Trip to Louisiana 9/27-9/28

 So my brother Marcus called us up a month or so ago and told us that he was planning on visiting New Orleans and wondered if we would be willing to drive out to meet them in Louisiana during their trip.  We don't have many opportunities to see family so that seemed like a good arrangement to us.  The kids were excited to see cousins, but less excited to miss school.  So we only went for 2 days, (Sunday and Monday) so they only had to miss one day.  Gratefully Damon was able to do most of his work ahead of time on Saturday (he worked on it all day) but they others had to catch up afterwards. 

Sunday morning we attended our ward's zoom for Sacrament Meeting and then we left around 9:30.  We were planning on meeting Marcus at 1:00 at a little Acadian Village place.  The kids were really good in the car, singing songs and being surprisingly happy without watching anything.  Of course we got to the point where we needed some help, but it was fun singing camp songs for awhile.  We listened to youth speaker at the end that was good. 

We arriving in Lafayette a bit early and looked up a park to visit.  Some of the ones we saw looked a little sketchy, but we pulled over to look at some cool trees.  They were so big and had the cool Spanish Moss growing on them. 

 Then we met Marcus at the place and learned that it was closed on Sunday.  Google Maps, and their website and the sign in front of their office said it was supposed to be open, but alas it was closed.  We went on a little walk while we figured out our next option.  

Marcus looked up another 'nature trail' nearby and we drove to it.  It wasn't a trail at all, just a patch of grass in a neighborhood knows for it's Azealia bushes.  So for our third attempt we drove to a lake that was 25 minutes away.  We had a nice nature walk along a board walk that ended at a visitor's center, that was also closed.  

We walked back to the car and then went a different direction to see if we could see the lake.  The kids were getting tired so we turned around before we saw it.  On the map we could see that there was a look out point that we could see the lake better so we decided to drive over there and check it out.  When we got there we saw that it had been roped off, private property - no trespassing.  Sigh, it just seemed that everything that we wanted to do was closed!  We did see an alligator on the side of the road though. 

By this time it was late enough that we could check into our hotel so we drove the 25 min back to Lafayette to get into our rooms.  Marcus was able to get in fine, but our room was not ready, they were still cleaning it.  By this time I was getting pretty frustrated.  Nothing was going right on this trip and the front desk people did not even appear apologetic or ask them to hurry.  We waited for 45 min, mostly outside because they didn't want us hanging around the lobby.  Finally we got into our room and we started thinking about dinner.  Our family isn't that adventurous so they wanted Panda Express.  Marcus of course wanted to try the local cuisine so we ordered a bit from both places so we could keep everyone happy.  I ordered a crab cake and Doug got a mango chicken dish.  Marcus ordered Alligator bites, banana pudding, soup, and some other dishes.  They let us try a bit too which was nice.  We brought the food back to the hotel and ate outside since it would have been too crowded in our rooms.  They had a small pool at the hotel and a half basketball court. I'm glad that Doug had thought to bring our ball.  The cousins all had fun eating, visiting, and playing ball.  We got into our swimming suits after dinner and signed up to swim.  (You could only have so many people in the pool at one time).  We were lucky that a family let us swim with Marcus, they were about to sign up but let us have their spot.  The water was cold to us Texans, and we had to keep moving to stay warm, but we all had a fun time.The kids stayed up late playing games, and watching shows.  We went over to Marcus's room to visit with just the adults.  

In the morning Doug and I went on a morning walk to a Great Harvest store to get some breakfast things.  The hotel was serving a "to go" breakfast, but it was mostly eggs so we wanted something else to give the kids.  The road we were walking by was a main road with cars going by fast.  It was so loud we couldn't really talk, and I was nervous about being so close to the cars.  They didn't have any bread baked yet so we bought some cinnamon scones and some blueberry peach bars.  They got a bit squished in our backpack walking back, but they still tasted good.  We picked up some for Marcus and Annie too.  

Since we were checking out we had to get everything all packed up before we left at 9:15.  We were hustling a bit, but we made it.  It was nice that we could leave our cooler and electronics in Marcus's room while we went out on our adventure since they were staying one more day.  

We had a swap tour scheduled at McGee's.  It was a 30 minute drive away.  We went in an open sided boat with lawn chairs spread around.  Our guide was great and told us lots of interesting facts about the area and local wildlife - and of course lots about alligators.  The tour lasted 90 minutes and we saw about 20 gators.  It was pretty cool.  When we got to the end of the route he even fed some of them so we could see them up close.  There also were these crazy fish (Asian Carp) that would get scared by the boat and jump 5-10 feet into the air.  One landed right by the boat the splash was so big that Kaylee and I got soaked.  They kept jumping all the time, it made the trip excited for sure.  Towards the end one fish even jumped into the boat.  Our guide had to throw him back out.  Crazy!  It was a great tour and I'm so glad that we went.  I was also very grateful that we went in the morning.  A huge storm was rolling in and as we headed into town for lunch the rain was coming down so hard.  The splash was so bad on the roads that it was scary to drive in.  

Our guide was nice to let the kids drive the boat for a little bit on the ride back. 

We ate lunch at a food court in a mall near another Arcadian Village place.  We drove to it after lunch and debated whether to go or not.  It was still raining pretty good and most of the attractions were outside.  We didn't really want to be wet driving home, so we decided to just go back to the hotel.  We let the kids veg and play some video games.  They had fun playing Mario Kart and Minecraft together.  Doug took a quick nap in the van and then we headed home around 4:00.  We stopped for dinner along the way at a Burger King.  The kids watched the live version of Cinderella and the Magic School Bus on the way home.  

It was a fun short trip.  It was pretty frustrating on Sunday that everything was closed and that the hotel was not being very cooperative and then it was a bummer that it rained on Monday, and I think I got food poisoning from my crab cake - but we did enjoy the swap tour.  It was also good to see Marcus and Annie and let the cousins make some memories.  

The kids had a hard day on Tuesday catching up, but they managed through it and were fine after a few days.  Fun family memories.