Thanksgiving down da bayou...

Tuesday, I headed south to New Orleans to meet my best friend Brian and his wife Jessica. We were staying at the Le Pavillion on Poydras, it is about 1/4 mile off of Canal St. First night, we headed over to Bourbon St and found a place to eat, on our way we came across a half nekked woman (if you could believe that!) Anywho, wound up at a place that served delicious fried clams. We got some barbeque shrimp as a appetizer, they were delicious seasoning was not too spicy, great taste! Brian, he is not the most adventurous person when it comes to eating, but he will try different foods. Jess and I were shelling the shrimp we had on our plates, once that was done we dipped them in the sauce and enjoyed the shrimp. I looked to Brian to see I this was something that he liked and all he had on his plate was the tail of the shrimp. I looked at him and said, "please tell me that you did not eat the shell and the legs..." To which he responded, "nobody tols me I had to peel it!" As if the legs dangling from the body wasn't clue enough and if you are not too sure about how to eat something new, look at the people you are with and see how they are eating them. Needless to say, he did not enjoy the shrimp. Made Jess and I laugh though. As the night wore on, I found that I was related to our waiter, very far removed, but yeah, we were both from the Guidry family. We left the restaurant and ventured further down Bourbon St. I would say that this was the best time to visit because there were not too many weirdo's out and I really did not fear for my life at any point. We ended the night at about 11. I did have to finish my 'HUGE ASS BEER' first though (the cup says this). That is Brian in the picture with me.

Next day, we didn't do too much. We went on a swamp tour, saw some alligators. The guy who brought us up and down a canal had about 3 teeth in his head and was quite a character. Toward the end of the tour, he brought out a 4 year old alligator, put a shirt on him and let everyone on the boat pass him around and take pictures of him. His mouth was taped as you can see in the picture, but still, I did not hold this little guy. I kind of felt bad for him and knew that this is not something that this guy should be doing, but everyone got a good pic with the gator. That is Jess...

Thanksgiving day, we stayed in the room most of the day and enjoyed pizza that night. As you can tell, this trip was not all about going out and getting crazy on Bourbon St, we really just enjoyed ourselves, ate a lot of good food and relaxed. I took a lot of pictures, but I can not obviously put all of them on this post...

After the trip to New Orleans, I went down to Houma to hang with the family out there. Friday, I was fed some real Thanksgiving food, had turkey, dressing, veggies and the works, it was delicious, but the true delicious meal was to follow the next night. When I was smaller, every time I would go down the bayou, we would get crawfish or get a bushel of blue crab and would would have a boil. They bought a bushel of crab, threw in some corn cobs, red potatoes and hot dogs. About 30 - 45 minutes later, you have some good eatin'! I have no idea how many of you out there think this looks appitizing, but my goodness, this is a beautiful thing here! Now, I am not great at peeling crab, but my mamaw can have the top of one of these crabs full of meat for me in no time. I felt like I was a kid again. The only difference this time is that I was enjoying a beer while eating the crab this time!

I headed home on Sunday at about 8 am CST. I was 20 miles past Mobile AL at about 12:00 when I drove by a coon hound in the median. I drove about another mile or so before I turned around to see if this guy was still in the median or if he tried to cross. Luckily, he hadn't crossed yet and was still there in the median. I pulled off and he came right on over to me. Threw him in the Jeep and headed back to Mobile. All the humane societies were closed for the weekend, the emergency vet I called said that they would not take him and suggested that I keep him... right! So, I headed back towards the way I should be travelling and I got back to the exit where I found the pooch. I drove him into the town there, which was about 1 mile in from the highway and found a place were he would pass by some local folks who might take him in. I just wanted him off the highway. Drove a ways up the road, stopped and cleaned out the back of the jeep, disinfected and what not. I was then back on track to make it home by a reasonable time, yeah right.

Due to traffic, I was in my car a little more than 12 hours before I made it to Kates house to pick up my crazy Blue dog. He was so very happy to see his dad. Come to find out, they had some arts and crafts time while he was at camp and he made me a paw print in clay. I also got a picture of him enjoying his turkey dinner on T-day. Kate is so amazing with the dogs, he gets so spoiled while he is there, I always joke with my mom that one of these days he is not going to want to come home with me. He is too funny when I get him home from camp as well, each time he gets back to the apartment, he runs around like a crazy dog then crashes for the night.

I am done for now... good night!