Snuggling Up With Shrimp In Grande Isle, Louisiana

Our original plan after leaving Texas was to head straight to New Orleans. But then Scott had a brilliant idea. He actually has lots of brilliant ideas, but don't tell him I said that. It might go to his head. We wouldn't want that, would we?

Instead of heading eastwards to New Orleans, Scott suggested that we head south on LA 1 to Grande Isle. Grand Isle is a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles south of New Orleans. Such an interesting drive along the canal looking at all of the fishing boats.

Eventually, you have to cross a toll bridge to get to Grande Isle. If you have three axles, it will cost you $4.50 southbound (no charge going back north). Who knew that I would start to count how many axles we have? Fortunately, Scamper only has one axle - larger RVs pay more. Yet another reason why smaller is better. Except when it comes to chocolate ice cream. Then, of course, two scoops are better than one.

It was another nice day driving down and we were full of hope that we would be able to enjoy some outside time on the island. We got ourselves a spot at the Grande Isle State Park ($20 a night for a large pull through site with electricity and water, free laundry and your own personal palm tree) and checked things out.

Of course, it wasn't long after this that the winds picked up and the clouds came rolling in. So we ended up spending most of our time snuggled up indoors Scamper seeing how long we could stay cooped up inside of a 65 sq ft camper before one of us snapped.

It was touch and go for a while. But, then we discovered shrimp. Not just any shrimp, but shrimp from a place called Dean's. We would have never have known about it, if we hadn't chatted with some locals. Possibly one of the best local tips we've ever had - $4 a pound for shrimp caught that morning.

Just look at these beauties all ready to be cooked. Delicious. They almost made us forget about the crappy weather. We also had some wine with our dinner. That might have helped too.

The next day, we thought about heading off to New Orleans, but the forecast still didn't look great. So we stayed another night. Of course, we got more shrimp. And more wine. Scott made the most amazing shrimp pasta dish with a spicy red sauce. It is amazing how effective shrimp, wine and a couple of episodes of Deadwood can be in distracting you from the weather.

To be fair, we did do a few excursions and explored the area. Mostly in conjunction with procuring shrimp and wine. We checked out the cemeteries, the old houses and walked along the beach. Yet another place we've come across in our travels that would be so awesome on a warm sunny day. 

  

What's your favorite shrimp recipe? How do you keep from going stir crazy when you're stuck indoors?

We snuggled up with shrimp at Grand Isle State Park on 7-9 January 2015.