Photo courtesy of Aquafly New Orleans.
Northshore Adrenaline (One hour & twenty minutes from the State Capitol)
The Northshore, with its easy access to bodies of water like the Tchefuncte River and Lake Pontchartrain, is a big draw for wilting bodies. Predictably, there are quite a few water-sport options in the vicinity. But be warned … a fondness for the racing rush of adrenaline seems to be a prerequisite for many of them, perfect for the adventurous types in your family—like your nephew, who’s been launching himself out of trees since he was a toddler, screaming gleefully the whole way down.
Send these type-As to Aquafly New Orleans, which operates a flyboarding and hoverboarding outfit in Madisonville. If you aren’t familiar with this recent affront to good sense and the laws of physics, a quick YouTube search will return results that, depending on your preference, look like either a death wish or a heck of a good time.
In the meantime, if you are the type who would never, ever launch yourself out of, into, or off of anything, then call up Shannon at Bayou Adventure in Lacomb, twenty minutes east of Madisonville, to plan a more leisurely waterlogged adventure. Shannon offers kayak rentals for exploring the many bayous between Mandeville and Lacomb that empty into Lake Pontchartrain. There are self-guided or guided options, pick-ups and drop-offs if needed, as well as opportunities for fishing and even crabbing.
Once everyone has exhausted themselves in the manner most stimulating to their respective nervous systems, end the day with a visit to Bop’s Frozen Custard in Mandeville, the only Louisiana location of this Mississippi icon. The formula for its rich, creamy flavor is a matter of ratios and temperatures. Denser and smoother than ice cream, custard is 10% buttercream and 1.4% egg. It’s also served at a warmer temperature than ice cream, so it doesn’t assault the taste buds with numbing cold temps, allowing the flavor to sing through. Family owned and operated, the location makes their vanilla and chocolate custards fresh daily, and we’ve heard tell the Snappy Turtle (Bop’s best-seller, with hot fudge, caramel, and roasted pecans) draws plenty of people across the Causeway and down I-12 with no other prospect than an unusual sweet treat. Your diabetic aunt is even in luck … they’ve got Splenda-sweetened versions too.
louisiananorthshore.com • aquaflyneworleans.com • bayouadventure.com • bopsfrozencustard.com
Driving the Delta Blues (Four hours & eight minutes from the State Capitol)
Four hours might sound like a long drive to visit a museum, but when that drive involves a scenic spin up U.S. Highway 61 to the cradle of the Delta blues, it’s nowhere near long enough. Cue up a soundtrack that starts with some early Robert Johnson and Son House, then roll through Natchez and Vicksburg to the sounds of Sam Chatmon, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. As the landscape flattens out through Rolling Fork, maybe you’ll have gotten as far as Keb’ Mo’ and Buddy Guy; but there’ll still be miles of music to go before you get to Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones because this is the Mississippi Delta, birthplace of the blues, and to listen to all the music that it has inspired, you’d have to drive halfway around the world.
So it’s a good thing for you and your traveling companions that you can just chart a course to the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, where a world-class collection of exhibits, artifacts, and experiences reveals the deep ancestry of America’s music, while celebrating one of its greatest ambassadors. Opened in 2008, the acclaimed museum is a beacon in sleepy Indianola and within a few miles’ drive of just about every legendary Delta blues site you’ve ever heard of. “You can blow through the museum in an hour,” noted Executive Director Dion Brown, “but it takes a good two hours to experience it all.” So leave two.
Still, if your companions just aren’t feeling the beat, the Delta has much more to offer. Coming up Highway 61 stop at Onward, Mississippi, the century-old Onward Store commemorates President Theodore Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a captive bear with souvenir teddies and a restaurant serving fine burgers and tamales. Westward is Greenville, where fans of Southern lit can follow in the footsteps of the many local writers produced by this former cotton port. East to Greenwood, gourmands in search of true luxury will find the sleekly contemporary Alluvian Hotel. Leave your foodies there to lose themselves amid the culinary pleasures of the Viking Cooking School, and the acclaimed Giardina’s Restaurant, without ever leaving the block. And of course, with 150 other historic blues sites all around, a little of America’s music heritage is bound to wear off on them. Access it all by downloading the Mississippi Blues Trail’s mobile app, cue up some blues legends on the car stereo, and hit Highway 61 for one of America’s most memorable summertime drives.
