It's a Long, Long Road

Saint Gene and I have recently returned from a visit with his family in Houston. It's the first trip we've taken since we lost my mother and we made the trip over a 5-day span to make it more of a vacation and less of just a family obligation. Saint Gene has a great family and he doesn't get to see them very often so it was good for him to be able to spend time with them. We drove to Slidell, LA on Friday and spent the night there. Like most tourists we tend to play it safe when we travel, eating at the national chains, etc. but this time we took a chance and decided to find a local restaurant - which is very hard to do these days! We searched the internet and found a local place named Palmettos on the Bayou. So we set out in search of it. The directions were very simple but we almost missed it because their sign was so poorly lit. We weren’t too sure about it from the outside but there were a lot of cars parked in the lot so we went in. It was delightful. We ate out on the deck which was covered by a large tent strung with lights. The tables were all in white with white chairs. Really very cool. There was a walkway leading to the bayou and when I walked down to see it there was a large boat docked there - take your boat to dinner. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see the bayou but we could hear the frogs and other water creatures. One of the waiters took our picture with my iPhone but I it didn't come out very well. It was 9:30 EDT when we ate but since we were in the Central Time Zone it was only 8:30 there. I’m really glad we ventured outside our comfort zone – it was a very pleasant evening and I would love to be there sometime when there was a little more light and we could see the bayou. 

(Photo taken the next morning)
On the return trip we stopped at the Louisiana Welcome Center which has a really great walkway that allows you to walk out into the swamp and get a real feeling for the mudflats on the edges of the swamp. It gave us a good chance to stretch our legs and to give the dogs a good walk (yes, they went on the trip with us) and it gave me a chance to play with the manual settings on my camera ina challenging situation (areas of low light with shafts of sunlight). The photo at the top of the post was taken on the swamp walk. Saint Gene wanted to take some pictures with me in them so I put the camera on auto. Unfortunately, I actually put it on aperture priority rather than manual so none of those photos came out.

It was a long, long road trip but still a pleasant one. The dogs did great but they were sure glad to get home and get out of that car! (So was I!!)



Joy Journal: Lime sherbet with ginger ale