alligators and plantations New Orleans #3

Day 3 of our New Orleans trip sent us on an air boat ride in the bayou. We were in a smaller boat with 5 of us total on the boat and saw tons of alligators. Our guide said in a few weeks they would go into hibernation but for now he brought "swamp crack" for them to eat, we would know it as marshmallows. He didn't offer too many but played with one by putting it on his head and waited for another alligator to try to get it off his head. Funny. I felt like I was in the children's book "Liza Lou and the Yeller belly swamp" by Mercer Mayer.... I imagined Liza Lou right there. It is my favorite book to read aloud to children as it is written in a Louisiana accent. This by far topped our Florida air boat tour. It took us a little while to get used to our guide's accent but then we figured out he was driver to many movie stars when they filmed movies there and he collects alligator eggs to protect from predators (one of the dirty jobs from that dirty jobs TV show). Alligator trivia. Alligators lay 23-25 eggs and protect them like crazy until they are born and then eat most of them (carnivores.. hey, fresh meat!). The egg collectors take them and protect them, changing the temperature makes most of them females. If you take an egg out you must not turn it or the alligator will die.

We also went to two plantation houses... Laura and Oak Alley. Kay opted out of the latter and slept in the car while Janell and I toured. He was a good sport. We got into a huge Louisiana storm where lots of people stopped by the side of the road because they couldn't see. Not Kay, he plowed through. We saw a man hole that looked like it was a geyser, cars turned backwards and huge puddles. I can see how this place gets flooded. The weather turns in a few minutes. We enjoyed driving right into a storm. Really cool to watch. You need to be ready for anything.