Louisiana - Hot (sauce)

We left New Orleans Saturday to head to the Tabasco factory on Avery Island about 2 hours West.  Our Jack Daniel's tour piqued our interest in the factory since they sell the used whiskey barrels to Tabasco to age their hot sauce.  

Entering the factory, we were assaulted with rich pepper sauce smells, making our mouths water.  It was love.

Unfortunately, their tour blew fat donkey chunks.  It wasn't so much a tour as "sit in this room and we'll play two long commercials for Tabasco featuring a host from the 80s in tight pleated khaki pants pulled up to her chest and a scarf of some sort draped around her neck".  We left after the first video to tour the factory which was pretty boring since they weren't running the assembly lines.  Jeff was taking shots of of his complementary Tabasco sample bottle.

The store there was the highlight - it had a pepper sauce tasting bar that included the sauces, mayo, mustard, chili and Tabasco soda pop.  Weird but kinda yummy - would be good with whiskey.

On Avery Island, there is the Jungle Garden, a drive-through park that was truly amazing.  It had lagoons, alligators, an Egret sanctuary, and a buddha.  

What is that swimming towards us?  Oh my God, look at that alligator!!!!  It's huge, how scary!!!!!  Menacing!!!!

oh, wait....

Little small.  But what is that?  There's a huge on on shore....must be 12 or 13 feet long!!!!

hmmmm.....maybe not

Can't wait until we get to Texas where everything is bigger.  Here are a few more garden pics, guess which one is the "no shit, sherlock" picture....

We camped in a swamp Saturday night and had to lay perfectly still so as to not break out in a sweat.  It felt almost as hot as sleeping in Jeff's loft bed on the 3rd floor of the 18th Street apartment with no air conditioning in the summer.  Almost.  

We went to bed surrounded by huge raccoons and opossums and woke up to people running in a triathlon in the park, and on a good note we were not attacked by alligators.

On a side note, Jeff may finally be realizing what a raging grunchy bitch I am without food in the morning.  He is starting to carry snacks in his pockets.