Thibodaux

Marie and I had signed up to help replant wetlands, and the only activity from our connection was to pot plants at the Nichols State U. farm in Thibodaux. We drove out of town and got to the University at around 10 o'clock. We met our connection Matt and he drove us to the green house. We learned how to mix up soil for the planters and filled cups to plant Christmas Berry. The greenhouse was used to plant starts of native plants to eventually be planted on a man made ridge used to stop erosion in the gulf. We talked and planted until noon. We made over 600 cups.

Matt then led us to a great lunch place called Bubba's, where Marie and I ate crawdads with great sides of potatoes and beans.


We then went to the Laurel Valley Plantation and saw an old general store/museum. There are also old slave houses that have been used in many movies including the scene in Ray when Ray Charles was young.

We then drove to Jean Lafitte National Preserve and hiked along boardwalks that led us into swamps. Around the visitors center we saw many lizards, frogs, birds and snakes. Marie was surprised how well I saw little animals that blended in so well. We then hiked through a picnic area and headed out to a swamp. We were all by ourselves at 5pm on a Tuesday. It was very peaceful. I was looking for baby gators when Marie spotted a pretty big one on a stump. It was probably 3 to 4 feet long. We walked further to the end of the boardwalk and on our way back I spotted another alligator. The gator was bigger and started to swim (I believed toward us), and started a large gator (6-7 feet long).

The big alligator began to growl, and startled us enough to get us to move quickly down the path. We realized we didn't get a photo, so we walked back and the two larger alligators swam through the water as we walked. We then ran into a few other hikers and told them about the wildlife. On our way back to the car Marie heard some rustling and spotted an armadillo rummaging through some leaves.



We then drove back into New Orleans and had a drink at our hotel. We then took the streetcar out past Loyola and Tulane university and ate at a little restaurant called Jaques-Imos. It was delicious food and nice to see a different part of town. We rode the Streetcar back and went fast to sleep on full bellies.