Indianola: bbkingmuseum.org • thecrownrestaurant.com • pecanhouse.com | Onward: theonwardstore.com | Greenville: visitgreenville.org | Greenwood: greenwoodms.com • thealluvian.com | Clarksdale: deltabluesmuseum.org • groundzerobluesclub.com • shackupinn.com • visitclarksdale.com | msbluestrail.org/app
Up Where the Air is Clear (One hour & forty minutes from the State Capitol)
While up to six individuals can pile into an amphibious seaplane operated by one of the pilot-guides at Southern Seaplane, this might be a very special excursion for the graduating senior or summer birthday celebrant. The price tag is steep, but the views are unsurpassed, with four different tours taking groups over the New Orleans skyline, the knotted bayous around Kraemer, Louisiana, or out to the shifting boundary between land and sea that characterizes Louisiana’s coast. All the tours take off from and land in water, Controller Emile Charvet said, and the most popular tours are the New Orleans Bayou and Cajun Heritage tours, with the latter setting down in the swamps north of Thibodaux for a side trip with Zam’s Swamp Tours.
Founded in 1954, Southern Seaplane’s mainstay is its on-demand flights that cater to oil industry professionals; but the company has increasingly been hired to take out groups of environmentalists, researchers, and policy-makers who are studying coastal erosion, spurring their most recent tour, called Save Our Coast. “My favorite thing about it is you can see the actual color change, the gradient from green here [where we take off], to slightly brown with trees, and then all of a sudden just the brown saltwater marsh grass,” said Charvet. The eerie effects of land loss are particularly apparent from the air; Charvet said that in some places, you can still see crop rows under the water where farmland used to exist.
Southern Seaplane’s pièce de résistance is their fishing tour, which involves a flight out to the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of barrier islands that form the easternmost point of the state. After a thirty-minute ride into the Gulf, would-be fishermen and women are left to wade-fish for speckled trout or redfish, depending on the time of year.
No matter the excursion, the views are magical. “Go ahead and bring a camera if you’d like to, but don’t spend too much time looking through it on these tours,” Charvet cautioned. “Try to absorb it for what it is. I see so many people just stare out a camera the whole time, and they actually miss the whole tour.”
Westward for Crabbing (& Craps)
(Two hours from the State Capitol)
{gallery}Galleries/2015/3Summer0515:200:200:1:0{/gallery}The Southwest Louisiana waters prove fertile grounds for crabbing from May to September, particularly down in Cameron Parish. Out on the pier, Mom will wear her Sacred Crabbing Outfit: a threadbare swimsuit cover-up said to protect against bad weather and clumsy children. Crabbing is family time at its most primitive, when everyone works to win supper with turkey necks, string, and death-gripped nets, all eyes trained, unflinching, on the water.
It’s hard-won … and hardly haute cuisine. For the manicured aunt who would decidedly rather not spend the day handling fowl flesh or dodging crab pincers, there’s the new Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, a 242-acre waterfront casino that offers an alternative oasis with its H2O Pool and Bar, steakhouses and trattorias, and a deluxe suite where the rest of the family will fight over the shower upon return with their crab-stuffed ice chests. Dad, it will be determined, is still out on the golf course.
And if you’re looking for rest stops along the way, the Louisiana Spirits Distillery offers Bayou Rum tastings and a century-old farmhouse repurposed as a visitors center. For the kids (and designated driver), a stretch of the Creole Nature Trail winds into the nearby Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, where black-bellied whistling-ducks, wood ducks, and blue-winged teal make their summer home within a sixteen thousand-acre marsh.
cameronparishtouristcommission.org/explore/crabbing • goldennugget.com/lakecharles • laspirits.net • creolenaturetrail.org
Toledo Bend: Fish for Fisherman; Freedom for Family
(Three hours & thirty minutes from the State Capitol)
{gallery}Galleries/2015/4Summer0515:300:200:1:0{/gallery}Pity the partners of fanatical fishermen who don’t have the bug. Those who don’t share their companions’ (or their children’s) passion for the existential struggle of man vs. fish can find themselves condemned to long hours of the world’s least interesting spectator sport. Unless, that is, they guide their fisherfolk to the right kinds of shores.
