Grand Isle, Louisiana

The state park in Grand Isle is the perfect place to unwind after New Orleans. Grand Isle isn't on the way to anywhere. There's one road in and one road out. It's a spit of land at the southern end of the Mississippi Delta and it's only a few feet above sea level.
And speaking of the road in, it's 25 plus miles of elevated highway ( 20 feet above the bayou), complete with intersections and traffic lights. A road network in the sky.

Shrimp fishing and oil are the main industries here. From the beach you can see at least a dozen oil platforms out in the gulf. Helicopters routinely ferry crews back and forth and oil rig supply ships equal the number of shrimp trawlers off shore. BTW fresh shrimp are about $4/lb.

Wildlife is abundant. Pelicans, Egrets (some are pink), Black Skimmers and numerous others.


Pelicans (apparently well acquainted)

Black Skimmer (I can't take credit for the pic, found it on the web).

And dolphins just a few feet from the beach.

This guy obviously escaped from Marineland, quite the show off.

This shark had washed up on the beach. Even small (about 3 feet), and dead, they look menacing.

And now another animal story. 
Darlene was on Facebook today, and saw that someone had found a calico cat in Mill Village, which is about 10 kms from our home. She recalled that one of our neighbours, Patricia, has a very similar looking calico cat, that liked to wander. 
So, not having Patricia's phone number Darlene called Elizabeth, another neighbour. Elizabeth called Patricia and left a message saying "Darlene called from Louisiana and she thinks she may have found your cat!" 
Not only does news travel fast but apparently cats do too. I'm not making this stuff up, honestly.

Tomorrow a rainy drive to Lake Charles LA, and then on to Galveston.