Swampblood

Yesterday we took the babies on a swamp hike near Lake Maurepas in the Joyce Wildlife Management Area. It was a short hike, especially since you can’t go too far without needing a pirogue. Plus, we stuffed ourselves with fried catfish, shrimp, frog legs, flounder, and more at Middendorf’s just before so we wouldn’t have waddled far anyway. Our kids are too big to carry, but too small to walk terrain this treacherous on their own feet so we opted for the stroller – and pushed it into the swamp on a narrow rickety old boardwalk. And it was fun! It was midday so the mosquitoes left us alone, and the canopy was so thick we rarely had to endure direct sunlight. I mostly buzzed around with the camera while Q pushed the kids and showed them their Cajun roots (literally) (groan).

There were pretty spiderwebs all over the place…

And an amazing clearing with a beautiful view of the cypress trees, where I decided to kick back and rest for a bit…

I took over for Q pushing the stroller for a while because I’m always complaining I’m never in the photos. That’s because I’m always taking them and therefore Q appears to be a single father…

There were cute little hidey holes all over, containing who knows what hellish little marsh beast…

And general swampy pretties (must. not. fall. in. nasty. water. with. babies.)…

After leaving the Joyce WMA we drove through this spooky little swamp village that was apparently nameless, but was located near the town of Head of Island. There were small rustic homes on the bayou with lots of people sitting on porches while children swung on ropes into the water. I wanted to live there. For a few minutes anyway.

Afterward we went around the lake (Maurepas, that is) and drove through the town of French Settlement where we picked up some Cajun boiled peanuts and hot boudin. I swear it was totally subconscious that I put nuts and sausage between Q’s legs for this photo.

If you want to view all the photos from that day, check out the Flickr set.