This morning we left Lake Charles, Louisiana, after three nights at Sam Houston Jones State Park. Lake Charles is wrapped around three lakes with white sand beaches.
Like other southern Louisiana cities, Lake Charles has a big Cajun influence. Cajuns are decedents of Acadian exiles -- French speaking people from what are now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. We saw, for example, lots of names ending in “eaux” (pronounced "oh" and the French plural of “eau”) like local TV anchor Cynthia Arceneaux. Eaux is also used tongue-in-cheek : "Peaux Boy" for Po Boy sandwiches and "Geaux Tigers" to cheer on LSU. And then there is Cajun food: We went the Cajun fried route and split a platter of fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried stuffed crab and fried stuffed shrimp at a local joint called “Steamboat Bills.”
Our last night at the park, I talked with my mom. She keeps track of where we are and asked about some tornadoes. They were east of us, so it was not a worry. Later our area was included in the local tornado watch; of course, this was the first park not to have posted information about storm shelters. But that’s something we need to figure out ourselves.
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| We found a self service dog wash in Lake Charles. We also got our flu shots at a local Walgreens, bought some groceries, washed the Honda, blah, blah, blah. |
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| Jim and our fried food. Just like in Memphis, even the rolls are fried. Amazingly, I don’t think either Jim or I have gained weight; Cooper is definitely down a few pounds. |
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| Jim’s not wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt because the weather was cool ... he’s wearing them to protect himself from the ‘skeeters. We did a hike we were told would take 2.5 hours in an hour and 40 minutes because of ‘skeeter motivation. |
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| Another pretty shot of the bayou at the park. The park had free -- and very fast -- wifi, plus using the washers and dryers was free. |
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| Jim looking for alligators. |
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