Seeing the Swamp

On our third day, Ella and I woke up bright and early for our Swamp Tour. We chose the Jean Lafitte swamp tours and we went with the airboat one, which is more expensive but totally worth it. The swamp is a bit of a drive away from the city, but it actually isn't as far as I thought it would have been.

The swamp is privately owned by a family that has kept it for generations, apparently dating back to when their ancestor was a crew member of the pirate Jean Lafitte and was rewarded this land. This land is still mostly used for hunting. Our tour guide described to us what animals they would hunt, including how they hunt and help control the alligator population. We learned that all swamp animals apparently love marshmallows. Then our tour guide brought out his own baby alligator!

The tour was a good two to three hours. At some parts of the swamp, you could actually see the buildings at the edge of the city of New Orleans. Our tour guide also described to us how the swamp was when Katrina hit as well as the environmental problems that continue to plague them. The tour took up most of the morning but of course, Ella and I still had a lot to do for the rest of the day. All photos courtesy of Ella.

New Orleans, Garden District

Ella and I still had another tour in the afternoon. Part of the adventure is getting to the Garden District. It's quite far from the French Quarter. It gave us the opportunity to take the city's trolley system.

For lunch, we went to a sandwich shop where I got my first taste of alligator! It was pretty good! Afterwards, we made our way to our Garden District Cemetery tour, which ended up being such a small group that it eventually turned into Ella's ideal American Horror Story Coven tour.

Our tour guide was great and I'm pretty sure he lives in the area. He showed us all the specific spots the coven filmed at. He then took us on a tour around the Garden District and showed us not just haunted homes with creepy histories but also celebrity homes. So now I know which one is Sandra Bullock's house. We saw where they filmed the Benjamin Button movie. We learned that the housing prices for such large historic homes which by the way have a lot of land are not all that expensive.

The tour ended up being more than three hours long but it was well worth it. We saw so many beautiful and haunted homes and now know extensive details on the area and the celebrities who live there. We made friends with our other two tour members and we had coffee in the same place afterwards. All photos courtesy of Ella.