Grand Isle

Roxi and I spent the weekend in Grand Isle, LA for a large birthday party for a good friend of ours. We were only planning to stay through Sunday night but were having so much fun, we had to stay an extra night. We spent Friday night hanging out with our friend Ryan at his parents' camp (what we Louisianians call a weekend getaway such as a beach house or hunting lodge). It was a really nice place that they just finished building in January.


"The Mellu 2": Ryan's parents' camp on Grand Isle.


View from camp


Hanging at the camp with Captain Ryan.

On Saturday, after a little rain in the afternoon, we hit the beach with some new arrivals to go crabing. We had a lot of fun out in the surf but it must have been mating season because at least half the crabs were pregnant females which have to be released. In the end, we collectively caught a couple of dozen crabs. That alone would not have been enough to feed all the party guests, thankfully food was in no short supply for the whole weekend as we had some amazing cooks who seemed to revel in making massive quantities of delicious stuff!


Preparing the crab traps and drop lines.


Emily and Roxi taking the drop lines into the surf.


Not a bad catch!


Crab boil!

We stayed up pretty late Saturday drinking beer, hanging out and even playing a little guitar, something I haven't done since we went to the Netherlands. It was nice to place again especially with some old friends. We got up Sunday thinking that we would be heading home later that afternoon so we took a drive around the island just to show our friend Charles around. Back at the camp, our new friend John was planning on moving his boat from one side of the island to the other and offered to give us a ride. So we took a really pleasant boat trip from the east side of the island over to Caminada Pass on the west side where we hung out on a beach for a little while before getting dropped off at the marina.


Taking the boat out of the marina on the east side of Grand Isle.


Fifi Island on the north side of Grand Isle.


Love forever!


Hanging out on a beach in Caminada Pass.


Sunset at Bridge Side Marina on the west side of Grand Isle.

While we were on the boat, Roxi and I decided that we should probably stay one more night because we were having such a great time and we didn't have any jobs to get back to...

Back at the camp and Roxi decided to check her email. To her surprise, she received a message informing her that she had been chosen for a post-doc at the University of Memphis! We were so excited it was as if we were meant to stay to celebrate the news! After a few drinks and another fantastic dinner, John took Roxi, Charles and I to a dock on the east side of the island for some night fishing. We had a lot of fun and caught several catfish but threw them back as none of us really wanted to clean them.


A good catch!


Another good one!


Charles caught some fish too, but we didn't get chance to get a photo.

Back at the camp, we cleaned up and had a few more drinks before calling it a night. Monday we got up really early and made the drive back to Lafayette.

We had a great time and really got a nice big dose of Louisiana this weekend. It really served as a good welcome home from Europe and in a way it will become the beginning of our goodbye to Louisiana. Roxi talked to her post-doc adviser today and it looks like we will be moving to Memphis in September. We're planning a trip there late next week to scout out the city and see if we can find me a job and a place for us to live. I'm so proud of Roxi's accomplishments up to this point and am so glad she has gotten this opportunity to do something she is really interested in. More exciting times are in our future!