We got almost no steps today but covered many miles. Our first stop in Brenham, Texas was to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. We toured the visitors centre and observation deck and asked the guide about a million questions about the ice cream production process. We saw the flavouring vats, the freezing containers, where and how candy is added to the ice cream and all the packaging. Today they were making chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and rainbow sherbet. Yum! The tasting parlour was awesome too. There were sixteen flavours to choose from for $1 per scoop. Cheapest ice cream around! We each tried two flavours (as well as taste testing each others’ choices), except Ian who was done after a single scoop. His tummy is just not built for ice cream. This was the boys’ favourite activity in recent memory. We all agreed that the ice cream was incredibly good. Double yum!
With tummies full of ice cream, we drove. We passed by Houston (hello…goodbye), lots and lots of oil refineries, and eventually Port Arthur to arrive at the Gulf of Mexico.
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| Houston. |
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| A bayou with shocking green algae. |
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| The gulf! |
Upon entering Louisiana we learned that our plan to cross on the Cameron Ferry was not going to work. The ferry had stopped running 45 minutes prior to our arrival at the port due to unforeseen “mechanical issues”. We pivoted, heading back through Holly Beach to check out all the cool summer houses on stilts. We stopped at a roadside shrimp shack hoping to score some tasty dinner but the owner was not on site so that didn’t work out either. We cooked up supper at a picnic table at the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. We didn’t see any wildlife here but did see three alligators in the creeks running alongside the road during our travels. Just their eyes and sometimes snouts were visible above the surface of the water and they slowly sank down below the surface once they realized that they’d been spotted.
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| Boo for a closed ferry. |
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| Closed shrimp stand despite all the open signs. Double boo. |
Our last stop of the day was at In-Laws Cajun Specialities to pick up boudin and cracklins. Ian has been dying to try boudin, which is a meat and rice filled sausage. We picked up packages of regular (pork) and crawfish boudin to try out. We sampled a prepared boudin ball which was delicious (salty, spicy and yummy) and received an enthusiastic thumbs up from the boys.
Our sleeping spot tonight is in the company of alligators at the Bayou Nezpique Boat Ramp near Jennings, Louisiana. Our plan is to stay inside and leave all the outside for the gators. No gator snuggles for us!
The ice cream looks amazing!
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