He kicked back, drank milk and ate snacks, played with trucks and trains, colored and watched Nemo and Monsters for the majority of the drive. We hit the road Thursday for Lake Charles to spend the night before getting up to finish the drive on Friday morning.
He stayed up the entire first leg of the drive and was a total maniac when we reached the hotel room. I actually a bit surprised that he didn't pass out, and then, that I was able to get him to sleep. (Where he proceeded to kick me all night long in what was the most uncomfortable bed I have EVER slept in...and it was a nice hotel!)We left Lake Charles mid-morning on Friday, where we drove over the "long bridge" that I have so many memories of. I have made this drive no less than a dozen times in the last several years, and it's really a neat drive. My memories of this area are pretty clear, and yet I never remember it looking like this. Those stumps have me (and my Grammy and Aunt D) stumped.
Jack took a moment to check out the view, too.
It was dark when we hit Louisiana, so I missed the welcome sign, but we stopped at the rest area when reached MS (after a long afternoon spent lunching and buying fishing licenses at Bass Pro Shops in Baton Rouge) and I snapped the welcome sign there.
We drove the rest of the way through Waveland to Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis to the Lundin bay house, arriving to find Uncle Ed waiting on little man Jack to take him crab fishing. He had set the traps earlier in anticipation of Jack's arrival, and wasted no time at all getting him into the boat to show the little man the ways of the south.We got him life vested, and away we went. Jack even helped drive for a minute!
Of course, being the water baby (from the water mama) that he is, he was literally right at home on the boat. The boy has sea legs already, and walked all around the boat, checking everything from the fishing poles to the view out.
Then we pulled traps. This occurred a few more times throughout the weekend, and when it was all said and done, I'm pretty sure they probably boiled more than 5 or 6 dozen crabs for dinner on Sunday night. Sadly, I did not photograph any of the food, or our time around the table. What was I thinking? Oh, yeah, I was too exhausted from fishing all day....Moving on...we pulled crab traps. We shook out the jellyfish.
We dumped the crabs into the hamper. We re baited the traps. We threw them back and set them again.
And we still made time to pose for pictures!
In the event you were wondering what a pregnant crab looks like...here you go. I give you....a pregnant crab. You have to throw them back. Off she goes.
We rode through the bayou a few times each day of the trip, and it's just amazing. (I'll have some pictures of that tomorrow.) This area was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina (they talk about her like a person, referring to her as "she" and everything.) and has been beautifully rebuilt.
On Saturday, the big kids left the little kid with the grandparents and headed out to fish. I have no idea where we went on this day, except to say that it was more than ten miles, in a 24 foot bay boat, in some rather high winds. And, that our guide took us to some of the best catfishing grounds any of us had ever seen. Except that he (our guide....my cousin's hubby, Ward) said he'd never seen anybody catch so many dang catfish in his life and that it MUST be because we were from Texas, and he made us throw them all back, because evidently, salt water catfish are not good eats. He spent the entire afternoon (literally.) unhooking catfish from our lines. As well as 2 stingrays, and a couple of shucked oyster clusters. (How they got those to bite, I have no idea.)
I did catch a keeper! A nice little Gafftop, and we took home a nice haul of Croaker to fry up.
I can say that the spot we were fishing in (in Louisiana waters somewhere) was beautiful. I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen, until Sunday when we went to a more beautiful place. 
Back in the bayou, Alfonse, the resident alligator, made a morning appearance each day, swimming down the center of the bayou, presumably looking for some breakfast. He's just a little guy....they won't come retrieve them until they're at least 6 feet long. (eek!)
Jack spent his days playing in the water hose, or dog water or ice chest water while we fished. He ran all over the bay property, and on Sunday, he got a special trip over to the beach, where he picked up a topless chic (she was in only her diaper!).
You can see the crab trap behind him, where we also fished for crabs each day.I managed to get zero pictures of our Sunday fishing trip, which is REALLY a shame, because I now have only my memories of the amazing and beautiful Louisiana marshland. I will be the first to tell you (and my husband would totally back me up) that geography (of anything outside of Texas) is my absolute worst subject of knowledge. I just never paid much attention. But, this weekend I learned that Louisiana extends far south of Mississippi into the Gulf Coast in what is known as marsh. It is, absolutely indescribable. (Search for Louisiana Coastal Marsh in Google Images, but these pictures offer no justice). It is untouched, beautiful, quiet, serene, peaceful, and a fisherman's and a birder's paradise. I almost didn't go fishing on Sunday, and the rough ride home and dodging some potentially very bad weather in the Gulf were so worth seeing this place. A place I had no idea was even there! To think!
We returned to the bayou on Sunday night a bit heavy hearted that it was already time for us to go. We each agreed that we could really have spent days and days there, in the nice weather with the breezes blowing off the bayou, and fishing off the dock and from the boat, and eating the delicious food our hosts served each night (seafood gumbo and drunken chicken, fried fish and boiled crab, biscuits and fruit each morning, and on and on....). It was the absolute perfect trip.
Perfect.
Jack and I both did a little of this on the long ride home....
1 comments:
I think you captured the weekend quite well!! I am glad you guys had so much fun while being here.
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