Holding Their Feet to the Fire

This should probably happen again soon with weather like we're having!

 

Vaca 2020 - Day 4 - Houmas House & Gardens Plantation

 This is one of those things that seemed like a very cool idea but after driving way the heck up there and seeing what we saw,  we wish that we would have driven South out of New Orleans down into those swampy areas either on route 23 or route 1.  Since we were already South of New Orleans (in the last post at Airboat Adventures in Lafitte, Louisiana) it would have made a much shorter day that going back North thru NO and then back South again...

Live and learn, right!?

Well, after the swamp boats, we headed out for the plantation with everyone being a bit hungry,  well, Caleb was A LOT hungry as usual, but we knew their was a world class restaurant on the property as well, so with a few snacks in the car, we set out to find the joint.  It seemed like it took forever to get there...

This shot is important as it's one of our funny memories now.  We just shared it with someone again yesterday!  You can't really tell from this pic from Google.com/maps but that train track is a solid 10 inches higher than the road.  And it's just as deceptive in real life as it is in this picture!  So we're cruising along about 55 mph when Lesley says, "you're going to hang a right up ahead so start slowing down". Well, I took my foot off of the gas but didn't touch the break until about 20ft before this baby.  Robby had a FULL cup of coffee that he had maybe a drink or two of since we stopped after the boat tour, and when we hit these tracks, that coffee left the cup holder and hit the ceiling of the van!!!  It went everywhere and this event likely took two years off of the life of the van.  Funny then, no.  Funny now?  YES!!

This is one of the first things you see after going thru the welcome center, much of which was closed due to the Coronavirus20-1.  We'll see both structures in this photo from different vantage points later in the post.

Caleb is fired up to see everything, but he was a bit antsy taking pictures as we were looking for the restaurant.

The backside of the actual Houmas House. I don't believe we ever got around to see the front side of it with all of the pillars and wrap around second story porch.

A produce garden that was truly producing veggies with some strange looking artsy-fartsy pigs.  They were kind of neat, all made of scrap metal.

We had the restaurant, and frankly, other than workers and a lady doing a fancy photoshoot, the plantation all to ourselves.  That's a birdcage behind Rob's head with actual birds in it.  This room was HUGE and gorgeous!

And then there's this guy...  Here he is proving that not only can you breathe thru the mask, you can also enjoy your favorite beverage thru it as well!  LOL!!

The food here was A.MAZING!!!  However, looking at the menu, I cannot tell what the heck this is...  I'm pretty sure it was the dish that Momma Chaos ordered, but that's as good as I can do.

This was Rob's pick.  Louisiana Beef Short Ribs that required NO effort at all to pull apart with a fork.  It was soooooo good that it was stupid.  I ordered the appetizer of the Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo.  Very good but not as good as the little restaurant that was somewhere that we visited at some point...   It was in Bay St. Louis, MS at a place called Butter Cup on 2nd Street.  Their gumbo was life changing!

Another shot of the elusive Robert!

Another shot of the Houmas House this time thru a fancy arch that I would like to have something similar too.

Speaking of cool arches, check out this path!

Can't imagine the work that went into this over the years...

Giraffes made out of scrap metal.

The gazebo or whatever it would be called that we saw in that second photo, but from a different angle and my fams in it!

Not sure what's going on with this chimney, but I don't recall ever seeing another like it.   Looks like a miniature version of an outside kitchen.

The other shot from a different angle of the second pic.  This one is better because of my peeps!

That is some type of ampitheatre or whatever built into the hill in the distance.  It's far more interesting to see it from google.com/maps from the aerial view but it doesn't say what it is...

Overall, pretty cool and with good food, but we were all happy to get back to the hotel and back to the swimming pool before packing up to leave the next morning.

