Distillery, Swamp Tour, Historic Home & Brewery

This is the view from our RV at the end of the Wildcat Brother's Distillery parking lot - pretty nice!

We're exploring the Lafayette area one Harvest Host at a time. And they are all different (OK - two are alcohol related). After our wonderful time at Houmas House, we continued west to Lafayette and our first stop, the Wildcat Brothers' Distillery. They make French style rum from local sugar cane and it's pretty amazing. We attended their "Rum School" that night and sampled most of their huge varieties - in tiny portions of course. We ended up buying a bottle of Noire. Here's their description, "Our 5-year-old blend, matured on a combination of white oak and ancestral fruit tree hardwood staves to bring out the perfect cane-cured fullness." The fun staff also made some amazing cocktails, which we all enjoyed. 

Here's the bunch of us the night of our "Rum School"  Ron, our host the next night is second from the left in back and Julie second from left front (in beige). Wendy and Jeff, one of the other couples, are above each other far left below Scott.  Debbie is just behind me and her husband Ron is behind her and to the left. Kay is in the red sweater front right and she was our barista. The two men on the top right run the farm at Wildcat Brothers'. 

But as great as all that was, it pales in comparison to the wonderful people we met that night. Right away everyone in the group of other guests introduced themselves and we were part of the group! We had such a good time that one of the couples, Ron and Julie, invited us and 2 other couples to dinner at their home the next night. Ron made a big pot of gumbo and potato salad. The way it's done in Lafayette is the gumbo goes on top of rice and a big scoop of potato salad goes on top of both! It was wonderful. They had a local specialty, white boudin for an appetizer and King Cake for dessert. We met Ron's mother and their daughter and boyfriend, plus several other neighbors. It was a party!

Here's our group shot from Ron and Julie's home after our wonderful dinner. Ron's Mom is in the pale blue sweater with Wendy. 

That day we had transferred to the Champagne Cajun Swamp Tour. It wasn't that far, luckily. Our tour started the next morning at 11 AM. We were joined by a couple in a second RV and a family with a baby - see photo below. The swamp surrounds Lake Martin and is bordered by a wildlife sanctuary. We saw lots of alligators, turtles and birds - notably Giant Blue & White Herons, Anhingas, and Ospreys. It was another beautiful day as you can see!

Our boat was very flat bottomed as it was shallow but the outboard really churned up the mud and weeds. 

We saw a lot of alligators up close

Anhingas have no oil glands to waterproof 

their feathers so have to dry them continuously. 

These Giant White Herons are so
beautiful!

Our next stop was Maison Stephanie about a half hour north of there in Arnaudville. The original home was constructed in 1796 by Martin Milony Duralde and sits on 20 acres of Bayou Teche property. Our hosts Ken and Richard bought the property in 2003 and have renovated it beautifully and run it as a B&B. We had a great breakfast and visit with Ken the next morning. 

Maison Stephanie

Their front yard.

Our last night in the Lafayette area was just down the road from Maison Stephanie - the Bayou Teche Brewery. They are a Craft Brewery with onsite Taproom & Beer Garden. They brew over 16 beers that complement their Cajun & Creole food. They also make wonderful wood fired pizzas! We can attest to the excellence of both the beers and the pizza! The next day we were heading north towards Texas. But that post will have to wait as my next one will feature our visits to Acadian Cultural Heritage sites to learn their history. Meanwhile - more photos of the swamp tour and the Bayou Teche Brewery below, !

Did I say we got quite close!

There were hundreds of turtles looking very 
happy to be out in the sun. Sometimes there were
nine or ten on one log.

Nora seemed to enjoy the trip immensely!

Our guide Jason had a sense of humor

He referred to these two cypress as the Kardashian
twins.

The cypress trees seem to thrive in this fresh water lake.

The mural stretches out a long way across the 
brewery

There is an attractive outside "Beer Garden"
but it was a little cool for that

There are a lot of their varieties on draft! But only
some of them are available in bottles. My favorite,
German style wheat beer wasn't but Scott's
beer/mead combination was and we got a large
bottle!