Travel Diary

My friend Jim took the day off so he could hang out and that was cool. So I got to see more things. There was no real itinerary; therefore, it was an opportunity to sleep in, but I don't know. I was getting so much sleep that even at 9am, my body was like, “All right, I'm I'm rested enough. I can get up and enjoy more of New Orleans, Louisiana.”

We drove out to this waterfront area. But again, no crocodiles or alligators. But I did see the stilted homes which were really impressive. They're just very, very nice homes, almost mansions, but they're built about 20 feet up because of the water, mainly the hurricanes and all the flooding that comes with them. It's just an odd thing to see so many homes way above the ground. Just something you just don't see that out in California.

But they're definitely in the New Orleans area. I guess they have to be that way for insurance purposes. And to keep your belongings safe. The bottom is just for parking for cars and boats, and then the top level is a nice home. I think some people use facades where they could, as it does make for a very odd look when you have a home like that. And I imagine they probably have elevators, but definitely stairs, lots of stairs. Every time you want to leave your house or come back and you've got to move things in there just seems arduous, but that’s life out there.

Coming back, my friend decided that we should take a swamp boat tour. I had never taken one before, and they're pretty amazing.

I had no idea what to expect. But you drive out there and the price is really, really reasonable. I think it was like $35. While you wait, you get an arm band. And what’s funny is the ladies at the ticket desk were saying they were not sure if you'd see any alligators. And then when the tour guide, the boat driver, came up, he was like, yeah, you're definitely seeing alligators, many alligators.

And he was not mistaken.

So the weather was actually really nice for something like that. It was very comfortable. Even in a t-shirt, I had no problems with the weather, but I could easily see how it could become very, very hot and uncomfortable and humid in the summer. So this was a good time to do it. But if you wait too long and go into the winter, you're you're not going to see any alligators at all because they're burying themselves to stay warm.

However, within five minutes we already saw our first alligator, a pretty big one. So that was cool. My first live gator. I had no idea what to expect, but it's just kind of an interesting thing being out in the water. You are protected because you're in the boat, and they're not really eating much this time of year, as they have to reduce their eating so their stomachs are empty when they kind of go into brumation.

But it's still a little like odd when they come swimming up towards the boat. It's just kind of a weird thing to have. Something that could kill you so close by.

There are quite a few animals out there in the swamps. I think birds are the main animal. You see lots and lots of birds, herons and egrets and one that I can't remember the name of, but a very, very common bird out there. Then you get to see wild pigs as well. So that was kind of an interesting thing. I was familiar with how many wild pigs are out there, but I’d never seen them before.

And then when you turn down into the smaller swamp areas, it looks like something straight out of a movie. What you see out there – it's just it's pretty cool. Exactly what you would have imagined.

It's just almost indescribable. But, you know, that's why I take photos and video. Raccoons are everywhere. Yeah, the raccoons. They stay in their little packs for a lot of the time, and the boat tours feed them out there, which people could say messes up the ecosystem a little bit. I don't think so. I mean, maybe locally they might, depending on to some degree, but they're pretty resilient animals, so I don't know. They're even in cities and always getting into food anyway. So they're going to take what food they can get. And really, there's no social media for raccoons. It's not like they message all the other raccoons in the entire world and just say, you don't have to work anymore. So I don't think it messes up anything at a high level.

But they are fun to watch, these little trash pandas as people call them. But I think they're pretty cool when they're not in your own garbage.

A notable thing is that I saw lots of mollusks out there or clams and shells. And I asked the tour guide about that. He said the birds will try to peck them open, using their beak to place it on a side, peck them and then open it up and get the meat inside out.

Which is interesting, because later on, on the way back, we actually saw an example of that. A bird was sitting there trying to move it on its side and peck it open. So it was almost like I was paid to do that. But I had no idea. Turned out to be pretty cool because he probably would have pointed it out on the way back anyway, once we passed by that site.

I had just asked the question early.

Another very interesting thing was one alligator resting its snout or whatever on top of a turtle and there was another one behind it, all in the same log, and just all peacefully coexisting there because, again, it wasn't the time of year where they're going to be eating, but you saw this another time of year, the turtle would have been lunch for the alligator.

Overall, a very remarkable tour. I highly recommend it to anyone to at least do it once, because it's just fascinating, just to see all the nature out there and the way it works on the river, and the wildlife, and the various trees and bushes. All that stuff is just really impressive. Alas, it would have been a good time to have a high powered zoom camera lens, and a DSLR, which I used to have, but oh well. The iPhone 15 did great for just your basic photos. It's just not going to match the power of a just a really good lens on a really good camera.

After that, it was heading back to the house to pick up Tonya, and we all went out to look for eagles. I'd seen one eagle earlier in the day, so we drove along and watched the sunset.

Lots of birds, but no eagles, maybe some gators, like small ones. Though at that point, I kind of had my fill of gator, so it wasn't as pertinent to see one. But it was still fun and a beautiful drive. We then headed back home. Since it was Monday night, we got to enjoy Monday Night Football.