Natchez and beyond

We spent the night of Natchez travel in Vidalia, LA, just across the Mississippi.  Found a nice RV park with sites available right on the river (again).  We watched the super bowl from our trailer and there was plenty of screen in the small space.  Poor 49'ers, they just didn't play as well as usual.  The next morning we headed over to Natchez to explore the old river town.  We came upon a lovely cafe called the Cotton Alley Cafe.  There, we had an early lunch of an incredible soup of shrimp and crab and corn, jambalaya and fried catfish.  An unexpected pleasure, for sure.  After lunch, we headed off to St. Martinville, LA.  This is a small town on Bayou Tesh that Hal and I have loved over the years.  It is the home  of the Longfellow poem's Evangeline.  There are large oaks on the bayou, shading the site of  the place where Evangeline waited for her fiance for years.  The whole Acadiana culture is so interesting and sad.  That evening, we went for dinner at a small cafe in St. Martinville.  We had alligator, gumbo, poor boys, 3 lbs of crawfish and jalapenos stuffed with crab and deep friend.  Classic southern fare.  Yesterday, we took a swamp tour.   We saw large and small alligators, tons of turtles and so many different kind of birds in a bird preserve in the swamp.  An incredible experience for all of us.  Pictures are attached.  Now we are headed for New Orleans for the Mardi Gras party.  Can't wait to see what the next week holds for us.