Everyone was so warm and appreciative of my guide service and our shared experience of family fun and adventure filled trips into the wilderness of Lake Martin.
It started on Friday, July 2nd at 6pm with a sunset tour. That tour was coming to an end with the sunset shot above. Then we crossed the lake to take the photo below of the same sunset with a different set of trees about 10 minutes later.
Saturday, July 3rd we started at 6:30am and I caught this image below of a dragonfly floating on the water, right out in front of the boat landing.
In the photo below, I was so touched by the little girl in the life preserver singing about Jesus's love for her and all the little children of the world.
In the background of the photo below, you can see a giant Bald Cypress, six feet in diameter.
In the photos below after the cypress forest and the bayou, we moved across the lake to take in the beauty of the American Lotus, which are in full bloom all summer long.
In the photo below, July 4th fireworks at my friend Ed's house in Carencro. Ed is the manager of the Holiday Inn Holidome convention center in Lafayette. He always invites my daughter and I for New Years and July 4th fireworks. We light up the sky and always eat too much because it is soooo good!
This is my daughter, Christina, in the photo above, showing off her cool new hair style for this summer.Monday July 5th, we started with another gorgeous day at sunrise with a family from Joplin, Missouri and came upon these images below of a Redwing Blackbird nesting.
At the end of the tour the great looking clouds in the photo below foretold of what was on the way later that day.
Unfortunately later that day, the family from Alaska in the photo below, got a great start for our sunset tour, but the drought broke about an hour into it and we cut it short and headed in, in the rain.
It was a gorgeous image in the bayou with the rain falling, but I didn't dare pull out my digital camera and risk water damage.
In spite of our being rained out, in the end, I was given a generous tip for entertaining my guests with Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes while we got soaking wet in the bayou. I wish I had a waterproof camera.
Anyway, we here in south Louisiana all breathed a sigh of relief for a brief respite from the drought of last month.
On Wednesday, July 8th, I took out a couple from Denmark who were trying desperately to get on a tour at the last minute.
In the photo below, we had a fine time with my Catahoula dog Jesse(who is a son of Bob).
And his 12 week old son, Gus in the photo above.
There were so many interesting things to photograph, such as the butterfly that landed on the boat in the photo below.
And... a wasp, that crash landed and was fluttering on the water below.
Also, a bagworm hanging from a cypress branch, in the two images below.
In the bayou, we came upon my good friend Butch Gauchereaux, owner and operator of Cajun Country Swamp Tours at Lake Martin.
In the image above, Butch is teaching about the importance of duckweed in the ecology of the swamp. He is well respected and knowledgeable, having a degree in botany and zoology.
And then he went to the alligator nest we had just visited...
The colors in the swamp are vibrant after a good rain, as seen in the images below.
When we got back to the lake there were many gators cruising around as seen below.
We went on to take some incredible sunset photos as seen below.
