Lois and I simply didn’t know what to expect from Louisiana as we edged closer to the state. If, instead of sneaking via Texas by RV through the side door, we flew straight into New Orleans, at least we would have brought with us a few preconceptions of things to do and experience. This includes the French Quarter, Jazz music, the Mississippi River, and beignets at Cafe Du Monde… that pretty much sums our foreknowledge of what to expect. But beyond New Orleans, our hopes for Louisiana were blank apart from sketchy, shadowy visions of swamps, gators, and bowls of Cajun food. In hindsight, it’s pathetic that our entire perception of this hugely historic and culturally significant state was all about New Orleans and nothing much more. For sure, as we crossed the border from Texas, we carried strong negative biases and low expectations for this state.

So what’s the verdict? We love Louisiana! The people, culture, food, and scenery are amazing! Simply put, real life in Louisiana has little to do with New Orleans — not even close!

Quiet solitude on Holly Beach at sunset.

Holly Beach and the Cajun Riviera

In the Deep South, Eastern Texas has very nice beaches. And Mississippi and Alabama have some, too. But who knew? Even Louisiana has beaches… well exactly two as far as I can tell. The one we hung out at is in the southwest corner of the state, not far from the Texas border. The teeny, tiny hamlet we visited is named Holly Beach. Devoid of stores of any kind — except for the crab-bait-ice shack — the entire town is made up of roughly 40 vacation homes on stilts (think hurricanes and storm surges) plus a couple of small RV parks. And just for grins, to make the whole thing sound a bit more than it actually is, in Louisiana the area is known as the “Cajun Riviera”.

Having now introduced you to the this tiny speck on a map, you’re probably wondering “Why go there?”. For one, the only thing between our RV and the Gulf was a cabana, a small dune, and 50 yards of sand. On several days, the beach stretched out on both sides of us — east to west, horizon to horizon — without another soul in sight. No swimming for us this time, but one day we sat at waters edge with feet in the water in front of gentle waves. It was lovely for sure, but sitting in the water was also necessary protection against hundreds of tiny spiders crawling in the sand… that’s another story for another time.

But wait, there’s more. To the north of us was a very large national wildlife refuge, the Sabine. We enjoyed several solitary hikes in the bayous, and on one of them we saw our first alligator in the wild! This bad boy definitely got our attention. We were probably 20 yards away, so that part was fine. But it was creepy the way he suddenly showed up and crossed our path. That got me thinking "What if one quietly crawled up behind us?" So our new rule is to look over our shoulder now and again and watch our backside... just in case. 😱🐊

“So where does one eat?”, you ask, at the Cajun Riviera? It turns out the place to be and to be scene is at the recreation center in the nearby town of Hackberry. A basketball court, swimming pool, playgrounds, and a baseball field… it was all there. But for us, we dined several days inside their multi-purpose room feasting on shrimp baskets, Cajun fries, burgers, and other fried (of course) delicacies of all kinds. Don’t think snack shack — more like a Mom and Pop eatery tucked inside the recreation center. Great prices and very delicious! And the people were wonderful.

Click Images to Enlarge

Lafayette — The Cajun Hub

We loved all three of our stops in Louisiana, but getting to know Lafayette and its surrounds was our favorite. It was here that we were introduced to Cajun history and culture.

For dinner our first night, we Yelp’ed a nearby restaurant and leaned into the local cuisine. Featured on the menu were things like Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffe — we were clueless to this cuisine. To our rescue was our young waitress who enthusiastically took the opportunity to get to know and instruct this old couple with the strange accent from California. In short, she became the decoder ring we desperately needed. I ordered chicken and sausage Gumbo, a delicious stew like dish with a strongly seasoned dark roux (gravy). My main course was catfish, either grilled, blackened or fried. When ordering, our waitress came right out and asked me (i.e. told me) “Y’all gonna get that fried, right? It’s the only way". I simply said “Yes”, and she was pleased — I passed the intelligence test. Lois had fried (duh!) jumbo shrimp. Both meals came with Cajun fries and hush puppies (fried balls of corn bread). Dinner from start to finish was delicious! These Cajuns sure know how to cook, and when it comes to frying, they are masters of the craft.

We spent 4 nights in Lafayette in the heart of Cajun country. This was simply not enough time to learn and explore this fascinating part of our country. What we were able to squeeze-in included:

A tour through a 100+ year old rice mill that produces small batches to this day.
An outdoor museum named Vermillionville containing a collection of early 20th century houses and places of business, complete with Cajun storytellers and artisans applying their trade.
A short excursion to a self-contained swamp, smack-dab in the center of campus at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, complete with gators, turtles, and a 2 acre forest of Cypress trees.

Cajun country caught us off guard in all the best ways. But a surprise of a different kind was learning that one of our favorite Christian artists, Danny Gokey, crossed our path during our stay. We first learned about his newest tour while in Texas. Just a simple change to our travel schedule allowed us to see him in concert our final evening in Lafayette. Danny Gokey is an amazing worship leader, and we were deeply moved and blessed.

