Down on the Bayou

Greetings:

What a long strange trip it’s been! Dundalk, Ireland in January and Mardi Gras in Lafayette, Louisiana are the slices of bread for a Miami Italian sandwich and can we have a martini with that please?

Paul sadly brought us to the Miami airport. His playmates were flying away. Three weeks of walking SoBe (South Beach), seeing movies (Milk, The Wrestler, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The International, Slumdog Millionaire, Gran Torino and Taken) and emptying bottles of Bombay Gin were combined with visits from Tom and Michele, Chris Link and his parents: Nadine and Frank, Jan and Cliff and dinners and drinks with Rick and adventures with Paul and Greg.

Needless to say we are deep in negotiations to buy up all of South Beach and do a Von D’Lucci redistribution.

We arrived safely in New Orleans and, after three tries, obtained our rental car and headed for Port Barre, Louisiana, the new home of Katy Richard, Chris and Zach Hinchliffe. That would be the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin on the Mississippi Delta. Chris and Katy had moved into the camp cottage that they had bought from a family friend who passed away and wanted to keep it all in the ‘family’. The portable toilet outside is for heavy duty waste while the indoor bathroom can handle the light stuff and provide a good shower and sink (the room is heated too!). There are two bedrooms (Zach surrendered his and is staying with friends) a great living/dining/kitchen area and a wrap around porch.

There is still some green here even in February:


There is a boardwalk out to the dock on the bayou. Looking back from there is a good view of the house and most of the property:

And here is the Bayou Courtableau as seen from their dock (nice lunch today sitting out there):

Pretty soon it is going to look like this:


The big excitement has been the opening of the Taco Sisters in nearby Lafayette, where Katy and Kevin Richard (her brother, our tenant) grew up. Katy and her sister Molly have brainstormed a smoked fish taco signature sandwich from consulting a similar business in California. They are already a big hit among the business people and the university students. We can attest to the quality of the offering and its ‘secret sauce’.


And right here ….on our stage….let’s have a big hand for….the Taco Sisters!

This has now become the wallpaper on Chris’ computer desktop.

Chris H gave us a great tour of Lafayette and then we proceeded to spend three hours in the laundromat. We finally escaped with our much-needed-to-be-washed clothes and picked up Katy to go check out some of Mother Nature’s offerings.

It was not long before we were gazing at acres of cypress trees in the swamp and our first live ‘gator. The birds are wonderful and some of the species are similar to those in the Everglades in Florida. Private donations and volunteers have helped preserve significant amounts of land here in the Basin.

Of course one must libate here among the waters of the Mighty Mississippi. McGee’s was our destination, just across the levee on the Basin:


We were joined in Happy Hour by some of the local residents:


During our drive we were reminded about the festivities the next day when we came upon a float for the upcoming parade:

Not only did it remind us of Mardi Gras but also that some boiled crawfish would taste awful good for dinner. And it did!