off we went. This tour is great since it's the company's private swamp. No other swamp tour boats that you have to compete with to get a climbs of a gator or ruin the all together picture of the swamp.
It didn't take long until the first gator was headed for our boat. We had a few kids on board who were very quick to spot them and made sure that everyone else knew that they had seen them first. lol Ah, to be a kid again. ;)
Now, here's a surprise! Gators love marshmallows! Our tour guide handed the bag of treats to the kids and they went nuts. haha We kept moving to get a couple of the gators together in one spot. The first feeding started and the kids were allowed to fed the gators one by one with chicken on a stick. They loved it.
I was getting a bit cranky because I kind of wanted to try that too, but I wasn't going to push little kids out of my way to have my turn. lol
We headed deep into the swamp saw a couple of alligators here and there, passed the Swamp Tour Inn (don't want to ruin the "story" behind it) and got to hold a little baby alligator that was in the care of the Cajun Pride Tours. Someone had found it near the highway all by itself and brought it in for care so it might have a chance of survival.
Now, if the baby alligator gets agitated you wanna make a big ssssshhhhh sound behind its head because otherwise it might pee on you! True story! (It happened to one of our fellow TB buddies, if you're out there, speak up)
The technique was used by a couple of us because the poor thing was handed back and forth between the kids before any of the grown ups got a chance. It was pretty cool to hold one though!
We were headed into a dead end of the swamp now. It was pretty hot out. Boy was I glad that I dressed light. By the way, I didn't need any OFF spray, but you might wanna bring it along anyways, just in case.
There seemed to be a nest of alligators in this dead end because a LOT of them started showing up from all directions and they were BIG!! The largest one, appropriately named Big Boy, was 12 feet long. That's 4 meters for my European friends. ;)
Who got to feed him??? I got to feed him!! Weeeeee I ended up having to fight for my stick but I did save it and was honored by the tour guide. lol
People, alligators aside. The swamp is a gorgeous place!! I enjoyed the tour a lot. If you like nature and animals you should definitely go on this tour! I enjoyed it a lot. We didn't get to see a lot of other animals, but I guess it's just a matter of right time right place. You can't force nature. Maybe you'll get lucky and see even more then we did! Enjoy!!
Ye, be warned!!
The Louisiana swamp
Don't worry, you'll see plenty o...
Feeding the beast
You even get to hold a little on...
