Swamp Boat Tour

On the Two Hour Swamp Tour.......




A row of Full Timers boat houses






Ohhh its so cute, tiny and MOBILE!




Look at how tiny that little creature is Michael's hand

Madelyn petting the baby turtle.

Oh, I wanna touch!

Loving the view

Madelyn checking out the Crawdads

"Big Mama" responded to the "Death Splash"

The Death Splash- Jack is imitating the death splash of a fish or injuried animal.

This how spent the majority of the two hours- curious Madelyn

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Blue Heron

A Purple "something" on the marsh fishing for its lunch, but according Capt. these birds are a rare sight and hardly ever photographed.

Magnificent Yellow eared slider turtle

Whats left of a swamp house--with the search X on the door.

A young male alligator found in a residential canal

Water moccasins mating--look for both heads.

Snake up in the tree.

One of the many trees blown down from the flood waters of Katrina. Look at how the water has smoothed away the bark.

The swamp is known for the roots that grow up out of the water

"Full Timers" house boats

Look at all those teeth!

A female alligator about to eat her marshmallow.

one of the many Yellow Eared Slider turtles we saw.

Sun bathing beauty on the log.

The water line from the winter floods.

For Spring Break this year we took a trip to New Orleans and did a whirl wind tour of the
Big Easy and the surrounding area. Our first adventure was to Honey Island with Captain Jack on a two hour swamp boat tour. It was an amazing ride and full of wildlife and interesting sights. Madelyn absolutely loved the boat ride and kept asking Capt. Jack to go faster, a real speed demon. We saw LOTS of snakes --its breeding time, turtles, owls, many different species of birds and the best part we got to feed some alligators! We feed them marshmallows and hot dogs. I would have never thought they would have like marshmallows, but I guess everyone including alligators has a sweet tooth- or this case multiple sweet teethes. We were so close to all the wildlife and Madelyn had a hoot and wanted to pet the "cute alligators", well just about everything Cpt. Jack pointed out except the Crawdads. She was leaning over the boat to pet the alligators (don't worry she didn't get a finger over the railing, I am sure she looked like a good afternoon snack to the "cute alligators") but when Cpt. Jack caught a Crawdad and held it out for her to touch, Madelyn wanted nothing to with the "crab" and scampered up daddy's leg. But then when Capt. Jack caught the littlest turtle, she had a blast holding it and letting it crawl on her hand--then mom Purelled the heck out of hands.

While Michael was fascinated in taking pictures of the sunning snakes, I think we got a little too close to some of the mating snakes--way to close. But we got an experience of a life time seeing God creatures in their natural habitat. Some people love the swamp so much they live their full time. I was amazed to see "full timers" houseboats along the bayou. There were actually several kids who take a school bus boat everyday to a land bus, back and forth each day. Kudos to them, but I do not think this is the life for me. Even though its been nearly five years since Hurricane Katrina hit the area, I was amazed at how much damage was done to the natural environment and how much devastation still remains untouched along the river and bayou. There were several structures abandoned with the tale-tale X from the search and rescue operations after Katrina. Its hard to fathom how much damage was done here. While we saw some amazing sights, the tour how reminded me of how lucky we were that we were spared from the devastation that is evident every where we looked.

The swamp tour was an amazing experience for Madelyn as she still continues to talk about the swamp and the many animals she saw during her visit---Nothing beats a hands on field trip like a swamp boat tour.