Another day down on the bayou.

Tuesday, August 13th

We had a really great day today.  We met up with a long-time friend of David's from DU Law, Dennis Matta.  Dennis is a native of Louisiana and has been a good friend to us both for a long time.  Dennis joined the 6 of us for most of the day.  Our first field trip was for a swamp tour with Airboat Adventures.  The 7 of us were on a small air boat in Lafitte for about 2 hours of alligators, water snakes, birds, frogs, sunshine, and airboat fun.  I loved it and I know the kids did too.  They all held another baby gator.  Last week we held them at Gatorama too, so now our confidence is growing.  A super fun experience that cannot be recreated in Denver.

The sun and fun left us hungry so Dennis navigated us to Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar.  We all ate a lot more seafood, jambalaya, etouffee, and red beans but decidedly agreed that the blackened alligator was the best.  Adelaide struggles with the moral dilemma of enjoying eating alligator (and turtle soup) since they are so cute.  Clearly she doesn't think all the cows, pigs, and chickens we eat are cute.

The Insectarium was on the top of our to do list for Dagny and the afternoon rains made it the perfect next stop.  Comparable to Denver's Butterfly Pavilion but not exactly the same.  Tons of great bugs on display and interactive exhibits all just right for kids ages 5-10.  We learned a bunch and saw tons of cool bugs but the highlight for me was the culinary experience.  Each day the Insectarium has samples of specially prepared insect offerings.  The McLain children were not intimidated and happily chomped on cinnamon and spice meal worms, bbq crickets, and meal worm chips and salsa.  I was shocked!  I am pretty sure Alastair was the first to try any of it but it was hard to tell because all 4 of them were so readily reaching in for samples.  Seriously disturbing.  Had me thinking of the food challenges on Survivor.


Dennis had afternoon treats in mind so we followed him up the street a bit for the kid's first ever snowballs.  Alastair and Dagny went with spearmint, Maggie had blue raspberry and Addie had strawberry cheesecake.  I think the kids were as amused with their green, blue, and red mouths as they were with the taste of their treats.  David went with a traditional praline and I made the best choice of all, some sort of delicious peanut butter bon bon. 

We parted ways with Dennis just before dinner. We had plans to cross Lake Pontchartrain to meet up with Julie's boyfriend's family.  Julie and Mike have been together for 6 years and we have never had the chance to meet his family.  We met Mike's mom and dad, sister and brother-in-law and niece at the Rusty Pelican in Mandeville.  We sat and talked for a couple of hours and now feel like a piece of the puzzle is complete.  Mike is part of our family and it was so great to finally meet his.

This crew has a really long day on the road tomorrow.  We are going to try to drive all the way to Austin in a day.  Should be about 550 miles.  Prayers for journey mercies are appreciated as we continue to traverse the country and have the best time.  Love to all.

Jll