Now that Mardi Gras is over and we have plenty of beads, we decided to just "chillin out" around the campground and letting our tummies take a rest. Well that lasted a day. Went over to LA-31 Brewery for some beer, music and food. Not only local

musicians, but we have a trio of ladies from Europe who had recorded in Alabama, and are touring around pull in and play.

I am not a big beer lover, but LA-31 beer is good. Skip picked up a few cases to bring home, had some barbecue, and we sat and enjoyed the music.

For anyone in the area of Arnaudville, usually every Saturday someone is playing at LA-31 Brewery.
    For Valentine's Day we went to Pat's on the Levee in Henderson. More good food. Before leaving the area, I went to see Leslie at Vision's Hair Salon. Great place - salon used to be a church. One of the hairdresser's had to leave because her daughter was in the running for "Queen of the Crawfish Festival" which is coming up in the spring. Hope she won.

Skip went over to The Fruit Stand to pick up alligator to bring home. We also stopped at Poche's Market to pick up boudins and etouffee to bring home.
   Had dinner at Pont Breaux one night. More good food and music. Following night ate at Crazy Bout Crawfish. I was going to get plenty of crawfish to eat before we left. When you pull in the parking lot, you notice that the Crawfish Queen has her own parking space.

  Afterwards, we stopped at Lisa's Daiquiri's on way back to campsite. Is a small whole in the wall place with video slot machines. Skip met Marty who wants to take Skip alligator hunting.

Marty kept telling Skip that he would catch the gator and Skip could shoot it. Skip told him next year when we come, he'll look Marty up!!! Skip just wants to see a gator close up, not shoot it. We'll see what happens when we return. Near campground is an airfield for those with remote control airplanes. Skip enjoyed going over to watch them fly. The turbo jet planes are about $25,000.00 each the owner told Skip. Guess we are not getting one.

  Day before we left, we were invited over to Laurie and John's for jumbalaya. They are both Cajuns. Robin and Glen from Minnesota were also there. Great jumbalaya!!! I made a coffee cake for dessert. Lots of wine!  Great time!! 

Skip and I always regret when we leave Breaux Bridge, LA. We love being here. We love staying at Poche's Fish & RV Park. We love the area, the people, the music, and of course the food!!!! Can't wait to come back!!!!! 

Drove down to New Iberia, LA which is about 45 minutes from Breaux Bridge. This is a small town which James Lee Burke, an author of mysteries spent a lot of his childhood visiting family members in New Iberia.

If you read his books, especially the Dave Robicheaux series, you get a feel of living in the Louisiana gulf coast towns among the bayous. In fact there is walking or self-driving tour of places written about in his various books.

James Lee Burke's grandfather's house

In fact, in April there is a James Lee Burke Literary Festival. Unfortunately, we will be home by then. Otherwise, I would have attended.
  Rain has returned for a while, so we took a ride over to Grand Coteau and Arnaudville. Great little shops and restaurants. Browsed through antique shops where I found my funky lamp,

great kitchen store, and had lunch at Creola Cafe (only about 5 tables inside).

On the way back, we stopped at the Art Gallery in Arnaudville.

They were having a quilting bee going on.  On Saturday, LA-31 Brewery has life music. You never know what type of music. Local musicians show up; there is food barbecuing and of course their beer. Just pull up a chair or bring your own chairs and sit back and enjoy.  Off to Crawfish Town for Dinner -

There is no lack of food and music around Breaux Bridge and surrounding towns

Mardi Gras!!!!!
  Most people see the parades in New Orleans. Other cities and towns in Louisiana also have their parades. We drove to the town of Carencro one Saturday. Followed the line of cars, and were able to squeeze in on the main parade route. While waiting for the parade (you get parked at least 2 hours before) to get your spot

and look around at everything going on, you learn the essentials of their Mardi Gras parade:
       1. if you have a flat-bed trailer - load it with chairs, coolers, music playing loudly for all to enjoy, your grill and some even have a Porta-Potty on board. (All the floats have one on board).

       2. dress for Mardi Gras

       3. If you do not have a trailer, make sure your cooler is large and on wheels to accommodate all your liquid refreshments you need to walk around parade route.
      4. when parade arrives, enjoy, hav

e fun and catch the beads!!!!!

Following day we went into Breaux Bridge to the bakery and a browsed around shops. Town was crowded. Come to find out, a gentleman in town opens his house for one day during Mardi Gras and everyone and anyone is welcome. Skip could hear the music and we wandered over. Let me tell you, cars were parked all over the streets. We followed the crowd - more food, band playing, dancing and the ever present Porta Pottys. Your kidneys do not have to suffer while partying. 

