In 1978, Congress established Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, which combined an existing National Park unit with a Louisiana State Park and a French Quarter Visitor Center to create a National Park unit with a broad mandate to preserve and interpret the Mississippi River Delta region and southern Louisiana. That the Park is named after an enslaved people-smuggling pirate who was also a war hero underscores the complex layers of history, laid down like delta silt, in the region. Historically, the National Historical Park focuses on the Battle of New Orleans (the final battle of the War of 1812) and the pirate/privateer Jean Lafitte. Culturally, the Park focuses on New Orleans’ French Quarter, Creole culture, and Acadian/Cajun culture. Ecologically, the Park preserves 23,000 acres of bayous, swamps, marshes, and surrounding uplands at Barataria Preserve south of New Orleans, between the city and the Gulf of Mexico.

It was to Barataria Preserve that Sean and I were headed immediately after attending a jazz concert on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 13 [2022].

Our Lyft drive picked us up at the main entrance to the New Orleans Jazz Museum and whisked us off across the Mississippi River to the preserve entrance, thirty minutes southwest of the French Quarter.

He dropped us off at the Visitor Center for the Barataria Preserve unit, which was closed. Even though it was already 4pm, we weren’t expecting it to be closed. It felt very quiet and abandoned, except for a group of four folks who looked really lost. They asked if this was where the boat was. We said we really had no idea, but guessed that it wasn’t.

I had pre-scheduled our return Lyft for 6pm, so we had two hours to explore the Preserve.

We decided to take the quarter-mile Visitor Center Trail, a boardwalk into the Bald Cypress marsh, and then Palmetto Trail, combined boardwalk and path, which would through the swamp to another parking area. Both were out-and-backs, for a combined mileage of 2.3 miles. It would likely time out just about perfectly.

Immediately behind the Visitor Center, the boardwalk took us into the heart of the Cypress swamp, lush and very humid in late summer.

We spotted the first of many, many large spiders.

Along the boardwalk we also encountered a very large grasshopper, easily the largest we’d ever seen. Sean was nonplussed.

At the end of the Visitor Center Trail boardwalk, we turned around to go back to the junction with Palmetto Trail.

On the way, we spotted a juvenile Alligator just off the boardwalk.

At the trail junction, we turned left onto Palmetto Trail.

There were lots of expansive spider webs hanging across the boardwalk, many with their large architects hanging out in them. Sean was not thrilled.

We saw some interesting birds, the most spectacular of which was a Pileated Woodpecker. We also saw a Black Vulture, Carolina Chickadees, a Tufted Titmouse, and a Carolina Wren.

At the trail’s end, we emerged at the parking area for Bayou Coquille. From here, other trails led off into the Preserve. It was 5pm, so we needed to start our walk back.

Sean was well and truly done with the spiders.

Happily our reserved Lyft pickup happened without a hitch. Which was a relief since it may have been difficult to get another.

That evening we had a wonderful meal at Sylvain to mark the end of Sean’s time in New Orleans.

On the walk over into the French Quarter to dinner, we ran into Catherine, one of my favorite Land Trust Alliance folks (although she has since moved on). It was a fitting moment of overlap between the friends and Parks and vacation portion of the trip and the conference portion. After meeting Catherine, Sean, who generally loves meeting new people, said he sort of wished he could stay. That would happen a year later at Rally in Portland, when most of the Bold Bison significant others came along.

Next morning, Wednesday, September 14 [2022], Sean departed in the morning, and I caught up on work and meetings while I waited for Patrick to arrive.

Once he did, we headed out into New Orleans to capture more b-roll for the video we were making for River Network.

As we passed by Good Friends, I had to take Patrick in and introduce him to Liam, the bartender.

We walked around Louis Armstrong Park capturing footage.

Land Trust Alliance Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference was great. We saw lots of folks in person for the first time (since the pandemic had forced two years of virtual Rallies). We especially liked taking the members of the Texas Communicators Network out for a drink after the welcoming dinner Thursday evening.

But the highlight for us was that Bold Bison cohosted the LGBTQ+ Reception, which was very well attended.

And for our session on Saturday afternoon, we facilitated a video workshop that also premiered the video we had created for the Land Trust Alliance about land conservation work in Texas:

Then on Sunday, September 18 [2022], I finally checked out of my hotel (but not before the cafe staff in the lobby gave me a free latte since they had enjoyed seeing me everyday for ten days.

Instead of heading home, Patrick and I spent the day filming interviews for a video project for River Network. Including interviews with Dr. Angela Chalk of Healthy Community Services in the 6th Ward and Ghassan Korban form the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans.

When the originally approached us about the project, the folks at River Network had framed it as something that could be done over Zoom with photos provided by the on-the-ground project partners. They didn’t have the budget to send us to New Orleans and Tucson for in-person videos.

But it turned out that we were already going to be in New Orleans for Rally. And I had already been planning a birthday trip to Tucson and Saguaro National Park. So we said that we’d do the on-the-ground portions of the shoot for free.

Here is the finished video:

That evening, I flew to San Antonio, and Patrick would fly there the next morning. We’d be with a client in San Antonio most of the next week. Unbeknownst to me, I was slowly coming down with COVID-19 for the second time. I tested positive when I arrived home Friday morning and started my quarantine in the study. Happily, Sean never got it.