New Orleans 5

Tonight's entry is going to be an example of "more is more".  I promised this is the last entry on New Orleans, and I will keep my promise.  I also told you I was going to share what I feel is the highlight of our trip (and as you can tell from the other 4 entries, there were lots of wonderful experiences).  In order to let you enjoy, I will keep the commentary to a minimum.

So the experience that I absolutely loved and would do again was our Swamp Tour. Because of a number of different things, we wound up in a small boat with only the captain and no one else.  What follows are a mere fraction of the photographs I took.

Of the many shots of alligators I got, this is my favorite.  Moses may have his bulrushes; this alligator has his water lilies.

This is the more open, accessible part of the bayou.  By the way, I found out that according to our captain a "bayou" is a swampy, sluggish body of water that connects two other bodies of water (like rivers that have a more active current).  Notice how still the water is the photo below.

Here a mass of vegetation seems to be floating on the water.  The water level was high this season, but soil does get caught and builds up around the tree roots as it did here.

This barn owl came from her nest/roost to keep an eye on "Carlos" (or "Carlita" as one can't tell the gender) the alligator that our captain had coaxed near our boat.  It wasn't the same alligator that was in the first photograph; we saw many.

The next two are simply pretty pictures.  Since we were in a small boat, we were able to see areas of the swamp bigger boats can't reach.  Weren't we lucky!

This is another pretty picture, but I took it because of the cypress "knees" which may act to keep the tree upright and in place though no one really knows what they are for.

And another shot that focuses on the base of the trees.  Cypress have a particularly lovely flare - a wide, ridged base that tapers quickly and gracefully upwards.  Can you find the cypress trees in this photo?

I haven't showed you all the birds, wild hogs, or alligators we saw . . .  or the flowers . . . . or turtles or . . . . or . . . .

It is a wonderful place!