Eighty miles long and once the largest man-made reservoir in the country, Toledo Bend on the Sabine River is a nationally recognized fishery revered for the size and abundance of the bass, sac-a-lait, and catfish that it produces, especially during the spring and summer months when the fishing is best. But as Randy Ziegler, owner and manager of Wildwood Resort, points out, half the guests who stay at Wildwood arrive with neither boat nor fishing pole. “They come to enjoy the property, the outdoors, to sit around the bonfire,” said Ziegler.
Occupying forty wooded acres along an eastern arm of Toledo Bend, Wildwood offers thirty-six cabins, three swimming pools, six stocked ponds, lots of lawns, basketball goals, woods to wander through, goats to pet, and room for kids to bike and run. Fully equipped kitchens, barbecues, and porches with rockers make this a place to get comfortable, inside and out, in a very un-fishing-camp kind of way.
That said, it’s still hard not to mention Wildwood’s pride and joy—the covered fishing pier that stretches 150 feet into the lake and is lighted along its length for night fishing. Here, the early risers and the night owls can bag a limit without ever setting foot in a boat. Of course, those with boats are welcome to launch them from Wildwood’s boat ramp. A limited number of canoes and kayaks are available, and for those who wish to venture further from shore, the resort will arrange guided trips with Living the Dream Guide Services—a professional guiding service that leads the way to some of Toledo Bend’s finest bass and crappie hotspots. Reservations are recommended, especially in high season, which extends from March through early July.
wildwood-resort.com • ltdguideservice.com
Houseboat Adventures in Cajun Country
(Forty-seven minutes from the State Capitol)
{gallery}Galleries/2015/5Summer0515:200:400:1:0{/gallery}For survivors of harrowing large-family road trips, the idea of drifting on the water, confined to a limited space with the entire brood … well, it might not scream “relaxing summer getaway.” But your daughter’s got her book, Dad’s got a fishing pole, Mom’s set with her over-large cup of strong black coffee, and everybody’s got the same stunning view: Henderson Lake in the heart of the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp.
Houseboat Adventures at Cypress Cove Landing offers vacation vessels that sleep up to eight. Models include Le Bon Temp Bateau, Henderson Lady, Midnight Sky, Atchafalaya Queen, and The Colinda. These houseboats provide a novel home-away-from-home-base for a variety of sporty ventures. The company recommends fishing guides, water skiing, hunting, and just keeping your eyes peeled for the Atchafalaya’s abundant wildlife amid hardwood forests, marshes, and bayous.
Temporarily leave your houseboat haven for an airboat at the Atchafalaya Basin Landing & Marina for a swamp tour led by the landing’s knowledgeable guides. The adjacent Turtle’s Bar has cold ones at the ready for returning sightseers.
You can spend your days spotting alligators—or take a trip into town to browse the wares crafted by local artists. Rely on the NUNU Arts & Culture Collective in Arnaudville to send you home with unique souvenirs from their shop. For the ladies who lunch, Creola Café in Grand Coteau is the spot for a sandwich and a quaint atmosphere. Then pop over to The Kitchen Shop, just next door, for an afternoon pastry. Hey, you’re on vacation!
If Dad didn’t reel in supper out on the water, there’s always Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf to feed the whole family with Cajun cuisine at its most authentic.
Sleep will come quite easily—rocking houseboat, croaking frogs as lullaby. And then you wake, right on the water, for yet another day. Photo by Kerry Griechen–My Eye Photography.
houseboat-adventures.com • basinlanding.com • nunucollective.org • patsfishermanswharf.com
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