Down on the Bayou

A few weeks ago, Chris and I went with our friends Aaron and Natalie down to the Bayou to take a swamp tour. (Aaron owns a restaurant, U.S. Prime, a block from our house here in New Orleans. We have eaten there many many times.) On our way down we stopped at a little seafood shop and bought some boiled crawfish. This was the first time that Chris and I had ever eaten them.

This is Mr. Crawfish before being eaten. Trust me...he's not as cute in person!

Here we are before the tour.

So we start eating the crawfish. At first they are really yucky (as you can tell from my face)! You have to break them in half, eat the meat from the tail and suck the juice from the head.

Obviously the yuckiness didn't deter me from eating. Oh yes, I kept eating...and eating. Boiled crawfish are so good!

This was our tour guide and his mom. She runs the company.

We had to wear these ear muffs while the air boat was in motion. We also had to wear protective eyewear.

It was still light out when we started. We saw a lot of blue heron wading in the water.

Like Savannah, there are lots of trees with the moss hanging from them...kinda creepy, but beautiful at the same time.

Another view from the boat.

Here we are on the boat with our friends Natalie and Aaron.

The sun started to set...so beautiful!

During the trip, we caught a few critters...all native to the bayou. The first one we caught (correction, Aaron caught) was a nutria.

They are a mix between a beaver and a rat...so ugly they are cute! They have these reddish-orange teeth and sharp claws on the front feet.

Aaron passed him to Chris to hold. Chris had to hold him by the tail. The nutria would hold onto the paddle and make these really weird squealing noises.

If I didn't have a picture of us with the nutria, you probably wouldn't believe that we got this close to it. Chris still laughs at this pic because I was still wearing my goggles and ear muffs.

Sorry for the pic of the butt, but I wanted to get a pic of the nutria's webbed feet.

Notice the sharp claws.

Here he looks like a beaver.

The next animal we saw was Alice, the 12 foot alligator!!!

Not the best picture, but if you look at the light, that is around the middle of the alligator.

We also caught some frogs. Later our tour guide skinned them so Aaron could take them home and cook them.

Here is one of the three bull frogs Aaron caught.

The last and coolest thing Aaron caught was a baby gator. Our tour guide had a hat with a light that he would shine around the bayou. When he spotted a gator, you could see the eyes glowing orange...again, kinda creepy. After a few attempts, Aaron caught one.

You can tell the length by the distance from the eyes to the nose.

This one was about 3 feet long.

Chris was able to hold him too.

(Notice how I haven't touched anything.)

Overall we had a great time!

Who knew that a swamp tour could be so much fun!!!