Home After Vacation's End

I spent a week in Louisiana. I had never been there before.

I had fears about going as I had heard so many stories about the foods; sausages made of alligator, beans made with smoke, dishes that would set your mouth on fire. For the life of me, I will NEVER understand why some people actually enjoy eating foods that have ingredients that create a burning sensation in one's mouth. But, then again, there are people who cannot wrap their mind(s) around someone like me whose life motto is, "Bland is terribly underrated!"
I grew up on bananas and sour cream or peaches and pot cheese.
In any event, I spent two days in Lake Charles and four days in New Orléans. I did a tremendous amount of walking and in all that time, the sky opened for about a(n) half hour for a slight drizzle. One would think that all that walking on flat surfaces would have made me burn the calories. Well, what I noted was that the body was retaining water something fierce. My digits were swelling like tiny sausages that were somehow puffing up. What could it have been? I blame it on the salt.
I also had to make a mental note/decision as to where liberal arts compare-and-contrast observation ends and critical, subjective, judgmental criticism begins. I saw a lot of BIG people there. And by BIG, I mean morbidly obese. I saw a cross section of the population with an abundance of tattoos. The two don't go hand in hand, so please do not think that I am making a correlation. I am just noting two separate observations.
There was also a lot of smoking and vaping going on. Many of the restaurants that I had gone to had food choices that were rich in fats and there was a lot of drinking.

From the WiKi :

"The expression Laissez les bons temps rouler (alternatively Laissez le bon temps rouler, French pronunciation: [It] is a Louisiana French phrase. The phrase is a calque of the English phrase "let the good times roll", that is, a word-for-word translation of the English phrase into Louisiana French Creole.

"This phrase is often mentioned in Louisiana (especially New Orleans) and around the Gulf Coast where Mardi Gras is celebrated. It is well known touristically around the United States from television and radio."