Lake Martin and Breaux Bridge, LA

We left Fontainbleau State Park on Monday morning. I headed out to Breaux Bridge, to visit a long-time friend Theresa from my days living in Lafayette, La. I will be staying with her for about a week. It was great to be sleeping in a bed in a house! Theresa's house was next to Lake Martin which is a natural preserve and home to local wildlife including alligators and migratory birds. There used to be a lot of nutria as well, but I was told that they had diminished after the state put bounties on them to deal with the damage they caused to the wetlands. I have great memories of bonfires in her backyard with fellow members of the local Sierra Club chapter. We caught the sunset on Lake Martin on a walk outside Theresa's house, thankfully did not encounter any alligators.

It was nice to catch up with Theresa. We went to historic downtown Breaux Bridge, checked out some antique and craft stores as well as a clock store. I have never seen so many antique clocks before. Also had lunch with Theresa's sisters at the Cajun restaurant Buck & Johnny's; the food was amazing (I had seafood gumbo). I was told the restaurant has a Zydeco Breakfast on Saturdays with live music and dancing, but that it can get very crowded. We passed on it although I would have liked to listen to live Cajun music.

Nadine joined us a few days later and we had a good Cajun dinner in The Fruit Stand that is part seafood/fruit store and part restaurant. We ordered a lot of food: boiled crawfish (so very good), alligator bites and fried seafood platter. You can see that I was trying to get my fill of Cajun food while I was in the area.