Swamp Tour

 One of the things I was most excited for was going on a Swamp Tour.

We initially signed up for the Air boat tour. They told me that I could ride even though I was pregnant. Well, right before I got on the boat, the manager stopped me and told me I couldn't ride on the Air boat. It had something to do with Coast Guard regulations. Our tour guide felt bad since it was his company that said I could ride. I was really disappointed. We drove over an hour to get to the bayou. I told Mike to go ahead and I sat in the waiting area for an hour and a half. He said he had a blast. :)

 I found another Swamp tour that used pontoon boats and they allowed pregnant women to ride. Later that afternoon, we went on another swamp tour.

 The bayou is so neat. There's Spanish moss everywhere. I definitely would not want to be in the water!

Ladies, this is the tree that Brad Pitt touched in the movie, "Interview with a Vampire."

 There are wild pigs everywhere. Someone released some pigs in the bayou several decades ago, and they've thrived and reproduced like crazy. The tour guide said they ruin a lot of native vegetation due to all of the rooting they do.

 The tour guide yelled, "here piggy" and they came running. He feeds them marshmallows and they absolutely love them.


The big momma pigs came running to get some marshmallows as well. There was a feeding frenzy going on!


The tour guide has trained the big pigs to jump up on the boat to eat marshmallows. A split second before they jumped, he turned to Mike and me and said, "you two are going to get dirty." Sure enough, when these pigs jumped on the boat, Mike and I were sprayed with dirty muddy water. We just laughed because there wasn't much else to say!

The pigs were having a grand time being fed when one of the big pigs started squealing as loud as she could. All of the babies and the big pigs too ran for land. We turned around and saw this guy coming. The tour guide said that the big pigs can sense when the alligators are near.

 Alligators are so quiet and so fast. They can hide underwater and hold their breath for two hours. They're fascinating animals!

We saw dozens of them that day. There were quite a few monstrous ones too. They also like marshmallows and will eat hot dogs as well. They used to feed them chicken but the alligators were getting too aggressive and trying to hop in the tour boats. I really enjoyed the swamp tour! I'd highly recommend it if you are ever in New Orleans.