Slidell — A Perfect Stop Not Far from New Orleans

In Slidell, we chose to slow things down and stay put for a couple of weeks while we caught up on “normal life” things such as responding to mail, doing RV/auto maintenance, and making a few Amazon purchases. But even so, there was still plenty of time to do some exploring.

Slidell is less than half an hour from downtown New Orleans (see stories below). In addition to trips to the big city, we did two different swamp tours. One was in a Disneyland Jungle Cruise-like boat just a few minutes from our RV park. The other was an airboat trip in the Mississippi delta southwest of New Orleans. Two different experiences, both leading us to lots of wildlife. My favorite critter is the alligator, and we got to see dozens of them, even a few swimming up to the edge of our boat. Other fun things we saw in the wild included turtles, snakes, raccoons, and birds of all kinds.

For that matter, some of these same animals could be seen and heard at our RV Park as our camp was surrounded by wetlands. Turtles were easily found in the small lake next to the registration office and store. And though we never saw a gator (requisite warning signs were posted around the pond), once or twice we did heard the cries of the young gators just beyond the tree line.

Enjoy the photos below!

New Orleans - French Quarter/French Market

What’s a trip to New Orleans without seeing the French Quarter? For Lois and I, this was our first visit to the city, so we made it a priority to see with our own eyes this historic and much talked about neighborhood.

But as we crossed Southern Louisiana and began to sketch out our New Orleans plans, we found it interesting — even worrying — that without exception, every Louisianan we bumped into warned us not to visit the French Quarter at night. We got the hint and decided a nice sunny afternoon in the Quarter would be our best bet for a safe and friendly walk through the streets.

Honestly, it is very beautiful neighborhood. We loved its old world charm. The glorious architecture of this 300-ish year old district was a sight to see, full of gorgeous French style buildings beautifully painted and decked out with large bouquets of flowers. I’m a big fan of Cafe du Monde coffee (via Amazon and World Market), so coffee and large piles of beignets at the original cafe in the French Market were a must. It was a great afternoon, but with that ticket now punched, we look forward to seeing other corners of New Orleans next time we are in town.

New Orleans - Learning to Cook Cajun and Creole

Lois and I did a 6 hour Cajun/Creole class and dinner with four other guests at a B&B and cooking school in the Algiers Point neighborhood, opposite the Mississippi from the French Quarter. From the class description:

“You'll learn all the tricks and techniques from preparing the perfect roux to finishing each dish with just the right amount of spice. Typical recipes include Gumbo, Jambalaya, Shrimp Creole, and Bread Pudding.”

Chef Karen, our instructor, certainly has the credentials. She is a Le Cordon Blue Grande Diplome graduate and, as it turns out, a fantastic teacher.

For the first 3 hours, the six of us prepped and prepared all four dishes. It was a complete hands-on class — we did the work, the chef taught us what to do. Before starting the cooking, we scaled and deveined shrimp (Lois’s and my job), cubed sausage and chicken thighs, and chopped the holy trinity of vegetables — onions, celery and green peppers. When it came to cooking, Lois and a gentleman named Andrew from London made a pot of shrimp, chicken and sausage Gumbo. I worked with a guy from Texas on the Jambalaya, and a couple of others did shrimp Etouffee. When it came to the bread pudding, Lois and I did most of the work.

As the food finished cooking, we retired to the dining room and enjoyed great wine and swapped stories — good times! We were quite an eclectic group with folks from London, Zurich, Toronto, Texas, and of course California. Dinner was stunningly delicious, and Lois and Andrew were singled out by Chef Karen with making the best Gumbo that had come out of the class in a while. In her words “The Gumbo was spot on and worthy of any restaurant in New Orleans.” Well done Lois! 🏆👏🏻💪🏻

What an evening we had — one of our best experiences on our journey so far. We will be back for one of Chef Karen’s other classes next time we are in town.

New Orleans - The Excursions that Got Away 🙁

If you really want to get to know New Orleans, plan on spending many days in the city.

Unfortunately for us, a couple of excursions into New Orleans didn’t pan out. A walking tour through the Garden District fell apart when our guide canceled at the last minute. Also high on our list was visiting Preservation Hall to see a Jazz concert. Sadly, we waited too long to get tickets, not knowing that New Orleans’s annual Jazz festival overlapped with your trip.

Oh well, c’est la vie! We’ll be back…

What’s Next?

We’ve already had our fair share of warm humid days at the Gulf. For that reason, we decided to skip Florida this year. Instead, we’re steering Ol’ Harold the RV towards Atlanta where we will visit dear friends we haven’t seen for a very long time (can’t wait). On the way, we will be making stops in Mississippi, Alabama, and eastern Tennessee, all states we’ve never been to before.

Learning and Loving Louisiana