The Total Tree Transplant

Our neighbor had a tree that a local squirrel had planted right up next to their house.  Obviously, it could not live there for long.  So we hatched a plan to remove it from behind their house and move it to a spot in our yard.  We executed the plan to near perfection, but it appears after 5 or 6 days now, that the tree is not happy in it's new environment.  Day 2, it looked great when responding to it's watering and full day of sunlight, but we're on day 5 or 6 now and it's wilting pretty bad...  *sigh*  

 

Vaca 2020 - Day 4 - Swamp Boat Tour

So... I'm a big, fat sissy. I do not like things like this. If I am to see a gator, I prefer it to be on a screen or behind hurricane rated glass. I'm not interested in "the real thing".  

Why?  Because the real thing is likely to lunge at me, rip a vein out of my neck and kill me and that is strictly on my list of "ways NOT TO GO!".  

But of course, these critters do not seem very clever and so I'm pretty sure that they do not care about my mortality (or lack thereof) list.

So as this day began, I was watching the weather and HOPING BY THE GRACE OF GOD that we would have thunderstorms and the good company would return our money and we would drive back East into New Orleans "disappointed" but "exuberant" about our next adventure (lunch).  

Thankfully, it didn't work out that way.

Let's get to the story.

Upon arrival, they had a real, live Yeti that would pose with for pics. Pretty sweet!  But please note, this was Clarence, not Darrell.

I challenged Clarence's bad self.  He won, but not by much!

This was the albino gator that they had inside the ticket shack.  He had pretty good roaming room.  I'm not sure what kind of survival stats the albino has. Honestly, I have no clue now that I think of it in greater detail.  Perhaps I have a take-a-way?

One of those floating death traps is ours...  We just don't know which one we'll die on yet.

OMG YES!!!!  Thunderstorms are rolling in!!  Perhaps we'll get refunded yet!?!?

Sweet, sweet rain with the occasional lightning. Nearly perfect.

Welp, that didn't work.  After a roughly hour-long delay, we boarded our wet-arse-death-traps to go be fed to hungry gators who have been cooped up and p!$$ed off about the quarantine.  It's obvious to ME that they will be extra hungry and aggressive due to their loneliness...  I may be the only passenger who realizes this as we head to sea...   *sigh*

SEE!!!!!   This looks like an alley that you wouldn't dare go thru where I grew up and I had a pretty good youth!

Yep... trouble ahead. For God's sake!!

Satan arrives and here we are snapping pictures, excited like a bunch of city folks looking at baby pigs being born at the Iowa State Fair.  It's gross.  It's horrible... but there we all are. year after year. C'mon man...

So Satan's approach wasn't bad enough that the driver of this boat took us down this alley...

Oddly enough, after a short bit, you emerge into an area like this again.

And then again, long alley way' s like this.  You never knew what was coming once the boat turned the next corner.

Yep, we're going into that even though nobody asked Ted if this was okay....

and what does a fella encounter in such alleys?  Trash like this!!  Honestly, I was getting used to them approaching and their rather docile behavior where I was thinking I would not die.

Off we go down a different "alley" when we meet one of the other tour boats.  We saw a few of them but this is the only one that we actually "crossed paths" with. Makes you wonder how extensive these water paths are...

Another "friend" approaching.

Just outside the boat,  and another reminder that I was espescially clever picking the middle seat!!!

Again...

Momma Chaos and a very willing participant, Robert the Honored!!!

Calebber and my big-arsed nose!!!

This kid was excited about this back in Iowa when we were planning a back-up to our Alaskan trip.  This boat tour was right up his alley!!

New Orleans in the distance.

He looks ornery!  

By this point, I was getting pretty comfortable...  and by comfortable, I mean that I'm comfortable with the Southern, toothless dude driving our boat giving the gators a marshmallow or two.  Nothing more!

See!!!  The LOVE of marshmallows...

 

The tour guide spoke of the effect that it has had on the gators.  He talked of the trust they had with the tour boats and after 4 months of shutdowns, the gators aren't very receptive to the boats like they were.  He was clearly sad about his buddy's distress as I think this guy clearly loved his job and the gators he visits!

But for me, being back on terra firma is a goood thing, however, this was a KILLER tour and one of the highlights of our vacation.