We decided to take a vacation, (actually, I talked Marilyn into going on vacation with me). Flying back and forth on week-ends has it's advantages. Whenever you're together, you always do something fun and time becomes so precious that you don't want to waste it just hanging around. For our vacation, we wanted to go someplace with a lot to do. I suggested Louisiana, and Marilyn agreed.

Our plan was to meet-up in New Orleans, rent a car and head off to the heart of Cajun country to spend a couple of days. The spirit, food and just plain fun of the Cajun culture made for an irresistible draw. Where else could we go, but Lafayette--the Cajun capital. Our plan was to listen to Zydeco music, pig out on crawfish and talk to the locals.

While in Lafayette, we went on a swamp tour, got sun burned and had a great time. We met some great people. One old gentleman, upon seeing Ken's sunburn, talked to us about, "being careful mowin' in the middle of the day". Now we know, not to do our yard work when the sun is high and to wait until the evening, that way we won't get burned. Important information for living in Lafayette. In addition to yard work advice, while talking to the locals, we discovered that Cajuns will eat just about any animal that doesn't eat them first.

From Lafayette, we returned to New Orleans. Stopping along the way to visit a plantation and cross the Mississippi River on a car ferry. From New Orleans, we would go fishing, go on an airboat ride, and take in the night life of the French Quarter. All in busy three days.

So far, (knock on wood), we have been extremely fortunate on the days we have scheduled fishing trips together. This was our third fishing trip and once again the weather was perfect. We had scheduled a fishing charter several weeks before the trip and our guide was fantastic. (If you are going to Louisiana, let me know and I can recommend an excellent charter). We were fishing catch-and-release and had an excellent time.

Of course we spent some time in The Big Easy and the French Quarter during our vacation. Bourbon Street is an inseparable part of the New Orleans experience, but there is so much more to do than drinking and mis-behaving on the world famous street. We visited Voodoo shops, some great restaurants and the Aquarium of the Americas.

Here are some of our favorite pictures and some quick stories from our first vacation together.