If you’re ever traveling along the Southern coast from Texas to Louisiana, be sure to stop and stretch your legs at the Louisiana Welcome Center on I-10 East. Mama C took us out here on our visit, and surprised us with a boardwalk tour through the swamp. I posted a sneak peak earlier, but I just uploaded the rest of these photos into the Independence Day with Mama C set on Flickr.  The newest photos are on the top.

Now, we may just be showing that we’re not from around those parts, but it was a really cool place. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a swampy area quite like that.  We started at a little flower garden where we found some beautiful dragonflies, and a huge grasshopper.  Most of the dragonflies were blue, but there was one red one that stopped and posed for us.

Then we found the head of the trail. There was a view of a lake, where we saw a Little Blue Heron wading in the water. Thomas spotted a frog and was soon bouncing around and singing that he felt like it was his birthday. I think he will forever be a frog-nut.

We saw a sign that said beware of snakes, but we didn’t see any. That’s okay though, because we saw two alligators. A lady passed us and saw us taking photos, and later came back to show us where the baby alligator was swimming. She thought we might like to take a photo of it. :) I haven’t seen an alligator in the wild since I was a kid and we would canoe in the Everglades. The baby was right by the boardwalk, and the Mama was out a ways, still keeping an eye on us.

The trail was beautiful - very thick with a peaceful shade of green covering it. It was a hot, humid day, but the trail was only a quarter-mile, so it didn’t take long, even with our photo-stops. When we got to the end, we snapped a few shots of a green anole and then climbed back in the car to head to our actual destination. Those will be the last of the Texas photos - I’ll try and post them this next week.

P.S.  There supposedly is a similar rest stop on the otherside of the road going from Louisana to Texas, but we only stopped there to use the restroom, so I’m not sure if the boardwalk is as cool.