There is water everywhere. Really, everywhere we look there is some kind of water. It is even saturating the air. As hard as it is to take the humidity and rain sure makes it green. Lousisana is absolutely beautiful. I am not really sure what I expected it to look like but I am impressed. My favorite is the big trees with the Spanish moss hanging down. I love it. We pulled into Layfayette around 2:00 and went to the Acadian Culture Center. I had read some historical fiction novel about the Acadians in the 1700’s and was pretty fascinated by it. I hadn’t really every heard of them before but it is a really interesting piece of history. The visitors center had a little documentary about the Acadians and their exile and settlement in Lousiana. We stopped at a park and had a little lunch and then went on to Baton Rouge. We crossed over the Mississipi which was incredibley impressive. I’ve never seen it before – it is massive. It stormed pretty good which was kind of fun until we got into town and found out the storm knowcked the power out. Driving a 30ft rv in downtown Baton Rouge was no picnic especially when all the traffic lights. It took a while to get there but we finally got to the temple. It was really small but beautiful and peaceful. We ran around a bit and then headed out to find a bathroom for Rick. Problem was all the power was out so the gas stations and McDonalds were closed. We finally pulled out of Baton Rouge and headed to New Orleans area. We had decided to stay the Segnette Bauo State Park, we thought we would have no problem getting there early but traffic and finding the way, even with the gps, was a nightmare. We finally arrived about 9:30, made a quick dinner, showered and went to bed.
June 5th
The kids sure werent’ too happy when we woke them up early this morning to get ready for church. Getting 7 people ready on 1 queen size bed and a very narrow hall way was not the most pleasant experience but we made it out around 8:40. The gps lead us into a very residential neighborhood with nothing but houses. It is a branch so we thought maybe it is at the Branch Presidents house. We joked about not being able to find the church like when we were in Puerto Rico. Then I said even if we do find it they will probably being having Stake Conference or something. But the GPS came through for us and we arrived at an actual church building at 9:01 – so we werent’ even to late. I had given the kids a little talk about hurrying in and sitting quietly so as not to interrupt their service especially because we thought it might be a pretty small branch. Someone said – wow it a small branch only 2 famlies. Maybe the all walk someone else said. There were 2 cars In the parking lot and not a soul in sight. All the doors were locked, We called up the Branch President and his wife said it is Stake Conference today. Seriously. Well we determined that it wasn’t’ really realistic to try and get to the Stake Center – it was too far away and New Orleans isn’t RV friendly. So we dediced we would just have to have our own little church service. Boy were the kids excited. So we didn’t go to church – well we went to the church just not a meeting. Hopefully we get points for trying.
We then went on to the Barrero Nature Preserve. It is a 23000 acre preserve of wetlands. We hoped this would be a more quiet peaceful “Sunday” type of an activity. Well at least more than visiting New Orleans Jazz festive or French Quarter which is on the docket for tomorrow. Or to a water park, which We were supposed to do on Saturday but our little extended stay in Andrews Texas knocked that off the schedule. So we went to the preserve. It was awesome. I really loved it. It reminded me a little of the rain forest we visited in Puerto Rico or St. John – different but the same kind of feeling. We took a little Ranger walk and learned about the history of the area and the geography of the land. It started to pour so our Ranger dogged us and we went on alone. It poured pretty good, which the kids hated, and I loved. In my opnion it just added to the atmosphere. It was one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen. Our main goal was to see an alligator – which we did – several in fact. The kids were a bit apprehensive but loved it. After they all got over their little fears they had a great time. Some were terrified of the bugs, and others were nervous the gators would jump out of the swamp and take them down in a death roll and another just knew we would be struck by lightening. We also saw lots of armadillo’s, rabbits, turtles, frogs, weird looking fish and hundreds of brightly colored birds. The sounds of croaking frogs, the mist rising off the bayou and the Spanish moss swaying in the wind made it truly enchanting. We took several little hikes and then stopped to have lunch at a picnic area. We called it a day and headed back to out camping spot in the State Park around 3:00. The Park is pretty amazing. It is really pretty, very peaceful and not very croweded. There are little playgrounds near each bathroom for the kids and nice hot showers and even free laundry facilities available. I would come back here in a heart beat – it would be a great place for a family reunion. There is a water park attached, we got passes with our campsite, but since it is Sunday we passed that up. There are also lots of hiking trials and places to canoe through the many little canels and bayous. All the kids are pretty tired and Rick and I are exhausted so the plan is to make some dinner, play a game or too and maybe watch a movie then call it a night. We are hoping to go to bed with the sun – but that may require a miracle.
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