We drove from Gwen & Larry's in Mandeville, across the 20-mile long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, skirted around the centre of New Orleans, to see Pat's niece Vanessa & Felix (and of course their gorgeous 18-month old baby Isabella). They drove us to a swamp tour operation run by Felix's cousins and we had a 2-hour tour of the bayoux, during which we saw dozens of aligators (the biggest being a 10-foot monster), turtles, and all manner of bird life. We all got to hold a 1-metre baby 'gator - wild but thankfully not mad! An amazing experience. After that, Felix & Vanessa took us to a restaurant in Lafitte where we tasted some good Cajun fare. Katrina & Jackson experienced yet another cultural experience on this trip: fried frogs legs - "tastes like rubbery chicken",
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