Beignets, Boudin and Bayous

We love Louisiana!  You really can’t beat a place that can offer both Beignets and Boudin Balls as an everyday meal and then entertain you with a 10 foot alligator coming up beside your boat in a sex-crazed frenzy.  You just can’t get that in Canada.

We left Texas and drove to Opelousas, Louisiana.  We picked Opelousas because we liked the name; plus, the park where we were staying offered a full-service spa complete with hydro-massage and wellness coaches.  And it did have a spa and possibly even some wellness coaches but we never got to see them because the spa stayed closed the entire time we were there.  The name Opelousas was still cool though!  And there was a “Billy’s Boudin Balls” emporium just up the street.

On our first day, we headed for New Orleans.  Our first stop was Café du Monde, home of Beignets (donuts but soooooo much better!).  Biting into an icing-sugar coated beignet….well, it’s like angels dancing on your tongue.  Lots of angels because, at Café du Monde, each person gets 3 beignets per order.  For those of us who are diabetic, it’s a bit of a concern.  That’s why I blew some of the icing sugar off…. one does have to make concessions.  When it gets windy, all that icing sugar just floats in the breeze like a super-sweet blizzard.

From the Café, we walked towards Bourbon Street and checked out all that downtown N’Awlins has to offer.  What a great city!  From “huge ass beers” to an icon to a voodoo priestess to a store full of really weird and wonderful Mardi Gras masks, this place has something for everyone.  It’s definitely on my list of places to see again!

For dinner, we stopped at Billy’s and loaded up on Boudin Balls and craquelin!  I would move to Louisiana just for the boudin, which is a sausage mixed with bread stuffing and deep fried into giant balls.  Next to beignets, they’re heaven on earth. (Note to self:  maybe don’t tell my doctor about this)

The next day we headed for Champagne’s Swamp Tours.  We’ve done these tours before and it’s different each time.  This time, we got a really cute bayou guide which was somewhat distracting.  However, it didn’t take long before we began to pay attention to the scenery.  Because it was spring, the gators were feeling frisky and mating season had begun.  Our guide got pretty excited when a huge gator just appeared out of nowhere right beside our boat.  He looked kinda grumpy too (the gator, not the guide)…like we’d interrupted something.  Our guide decided to just move away…..fast.  All in all, another successful day!

That night, there was a tornado warning for our area.  It got really dark and quite windy but we were so full from the beignets and boudin that I doubt a Force 5 could have moved us.

As for the wellness coaches....well, they have their work cut out for them!