    Another parade nearby was in Henderson. This was on a smaller scale, but just as much fun. We parked across from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. As we pulled out our chairs, the smell of barbecue from the church parking lot was to good to ignore. We walked over to check it out. We were told to grab a plate and dig in to anything we want. Skip offered to pay and we were informed by Evangeline absolutely not. She gave us a hug and told us we are now friends and just eat away. Love these Cajuns!!! They were cooking hot dogs, sausages, steaks, hamburgers and roast pork all sliced and shredded.

Come to find out by the pastor, that he started barbecuing the pig at 5 a.m. in an outside pit behind the church.  A few parishioners assisted while he served mass. Wish I was there to see all this going on. Skip asked about doing it on a rotating spit, but was told that would have taken 12 hours to cook. Besides all the meat, there were lots of refreshments,  salads, dirty rice, beans and King Cakes for dessert and music!!!  Needless to say, we have full tummies while watching parade.

Again, lots of fun!!!!

    

Nice day so we took a ride into Breaux Bridge. I browsed through the antique shops. Skip was getting hungry, we he was looking for a place for lunch. Jacqueline was sitting outside her restaurant. She is always happy to see "my darlings" returning. All her customers, are her "darlings". Jacqueline has owned this restaurant for the past 17 years.

Skip wanted to know if she had gumbo. But of course, so we both had the seafood gumbo. Excellent!!!

Skip was teasing her about the lobster he had had last year. She asked him he wanted lobster again - she'll order it. She told us be be here Friday night.
   Friday night at Chez Jacqueline - Skip had his lobster dinner

and I had the alligator picante. Picante is a tomato based thick sauce with spice along with white rice, another staple in Louisiana.  Another great meal. She also served us champagne and wine. Jacqueline mentioned she does Sunday breakfast with beignets on the menu!! I said I would see her Sunday, with Sunday newspapers!!

As I have said, Louisiana is all about the food and the people.
     Campground had filled up for the weekend with a group of friends who lived nearby. They love their cajun music and partying. Lots of fun. They had us over for homemade gumbo, and moonshine with root beer mixed in. Very good.

     Our son, Jonathan turned 42 on the 26th. Called and wished him a Happy Birthday. Always good to hear he and family are fine. He told us that he and Joan will be heading to Florida the end of February for vacation.
   

We left San Antonio last Friday and after a long drive, and lots of traffic through Houston and into Louisiana, we arrived Poche's Fish N RV Camp in Breaux Bridge. 

sites and 2 of the fishing ponds

We have stayed here before. It is a quiet campground (except for occasional gunfire). There are 4 large fishing ponds and the campsites are around one pond along with a few cabins for rental. The campground will be filling up within the next week with Mardi Gras starting at the end of the month. On the way in, we stopped at Poche's General Store and picked up dinner of crawfish etouffee. Love the food here!!!!  Spent the following day, just chilllin out. Skip was tired from the drive, and since we are here for a month, there is no rush to get up and go.
   When we did go into town, we stopped at Ford dealership to see if we can get the car fixed. The ABS (automatic braking system) light kept coming on while. Skip brought the car in Tuesday morning and they gave us a rental for our use since they had to order the part. We took a ride over to Henderson, which is the next town over from Breaux Bridge. At the dealership, one of the employees gave Skip a few places to check out. There is a new campground in the area - drove over and checked it out; we prefer where we are, but good for a backup if Poche's is full. We ended up driving around the Atchafalaya Basin area

looking for McGee's Landing, where you can get air boat rides, etc.
  As we are driving down this road realizing we don't know where we are, this gentleman is waiving us down. We pulled into his driveway and asked us where we are going. After explaining what we were trying to locate, he invited us over to see his craw fish boat and equipment for catching craw fish. His name is Russell, and he was delightful. Told us all about the area.

With all the rain this area has had in the past month, the basin has overflow

ed into many homes and yards.

There is a levee across the street from Russell's home, so he was fine. After a while, Russell set us out in the right direction, and after going by homes under water, over a draw bridge, and over a levee we arrived at McGee's Landing.

drawbridge and up and over levee

  If and when the weather warms up and isn't raining, we may be back for an air boat ride before we leave.

McGee's Landing

  Got back to camp site late afternoon and just sat outside with Thumper. Some times it is fun to get lost on the road. You never know what you may find and who you will meet in you travels.