Spring Break 2010 - Cajun Country, Louisiana

We did it!  We arrived in the quiet little town of Breaux Bridge, Lousiana, by 1:30 pm on Easter Sunday, just in time for lunch at Cafe des Amis.  It was well worth the rush!  They had delicious and inventive southern Louisiana food.  Ken and I had Cajun catfish over crawfish cornbread, covered with crawfish etouffee...oh, my gosh!  So good.  Jamie had a brunch dish of crawfish gratin with eggs and Andouille sausage and cheese grits, and Craig  - who had been desperately wanting crawfish - ordered the crawfish half-and-half...half crawfish etouffee and half fried crawfish tails.  It was all wonderful and a nice start to our Cajun adventure.

We set up our camper at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, on the edge of the bayou.  The next day was probably the highlight of the trip - we went on a swamp tour at nearby Lake Martin.  Our tour guide was Brion Champagne, a solo Cajun guide with his own boat who grew up in the area and was very knowledgeable.  He took us across the lake and through the swamp. 

Besides the gorgeous cypress trees covered in Spanish moss, we saw amazing wildlife - turtles, lots of alligators, nutria (large, swimming rodents - second-largest in the world after capybara), and many gorgeous birds, including snowy white egrets, blue herons, and rosette spoonbills, and 3-month old Barred Owls.  We toured along the edge of a bird preserve. 

Later, back at our campground, Ken and the boys rented a boat and went out fishing on Lake Fausse (this photo is from one of the campsites along the lake).  They saw a bunch of alligators and even caught a couple of catfish!

The campground was beautiful, and we enjoyed our time there.  On our last day, we packed up and headed to Avery Island, home of Tobasco!  We toured the Tobasco factory - it was fun to see how our favorite hot sauce is grown from peppers and produced.  We bought plenty of t-shirts with the Tobasco logo, and (Craig's favorite part) sampled 6 different Tobasco sauces and a whole bunch of Tobasco flavored products, including...pop and ice cream!

We stopped for po' boys for lunch and finally - reluctantly - left Cajun country and headed to New Orleans.