Guest post #3- "I think the alligators could be called pets"

Our next guest post is from Karen who has her own wonderful travel blog, My Road . Please go check it out and read about her experiences in search of the perfect quilt shop. Although I don't often have chance to mention it, there is a whole other cultural experience and world outside of the New Orleans city limits. In her post, Karen gives us a wonderful glance at it.

*********************

Having a daughter in the military has taken hubby and me to new and interesting places. Stacy’s first assignment after basic training was to Grand Isle, Louisiana. Grand Isle is an island just off the tip of Louisiana. We received so many pictures of her adventures on and off the boats that we felt compelled to visit this unknown territory. How can places in the US be so different? Visiting Louisiana is an experience in terrain, culture and cuisine.

I can remember seeing the smoke rising from the peanut fields as the crops were burnt off in preparation for next year’s planting. Fields of rich dirt lay in wait for what next year would bring. The flat land soon turned to wispy trees that contained moss and were sitting in swampy areas. It was not uncommon to find water on both sides of the road we traveled. Telephone poles had water up to their middles. I watched for alligator to make an appearance. I do that here in the Midwest as deer are often spotted in fields along side of the road. I never saw any and we took a swamp tour to get our feel of those magnificent creatures.
It was so humid that we went to more movies on our vacation than I care to admit. It was a way to sit in air conditioning without hitting the mall. We went on a swamp tour that was very lively. The captain was very entertaining. I think the alligators could be called pets as they appeared around every bend. It seemed that they knew the time each day when dead chickens would appear off the back of the old pontoon boat wandering its way through the swamp. Our water adventure was surprisingly mosquito-less. You would have thought the blood thirst critters would have eaten us alive but I don’t remember seeing one pesky bloodsucker. After a serenade from the captain, we disembarked and went to look for a good place to eat.
We had tried poor boys and discovered we loved them. This day, we were in search of some fresh seafood and asked the locals where to go. We were directed to Big Al’s just outside of Houma. We never would have picked that restaurant from its appearance. It looked to have been an old gas station at one time. It was, however, very clean and well attended. We had to wait for our lunch because “the boat was on its way”. We were in for a treat of very fresh fish. I ordered shrimp and hubby ordered crab. We had soup while we waited. It wasn’t very long before two trays of fish were set before us. I am talking trays that resembled pizza pans. Had we known we would be served so much, we might have passed on the soup and corn on the cob we had just devoured. The shrimp still had their eyes and I found it difficult to get past that fact. Hubby ate the shrimp and I ate the crab. It was a terrific exchange, in my opinion. We had a wonderful meal. The only thing I would add to the restaurant’s offerings would be to have a room in the back that had cots available for napping.