Back in New Orleans

We had docked in New Orleans by the time we all woke up Sunday morning. Thankfully we all woke up feeling much better! Ron was still under the weather, but he was at least functional! Tyler & I felt much better since the ship had stopped rocking. And Danielle was, well, Danielle!

Once again our VIP status paid off. We got to be among the first groups of people to disembark the ship. And to top it off, our luggage was sitting off by itself – away from the hundreds of other pieces of luggage waiting to be claimed. If you’ve ever taken a cruise before, you know how invaluable this perk was!!

We didn’t realize we would be getting off the ship so quickly & smoothly. In fact, we didn’t schedule our flight home until Monday…just in case we ran into trouble getting off the ship. When we arrived at our hotel by 9:30am Sunday morning, we knew we had to find something to do.

We decided to drive into Louisiana a little and take a swamp tour. We’ve always talked about it & were in the right place with lots of time. So we rented a car & drove up to Cajun Encounter, where Captain Nolan took us on a wonderful tour of the river & bayou.

The scenery was beautiful. The pictures just don’t do it justice.



For a point of reference, our guide said after Katrina hit, this house on stilts had 2' of water in it.

Shortly after our tour began Danielle fell asleep. Fortunately Captain Nolan wasn't discouraged by her loud snoring.






Our guide warned us about the possibility of snakes falling in our boat. Tyler loudly told him that his daddy was afraid of snakes. Everyone thought that was hilarious. Back behind the Cypress knees is a curled up water moccasin. Fortunately that was the closest we got to any snakes.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see any alligators. The weather was a little cool, so they just weren't active. We did manage to see a raccoon and a nutria, though. Even though we didn't get to see any gators, the tour was wonderful. Captain Nolan was a wealth of information who genuinely loved his job & the area he was sharing with us. It was a great ending to a very nice vacation.

We flew back Monday and got home by bedtime. It took Ron a few days to remember the good times he had outweighed the days spent in bed, but we all have a lot of fond memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

I hope you enjoyed our vacation, too.