Awesome Visitor Centers - Louisiana & Texas

On Day 5 of our trip to CA we woke early and got right onto the road again. We had planned to spend a few hours in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before driving into Houston, Texas. The air in Baton Rouge was full of nasty smog and the city seemed really dirty so we opted to get on the road instead. After driving for a short time we soon found ourselves on the 18 mile long Atchafalaya Basin Bridge. It was built over the Atchafalaya Swamp, the largest river swamp in the United States. Such a unique bridge.

One of the kids needed to use the restroom so we pulled off at the next rest stop which also had a visitor center focused on the Atchafalaya Swamp. When we walked up there was a man looking up in the trees at something. Sure enough there were tons of hummingbirds sitting in the trees. 

We took our time to stretch our legs and check out all of the exhibits in the visitor center. The kids enjoyed seeing the pictures of wildlife and listening to the Cajun music playing in the background. The little ones were really excited about the Mardi Gras beads they were given.

The neat thing about this visitor center was the animatronic swamp animals that announced a short film about the Atchafalaya Swamp.

Of course the kids wanted to check on the film. Inside the small theater were a bunch of  black lights. It was cool seeing us all glow!

The small exhibits throughout the visitor center were really colorful and fun to look at. This was a really warm, friendly place to visit.

Another neat thing was that throughout the visitor center and its grounds were a bunch of Atchafalaya wildlife statutes. The kids really enjoyed taking photos with them and pretending they were real.

The grounds outside were really lovely too. If it had been later in the day we would have had lunch out there. Glad we stopped here.

When we got back on the road we had the beautiful Atachafalaya Basin as our scenic view for quite a few more miles. Just gorgeous!

After about 2.5 hours of driving we finally arrived in Texas. We were grateful to get here since we needed another bathroom break. There a really nice visitor center at the edge of the Texas/Louisiana border. After everyone used the restrooms we decided to check out what looked like a nice big deck behind the visitor center. We stepped outside for some fresh air and were pleasantly surprised that there was a beautiful boardwalk over the swamp. 

The raised boardwalk stood over the Blue Elbow Swamp. It provided a great way to view the beautiful cypress trees. We were actually surprised that this swamp was teeming with wildlife. Hotch spotted the first animal which was a small alligator. Totally exciting for me because I really wanted to see a real alligator. We sure were in for a bunch more surprises! Finding snakes and water turtles became a competitive game especially between Braxton and Alyssa. They found at least 30 snakes and turtles between the two of them. I was lousy at spotting the animals first. I never found a thing and poor Delaney only found one snake. Totally bummed her out.

The Blue Elbow Swamp had beautiful cypress trees.

We are a major turtle loving family and we got the biggest kick out of the turtles we spotted. The kids really wanted to take one home.

That's a handsome swamp wildlife spotter!

Here's the snake Delaney spotted at the end of the boardwalk. 

Love these people so much! They make traveling a blast!

The boardwalk was really beautiful! Worth the stop for sure!

When we got back to the visitor center Braxton showed me this huge bullfrog right outside the visitor center. It was croaking really loudly. 

This sign was totally applicable! There are tons of snakes here. Gross!

Some of our Texas view as we drove into Houston, Texas.

The closer we got to Houston the uglier it got! We were not impressed at all. Plus the drivers in Houston are seriously reckless and RUDE.

We were so grateful to finally pull into the hotel. We had pretty good Mexican food for dinner. Then we bought some treats at Walgreens before hanging out in our hotel for the night.

Delaney and Braxton were totally beat. Once they laid down they did not rise again. Usually they like to go swimming or take a nice long bath, but they were too tired that evening. Hotch took them out for Dairy Queen later that evening and that helped them perk up.

Thank goodness for those two visitor centers! We would have had a long boring day if it hadn't have been for getting out to appreciate nature and warm hospitality. They sure were major blessings!