Swamp time

My best beloved and I recently returned from an all too short visit to New Orleans. We went to join in the celebrating of two awesome people gettin' hitched, but that's a different entry. I promise.

Eileen (the beautiful - at this point - bride to be) hooked us up with some of her other friends who were scheduled to go on a 'Wild Louisiana' tour. My gut feeling to getting into a kayak and going on an adventure to look for alligators wasn't exactly a 'yes lets!' but my curiousity won out over my hesitancy regarding water and large creatures - and I am so glad we went. It was a wonderful way to meet some of Eileen's friends (she seems to collect awesome people) and see a habitat so completely different from the one we live in.

Poor Carly kind of got the short end of the stick... I wasn't a very good paddler - there were too many things to see - and try to take pictures of. Good thing she loves me so much. :)

Anyway - I took a tonne of pictures - and I still find them exciting so I thought I'd share.

The paddlin' team

Our kind of quirky guide. Things that make guiding challenging? Hearing loss...
but he will full of interesting tidbits and stories. 

Apparently this type cedar doesn't ever rot - even in water. Which also means it got very over
harvested - aren't people just great... 

This stuff is called Spanish Beard. It's on most of the trees and it looks a lot like hair. That said, we were told that people often use it for hair in costumes and then get to meet the insects that live in it, which act like chiggers. Maybe not such a good plan. 

Saw Grass - apparently quite brutal to have to walk through - but pretty to look at.

Coolest root system!  

Cones! 

We saw some wildlife. The hope was to see an alligator - alas, we only saw smaller creatures.

Unfortunately Carly blinked, but the dragonfly was pretty cool! 

Apparently these spiders 'swim' and latch on to fish and other water creatures. 

There was this moment where it felt like everyone could see what my eyes couldn't. I looked and looked. There was a space - which I could see. There was a dark patch - that's all I could see. I took a picture, in hope that perhaps with a bit of zoom - I could see what others could... and ah ha! An OWL!

I think it might actually be two... but without being able to change the angle, it is hard to know for sure. 

It was a great first adventure day. Sunny, warm, and great company.