Girl trip 2015 aka Swamp Tour

How do you make a perfect girl trip? Start with the right ingredients of course...great girls, a little planning, good food and libations, a ton of humor and a bit of flexibility (because you honestly don't know exactly what we will get up to). It was very cold as I left the house.

 

 

 

The day started well with the aforementioned food and libations. We hit the road early and had breakfast on the road.

 

 

Mini pigs in blankets, sausage balls and Bloody Mary's.

 

 

First moment of hilarity...trying to make these on the bumpy section of I-55 just south of Jackson. We are now headed to Cajun country.

 

Knew it would be fun when I saw this door handle at the welcome center.

 

Stopped for lunch at Ponchatoula, a cute  little town with great antiques, by a railroad.

 

There were thousands of items for sale, including tiny hat and this zombie baby. Sophie!

 

Lunch in downtown Ponchatoula.

 

 

We had all read the book, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, describing Neil White's time in a minimum security prison located in a leprosy treatment center in Carville, LA. It is now a military base and museum dedicated to the colony. The prison was only there for 3 years and is only a small  part of the history of this interesting place.

 

Here is the museum. The hospital was started in 1896. Great strides were made here in the treatment of leprosy. The medication which is still used today to treat leprosy was discovered here. Patients are no longer quarantined when diagnosed. Only 2 elderly patients still live here. The nuns who worked here dedicated their lives to making life enjoyable for those patients who were separated from their families forever.

 

The grounds were lovely.

 

Not sure how they worked in those wimples.

 

The cemetery was haunting. Then we headed to New Iberia. We had an apartment attached to a house on Bayou Le Teche. This guy greeted us.

 

By then it was getting late so we headed to a nearby restaurant. 

 

Look at all these Cajun and Creole choices. Sophie and I split a whole stuffed flounder.

 

Jan wanted a picture of these perfect rolls. They were so light inside.

 

We asked for a basket of them for dessert. During a stop at a drugstore, (Sophie was battling a cold), this guy joined our group. It was huge.

 

He even had a little song made up about him. Everyone got a little sick of my singing.

 

Sophie got the ears honor.

 

Next morning...literally bed and breakfast. Our landlord brought coffeecake and fruit. 

 

We supplemented with our pigs.

 

This was a little shrine near our house. That gentleman on the right was setting up a sign. We asked for advice on where to eat and he suggested Chili's. Hee hee.

 

The grotto was handmade. Ok, then dreams began to come true!

 

I have been talking about visiting Avery Island for years now. My dream came true. The islands in this part of Louisiana are land formed on top of salt domes under the marsh. The original McIllhenny began growing peppers here after the Civil War. The hot sauce is still made here from "Tabasco" variety peppers.

 

Here we go.

 

Even the queen likes Tabasco.

 

Is that big enough?

 

Mary Grace gave me a special hairdo for the occasion

 

This little tour guide had a great accent. People were there from Mexico to New York. That lady on the right with glasses and hat was another source of laughter. She at one point in the tour bumped into or pushed each one of us. She was so focused on getting her pictures that she couldn't have been even seeing the tour. 

 

The pepper mash is stored for 3 years in barrels purchased from Jack Daniels. You can reference my tour of that plant from October 2013.

Here is what the mash looks like as it is stirred for 3 days before stirring. It smelled great.

 



 

It is covered in salt that is mined from under the island. One of their sayings is "This is where salt meets pepper". I would love to have one of those barrels.

 

The store was a big destination.

 

Jalapeno ice cream. Next, on to the Jungle Garden. I got my first senior discount! 55 and up. The gardens were established by one of the McIlhenny sons to conserve and protect the land and wildlife.

 

These live oaks were amazing everywhere we went. They are all so undamaged by hurricanes, unlike the ones on the Mississippi coast.

 

Jan wanted to climb them everywhere we went.

 

You drove through the park, but there were trails to get out and walk. This one was a marsh walk.

 

Cary spotted a cute little  alligator. He was about 2 feet long.

 

The bayou and Spanish moss.

 

These were Venetian gardens. Not sure they really looked like Venice.

 

We had seen so many oak trees that they wouldn't stop the car for the Grover Cleveland oak. Apparently he visited there.

 

This was the walk to the Buddha statue..

 

He sits in his temple overlooking a lake.

 

He was behind glass. The statue was built in the 1100's.

 

He seemed happy here.

 

The snowy egret faced extinction in the early 1900's due to the popularity of its feather's in ladies hats at the time. E.A. McIllhenny created this bird sanctuary and nesting area to save them. As you can see it worked.

 

Thousands of camellias were throughout the gardens.

 

Cute girls posing up high. See more of the trip in next post.