Between New Orleans and Houston we stayed a few nights at Lorrain Parish Park not too far outside of Lake Charles. It was a nice small, and very quiet park with a very cool historic wooden bridge. The facilities were kept clean and the dock on the river was a perfect spot for the kids to try out their new fishing poles. Lucy had more luck catching baby grass shrimp and tiny minnows in her net than with the rod though.

On our way to Houston, we stopped at Holly Beach to stretch our legs and let the kids play on the beach. While the waters there were sorta muddy colored (due to “being on the wrong side of the Mississippi” according to a local we chatted with.) it was still a nice sandy beach. It was almost completely dead, apart from a couple of residents taking in sunset. It’s in a pretty remote spot so I imagine it never gets too busy, even in summer.

A child in a green shirt crouches at the muddy river's edge holding an orange bucket near cypress trees.

A young child examines a small insect held gently in both hands along the coast of Louisiana.

A hand reaches toward small shells and debris scattered across a weathered wooden dock in coastal Louisiana.

A young girl in a green shirt leans on a wooden dock railing fishing on a muddy coastal Louisiana river.

A girl in a green shirt leans on a mossy wooden bridge railing above a murky Louisiana river.

Two children fishing from a weathered wooden dock on a quiet stretch of water in coastal Louisiana.

A wooden boardwalk railing overlooks a calm swamp waterway lined with bare trees in coastal Louisiana.

A person in a green shirt stands at the shoreline of a coastal Louisiana beach facing the waves.

A child crouches on a coastal Louisiana beach arranging shells and drawing pictures in the wet sand.

A young boy peers through binoculars at the waves along the Louisiana coast.

A flock of shorebirds gathers on the wet sand of a coastal Louisiana beach as waves roll in.