Our Last Minute "Let's Get Out of Here"

Did you ever have one of those days where you wake up, eat breakfast, and then sit at the table and think, "I need to get away from here. Just for one day, I need to get away from it all". This past Saturday was one of those days. Eric always plays golf on Saturday mornings and while he is gone, I start my Saturday cleaning. However, not this Saturday. I dragged myself out of bed not really wanting to be out of bed, let Hatcher outside, ate my breakfast and thought, "I just don't want to be here today." When Eric came home, I looked at him and said, "You know the plans we had for today, could we just leave and go somewhere?" And so we did. In a half hour we were ready to go and we chose Avery Island in New Iberia, LA.

Avery Island is where they make Tabasco sauce. You can actually take tours of the plant and see how they make their varieties of tabasco sauce, but we were more interested in the drive through the island.

The weather was absolutely beautiful Saturday--in the 60's, beautiful breeze, no humidity. Two and a half hours to drive somewhere just to see this island for a few hours may seem rather absurd, but it was worth every mile we drove. You don't have to go to some exotic country to see nature and all of its beauty that Heavenly Father created for us to enjoy. In the United States alone, there are tons of places to visit that testify of God's love for us through His creations.

Here are photos and video of our terrific day we had (and do you know that for hours nobody knew where we were? It was great!).

When you get to the island, you have to pay one dollar to enter (money goes towards conservation). So, we pay our dollar and park near the country store where you can buy zillions of flavors of tabasco sauce. You can buy tabasco flavored everything. This tree is a live oak that was in the parking lot. The trees are amazing. I hope you will click on all these pictures so you can see them larger. You will see all the many branches, greenery on the branches and Spanish moss hanging. The branches of these trees grow in all different directions. Some of them even touch the ground, take root and keep growing outwards. It is a sight to see.

We wanted to take the drive thru tour. You pay $6
a person, and drive through at your own leisure. There
is only one lane, so if you want to stop to see something
you pull to the side and park, letting others pass by.
Because of this being an island, you are constantly
surrounded by water. This first stop was to see if we
could find any alligators. We enjoyed the wording on
the sign.

I guess you could say this was our friend Allie
the Alligator. We were driving along and I yelled
for Eric to stop. The alligator was just sitting there
by the side of the water waiting and smiling for us
to take his picture.

A smile only a mother could love!!

We saw quite a few alligators just sitting in
the water with their head popping out. What a
boring life.

OK, so things got a little bit more interesting
and exciting. There were two alligators, but
by the time I moved my camera one of them
went under after being chased by this one.

I wish you could see the beautiful colors of this
blue heron. This bird stood there forever; then
I turn around to go to the car and he flew away.
Too late to get a picture.

The trees are so beautiful. My pictures don't
do them any justice. One is prettier than
the other.

This is where we started heading into a beautiful
part of the road and island.

This was amazing.

The width of the trunk shows you how large
these live oak trees are.

The oldest live oak in the country.

The island is so beautiful that people come from
many places to see its beauty. This is just one of
the foreign cars we saw. A rolls royce from England.
There were two other cars, but got no pics.

We came at the wrong time of the year for
this spot. It is the bird sanctuary and usually
the area in the back is full of birds nesting.


The Palm Garden

My favorite part of the island--the Buddhist
temple. You walk through this red whatever
you call it and.....

...you come upon this beautiful Buddhist setting (or
should I say sitting?)

I could only get a photo from the back because
of the way the sun was shining. But a
statue of Buddha really is sitting in this little
shrine on top of the rocks.

Some wise words from Buddha:

Peacefully I rest upon this lagoon's bank
as pale green bamboos sway above my throne.
Clouds of blossoms soften the sifted light falling
golden and misty through the boughs above.
Long days of travel brought me from my home,
yet I have known no hour of calmer rest.
My thoughts are like the swaying bamboos'
crest waved to and fro
above the rippling stream, clear and blue
as from a glorious dream.
E. A. McIlhenny

A view from Buddha's resting place

As we leave the temple area

Leaving for the day was one of the best days we have ever had. We rejoiced with the beautiful weather, the beautiful scenery, and the time we had away from the noise and the hustle and bustle of the world. Oh, and....................

....we were thinking of buying this as a summer home!! Actually along the road out of the island, most of the homes are built about 10 ft. above the ground. But, this one made us chuckle. This is not the usual mobile home. It is an RV built on stilts with a porch and stairway built onto it. Isn't it lovely?