Louisiana

Bienvenue en Louisiane! I quickly found out that I cannot pronounce half of the city/street names in Louisiana. There is a lot of French around these parts and I butcher it. Wow, I just realized that my last name is actually french and means Butcher (Boucher.) I kept seeing signs that said Homemade Boudin! I didn't know what it was but I definitely knew that if it was somehting the locals ate, I wanted some. Every time we passed a sign I would read it out loud for Jake to hear because it was a fun word to say and he was watching the road while driving. We stopped and asked a Louisianian about Boudin and they laughed at me because I was saying Bo-Dean and it's pronounced Boo-Dan. Anyway, it's similar to the Musubi found at convenient stores in Hawaii but without the seaweed. It's meat and dirty rice stuffed in a casing.

We were hoping to spend Thanksgiving with family members in Kentucky but our car was having trouble and we only made it to Montigut Louisiana. You should look it up on a map-- we were pretty far down south in the Bayou. We had dinner with a nice Cajun family who cooked amazing food. I tried my first wild duck seasoned with the family recipe and it was gooood. We hung out with some Bayou Kids and had good ol' fashioned fun sitting on the porch and playing catch with the dog. Somehow I missed taking a photo of the sign that said NO SWIMMING and had a picture of an alligator. Jake actually saw a gator while sitting on the porch of our hosts home on Thanksgiving day!

We were able to catch the last little bit of the fall season in Louisiana and it was beautiful. Leaves were changing and families were out fishing. Can you believe the water level gets above 30 feet in some places? Out here there are signs on every major road that lead you to the evacuation route if you need it. It would seem really scary to me to live somewhere that always floods but I guess every area has its ups and downs. The fresh seafood here is to die for and they never worry about the Bayou being too dry and catching on fire. Everyone owns a boat and life is good! 

This is Pierre, our French host in Baton Rouge. Unlike the Cajuns, Pierre is actually from France and he'll be going back after he finishes his University research. He's been in the U.S. for two years and his english is pretty okay. I can't imagine moving to France by myself and trying to communicate in a very foreign language. Wait a minute. I did that. I almost had Korea completely blocked out of my memory. Wow. I want an orange tree in my yard.

The trees down here are different from what we're used to in Utah. They grow bigger and many are covered with beautiful Spanish Moss. They also have a lot of nut trees. I learned how to crack open pecans with my bare hands.













This was our first time to cross the muddy Mississippi River. After we were parked the captain blew the horn and Jake almost jumped out of his seat. It was so LOUD! The man in the car next to us witnessed the whole thing and laughed just as hard as we did.

Jake and I had pulled over to make some sandwiches for lunch and I saw this huge bird up in a tree. It was moving it's head up and down and side to side and from far away I thought it looked like a parrot. I'm smart enough to know that parrots aren't birds you find flying around Louisiana so I figured somebody's pet got loose. When I showed my picture to a local resident they laughed at my parrot picture and told me it was a Falcon... Since then, I've seen a lot of falcons in Louisiana. And a lot of sinking boats. Tons actually. What do you do with a sinking boat???

We also ate our first Po-boys. It's a big hoagie with some kind of meat, lettuce, tomato and mayo. We opted for the shrimp and catfish. YUM. But there's no way I could eat this deep fried food every day. It makes me feel funny but not in a good way.