Day 11 - August 12th - Galveston, TX - Lafayette, LA

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We left Galveston a little heavy hearted. We all wanted to stay another week here, but we had more adventure waiting for us. The kids were looking forward to the swamp tour and seeing some alligators. The adults were looking forward to some Cajun food. My parents had been to Lafayette 20 years ago and had gone to a restaurant called Prejeans. I looked it up before I left and found that the place was still open. It was on our bucket list as a "must eat" restaurant. The only way to the mainland from Galveston heading east was via ferry. It is about a 20 minute ride and it was beautiful in the morning. We got right on the ferry and left and were delighted to see a pod of dolphins swarming a shrimp boat that was pulling their nets. They were going to town eating all shrimp and fish that the nets were hauling in. We arrived in Port Bolivar and headed east towards Louisiana. It was beautiful out on the spit of land with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Galveston Bay on the other. I can see why the houses are all built on stilts! We left the spit and headed north towards Port Arthur. Once we left Port Arthur we took the scenic route to Lafayette. I must say I was quite disappointed. This was a route that I had been looking forward to taking. There are portions of this route that take us through a wildlife refuge and we were hoping to see alligators. Well.....it started off by being very dirty...I mean trash dirty. The beaches were awful. I was shocked that so much trash is being washed ashore here out of the gulf. I must be used to the Oregon beaches. Next we came to a small ferry crossing. We waited in line for about a half hour before we decided to turn around and take another route to Lafayette. A sign on the ferry crossing said that all gas tanker trucks go by themselves. We had one in front of us...it was going to be a long wait. Another thing I want to point out is all the oil refinery's. It is not something I see on a daily basis and the sight and smell of these was quite disturbing...once again...not something I am used to. After we left the ferry crossing we headed north through another wildlife refuge. We found a marsh trail that said you could walk through alligator alley. Of course we had to go. We headed off and made it to alligator alley without so much as a peep from an alligator. Of course...there were plenty of biting bugs! I ended up running back to the car! So much for our marsh walk to see alligators.I would also like to point out that as we were headed on this remote route through Louisiana, we had to go through a marsh fire...it was very weird and smokey. It was starting to get late so we decided to head to Lafayette and our hotel. I ended up changing our original hotel to a nicer place according to trip advisor. Well...nicer it was...but HARD to find!!!! Sheesh..by the time we got there we were all ready for cold Coronas! Oh yeah...I had 4 bags of laundry to do that night! Anyway....dinner...oh yeah...dinner! We left after Corona time and laundry time and went to the best food I have ever had. They had live Cajun music and authentic Cajun food. My kids both had the alligator plate, Theo and my dad had the Capitan's platter (frog legs, alligator, stuffed crab, stuffed shrimp, oysters and catfish), my brother had the shrimp platter, I had the Crawfish Enchilada and my mom had the Shrimp E'Toufee and fried crawfish. We all had bowls of gumbo as well. OMG! They had to roll us out of there and I had to drive us all back to that hotel in the dark!!!! Well.....the next day we had the swamp tour and alligator farmed planned.....

PS - I wasn't able to get the dolphins in any of my pictures....damn camera!

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Photos

More marsh walk
No alligators....

Comments

[patty]

food, that is so interesting how different people eat in different areas. not too sure that I would have tried some of the things you guys did. I might have been brave enough to take a small bite off someone's plate. Love that gumbo!!