The summers in Louisiana are brutal. Temperatures are in the high 90s and humidity pushes the heat index well into triple digits. Heather and I have been wanting to make a trip down to the Southwest Louisiana and the Atchafalaya Basin, but it’s simply not a place we want to be in a van with no A/C. So, we’ve been having this little weekend trip sketched out for a little while not and were just waiting to pull the trigger. This past weekend was a perfect time.

We left New Orleans after work on Friday and headed to Holly Beach on the Gulf of Mexico where we spend our first night listening to the waves lapping against the shore near our van. From there, we spent Saturday and Sunday making our way slowly back home. We searched for seashells at Holly Beach. We travelled through Pecan Grove, Abbeville, and New Iberia on our way to Avery Island where we toured the Tabasco Factory and the Jungle Gardens. We then slept our second night again right along the water’s edge at Burns Point Park.