Texas and Louisiana Road Trip during Covid-19 ep.2 : Sea Rim State Park and Lafayette

Texas and Louisiana Road Trip during Covid-19 ep.2 : Sea Rim State Park and Lafayette

2020年9月21日 0 By goldeneuglena

日本語/ In Japanese?

 

The road trip to Louisiana from San Antonio, Texas, in August 2020. Click here to read from the ep.1!

Well, last time, I shared from San Antonio to stay in Houston. This time we are finally in Louisiana.

Click here for the previous article!

Texas and Louisiana Road Trip during Covid-19 ep.1 : San Antonio-Houston 

 

 

This article’s contents are…

  • Lunch at Sea Rim State Park (Texas)
  • One night stay in Lafayette, Louisiana

 

 

The final destination of the trip is New Orleans, Louisiana, but it takes about 350 miles and about 5 hours from Houston to New Orleans. My husband isn’t used to driving a car, so this distance is tough, and I can’t drive, so I am useless as a substitute. So, we decided to stay overnight at Lafayette on the way.

 

 

 

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From Houston to Sea Rim State Park, a wild bird observation spot

 

Now that we’re done in Houston, we need to eat something before we leave for Louisiana!

It’s already lunchtime when the errand in Houston has finished. Before we go to Lafayette, let’s go buy sandwiches and salads at HEB and eat somewhere. Now that we’ve come close to the sea, why don’t we take a look at the sea?

 

Port Arthur

So we decided to have a picnic at Sea Rim State Park, south of Port Arthur. Along the way, you can enjoy the nice view of the factory like this.

 

 

船

You can also see a big ship.

It feels like an industrial area around here and it is difficult to imagine that there is a state park around, but there is this.

 

 

州立公園

Volà! This is near the entrance to Sea Rim State Park. It’s pretty beautiful.

 

 

州立公園

We follow the promenade to the beach. Two sticks visible in the middle of the promenade, this is a simple outside shower that is convenient for removing sand. You can enjoy taking a shower with the feeling of liberation from the wind for free.

 

 

海鳥

This state park is sandwiched between east and west national wildlife sanctuaries. Perhaps because of that, there are so many seabirds.

 

 

鳥の足跡

This is the footprint of a seabird. There were so many and it was so cute. It may be fun for people who like bird watching.

 

 

州立公園

There was no dust or seaweed, and the sand was smooth, soft, and beautiful.

 

 

HEBのサンド

We ate HEB sandwiches on this sandy beach. It’s a supermarket sandwich, but it’s pretty delicious.

 

 

By the way, this Sea Rim State Park and the sandy beach are beautiful, but for some reason, many sardines are beached, so it seems that it is not suitable for swimming.

However, this beach of sardines seems to be a natural phenomenon. The sardines here were still shining, and in a strange way, they looked fresh and had no offensive odors. I wonder if there are many seabirds because there are small fish like this.

 

 

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Now to Louisiana! One night at Lafayette

木が高い

The eastern side of Sea Rim State Park is just a short distance away from Louisiana. Google Maps welcomes you by voice when you cross states. I love this!

As a San Antonio resident, I was amazed at the size of the trees when I came near the ocean around Houston and New Orleans. The grass in San Antonio is yellow and dry, especially in summer, and the trees not so tall. It seems that there are more lush and tall trees near the sea.

 

 

 

 

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By the way, why are we staying at Lafayette?

 

There are many places where you can stay in New Orleans, but why Lafayette?

First of all, the distance is just right. It takes about 3 hours from Houston, so it’s about 220 miles with reasonable mileage.

 

Another big reason is that there is an architecture I want to see.

Lafayette’s cathedral is pretty good, it’s a 20th century Romanes revival style. I definitely wanted to see it. There are other historic buildings in Lafayette, so if you like it, this wiki page would have been nice …

 

We forgot to go there the next day! !! !! !! So, we decided to stop by on my way back to San Antonio. What did we stop by for Lafayette …

 

 

So, the hotel in Lafayette looks like this.

ラファイエットのホテル

I thought that the hotel in Lafayette was only a break on the way, so I wasn’t particularly expecting a nice stay, but I’m glad it was spacious. Feeling suitable for a long-term stay. I will summarize the hotel in another article, so please wait a little.

 

 

 

 

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The nearby Chinese restaurant is on high alert about Covid-19!

It was a hotel with a kitchen, but we were very tired that day, so we took out a meal at a restaurant. What?! Chinese food! happy!

There was a Chinese restaurant near the hotel, so we took it out, and they were taking great measures against Covid-19!

厳戒態勢

When you open the door of the restaurant, the area around the entrance is divided into a small room about the size of a telephone booth, and you cannot enter the restaurant directly. You receive your meal from the product delivery port opened in this telephone booth.

Quite a high alert. During the Covid-19 measures of the restaurant I saw on this trip, this was the most enthusiastic. It would have been hard to make this …

 

By the way, the meal looks like this.

中華

At that time, we decided only in the restaurant that was still open, but it was very delicious.

I have shrimp and cashew nuts (right), and my husband is chicken (left). Includes rice and fortune cookies.

 

Actually, it was the first time that I ate out Chinese food since I came to the United States, but I was so satisfied (Oh, I am Japanese, you know?).  I heard that even if Japanese travel abroad and miss Japanese food so much, Chinese food is quite delicious, so if you miss Asian food, go to a Chinese restaurant! Maybe that’s the case?

 

 

ビール

We bought beer at a nearby Walgreens.

When my husband asked the clerk’s, “Do you have a Louisiana beer?”, He told us a lot. He recommends this one. Actually he would like us to try another beer that is a craft beer factory behind his house, but unfortunately, there are not at this Walgreens.  Somehow, a nice person who seems to like the locals did so. Oh, I liked the beer because it was a little sweet and easy to drink.

 

 

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Next―to Baton Rouge and New Orleans!

I didn’t expect Lafayette’s hotel, but it was good, and the Walgreens clerk was also a good person.

We are going to Baton Rouge the next day. I didn’t expect much there, but I highly recommend it because there are some highlights that make it look great in photos.

 

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