Louisiana & Mississippi Travel!
Do not skip Louisiana & Mississippi Travel. Several of our friends warned us not to stop in Louisiana as we fired through the South. Glad we didn’t listen. The history is so rich and the food is so good.
Coming from the deep cultural abyss of Orange County, CA Louisiana has been a refreshing look at American history, deeply rooted cultural foods, and a look at some amazing bayou and swamp habitats full of grasses, osprey and alligators.
What to do in Louisiana & Mississippi Travel?
Eat some serious Cajun, Creole, and Beignets –
Food! Yum. Sadly when I think of American food, I think, Pizza, Tacos, and Espresso…guess I don’t think american at all…but reach to the South and you’ve got all kinds of goods.
Cajun crawfish season is at its peak in April. Two of our favorite places we tried them were Crawfish Town USA, near Lafayette, LA…a recommendation of a friend from LA and this really quaint little town of Ocean Springs we found this big dish of Crawfish by the pound at Crawfish House. Both places served crawfish by the pound (about 2.85 per pound for 5 pounds or more). 4 to 5 pounds of boiled crawfish per adult was what we ordered…but met a guy who put away 15 pounds after fishing all day. (There’s mostly shell, not a lot of meat to the crawfish)… one lady was sitting a table away sucking the brains out of all her 5 lbs of crawfish…we didn’t.
We all got a taste of Cafe Du Monde and Cafe Beignet’s signature beignets. Cafe Beignet was our favorite, but we were all happy to participate in the comparison taste test.
Visit some of the richest American History
New Orleans is full of all kinds of flavorful, mixed, old and new history. It’s very obvious the recovery from Hurricane Katrina is still in motion, though it happened in 2005. New homes, and broken pieces of docks dotting the area (and even into Mississippi). We visited the Presbytere Museum (Katrina Museum and Mardi Gras exhibits)…and was a reminder of the wild power of God’s created earth, and the wild craziness of people who live to party.
A quick horse-drawn carriage ride guide gave us the history of Jean Lafitte — a 19th century Robin Hood privateer, pirate, entrepreneur, diplomat, spy, hero of the Battle Of New Orleans.
Tour Swamps, bayous and see Alligators:
No visit to the south would be complete without a swamp tour. We got to see the giant lizards (actually aren’t lizards, and bite harder too) from a boat at Breaux Bridge with Champagne’s Swamp tours. Tons of wild life and NO Mosquitos thanks to the swamp trees natural repellent. Coming from little San Clemente, these creatures are as impressive as bears, but tons to see, and they are right near the boat…wouldn’t want to swim here, but people do.
Our next stop down at Ocean Gulf Islands National Seashore. The park was awesome, showers in the campground rocked, clean and warm. But the most fun we had was riding the local bike trail through town, and visiting the Visitor’s Center, where we happened on a free one hour Bayou by Boat tour from the National Parks Ranger. They offer it every Monday and Saturday. Free, but by Reservation.