Return To Louisiana

As I wrote about last year, I had the opportunity to help my brother and his family move to Louisiana. At the time, I wasn't too impressed with the place. But since I was only there for one full day, I couldn't really reserve the right to judge. This year I was able to go back to Louisiana to visit at the end of October. I was very excited to see my brother and his family and to to get away from the monotony of day-to-day life, but I didn't hold out much hope for liking the South. However, after my vacation was over, I must say I was pleasantly surprised as to how much I liked it down there. Maybe it was because the weather was much more mild in October than it was in August when I was there before. Or maybe it was because I didn't have to help move furniture up two flights of stairs in sweltering heat. Or maybe I just had more time to get a feel for the place. But I would now rate Louisiana as one of my favorite places to visit and I hope to return there to visit again soon.

What is a vacation without pictures? Even though pictures never do a place justice, I took as many as I could just for a small reminder of what it was like. I will now share said pictures with the blogging world.

On the first day I was there my brother, David, took me on a walk around the lake on the Louisiana State University campus. This is the lake and the houses surrounding the lake. It was beautiful if not a bit hot that day. Many of the houses were decorated for Halloween, and boy do they go all out with the Halloween decor. We also saw a huge flock of pelicans out on the lake. If you look closely at the first picture, that white line behind the tree is all pelicans. We also saw quite a few turtles, although David said there weren't as many out as there usually are.

After the lake walk, David took me out to lunch at a burger place that had the most amazing duck-fat-fried french fries. The burgers were also very tasty.

Here is a cute little fountain at an outdoor mall in Baton Rouge.

My brother lives in Baton Rouge, so for one of the days I was there we drove down to New Orleans which is about an hour away. We visited an old above-ground cemetery and then walked around the houses in the Garden District. Once again, notice the amazing Halloween decorations. I was also fascinated by the architecture. I could spend days just wandering around looking at houses. Then it was over to Bourbon Street to explore the shops. There is a real sense of history there, and I feel inspired to learn more about New Orleans. Please ignore my fingers in a few of the shots. I obviously need practice using my camera phone.

We ate lunch in the French Quarter and I had a very delicious jambalaya wrap. (Most of the food I had in Louisiana was very good.) This is David and his beautiful wife, Stephanie.

Stephanie teaches at LSU, and one day she walked me around the campus. I even got to sit in on a couple of her classes. I was very impressed by all of her studies, if not a little humbled by my own ignorance. Here are pictures of Stephanie in here office, the LSU stadium, and the live tiger who is the mascot.

The last day I was there we went to the state capital building. It was more impressive than I thought it would be. Very large and important looking. We rode the elevator up to the top where you could have a very nice view of Baton Rouge.

So those are the highlights of my trip. I miss being there already, and I hope I can return again soon and bring Mike along with me.