About the above.

Recently, the family travelled to Thibodaux, Louisiana, to take Caleb to the Manning Passing Academy held on the campus of Nicholls State University. We joined two other families there. Between our hotel and the camp, we drove through Des Allemandes, Louisiana, noticing that they proclaimed that the town was the Catfish Capital of the Universe. I love catfish so we stopped looking for some Catfish at the Louisiana Catfish Festival which just so happened coincided with our visit.

Our athletic director, Scott Smiley, also loves catfish and wanted to compare his catfish to what one could get at the universal headquarters for Catfish and at a festival dedicated to the species.

During our stop, we took the opportunity to have our picture taken with the Catfish Queen.

Sadly and surprisingly this happened. I had to buy tickets to purchase food so I went to the booth and asked how many tickets would it take to get a catfish platter or some such plate. I was informed that there was no such plate. In fact, there was little to no catfish available. There was a catfish po-boy. But no catfish, hushpuppies, fries.

They did have a Catfish Boulette which you can see in the picture above - the round things. Wanting some sort of catfish from the headquarters for catfish and at a festival celebrating the fish, we purchased the above Boulettes. It consisted, we were told, of catfish, spices, meal, and "other stuff."

You will notice, in the above picture, that a bite has been taken out of one of the Boulettes. That was the only bite.

On another food note, our hotel was in close proximity to New Orleans. The Smileys had never visited the city so one evening we drove into the French Quarter, onto Decatur Street, and sat down at Cafe Du Monde for beignets and Cafe Au' Lait. Pictured above as delivered with the necessary powdered sugar.