Evangeline Parish

Spent our last day in Louisiana hop scotching west from one Cajun cultural center to another. Three in all. We were vaguely familiar with their story thanks to Longfellow's Evangeline but really had no clue as to how shunned, shunted and dispersed they were. It's amazing they have retained such a distinctive culture. Also learned all we needed to know about crayfish. They are raised as a " second crop" in the rice paddies here.

Our first stop in Texas was Big Thicket National Preserve. Overlapping ecosystems give this patch of Texas supposedly more species of flora and fauna than almost anywhere in the US.Read more