The week between Christmas and New Years is always dead quiet, so it was a good time for an extended get away. We thought about going north to Kentucky but the weather possibly promised snow and I’m a wuss when it comes to bad weather, especially on vacation. We, therefore, needed to visit more of the Confederacy. As all of us had been to New Orleans, a mere six hour drive we turned to our guiding philosophy, which is to go someplace unexplored so we decided on New Orleans’s less exciting neighbor, the capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The tour books promised about two days of decent sight-seeing.
Halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans are some amazing plantation homes, most, located on the Mississippi River. These homes are especially grand because Louisiana cultivated sugar cane, the most lucrative of all crops and these folks were filthy rich. These homes made Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage in Nashville look like a shed. Touring these estates helps to explain what the Civil War was really about. Additional scenery is provided by the many petrochemical and fertilizer plants which provide much of the State’s revenue.
Houmas House Plantation: Houmas House is not named for a Middle Eastern cracker spread; rather it is named for the Indian tribe that sold the acreage to early settlers. The property is a series of beautiful gardens that have been cultivated over many years, a modern banquet hall for all of your party needs and of course the plantation home. I knew I was in Louisiana because there was an open bar on the property selling booze at 10:30 a.m. Houmas House also has an alleged Civil War submarine (about the size of my mini-van) on display.
Admission is only available with a guided tour or facility rental. Our tour guide was a big man with a small voice. Houmas House is privately owned and the owner actually lives on the premises. Hallways in the house resemble a kindergarten classroom as a folk artist (and I use the term loosely) painted murals of the swamps in vivid colors on the walls. Many interesting and beautiful antiques adorn the home with no particular historical accuracy. One of the best artifacts was a vampire repelling kit.
Nottoway Plantation: As we drove into the parking lot, there were cars with plates from Texas, Ohio and Ontario; this showed great promise. To boot, there were foreigners in the gift shop speaking German, how could we go wrong? Nottaway and is the by far the most exquisite plantation home I have seen. Our tour guide was a small woman with a big personality. She pointed out photos of the original family and explained the functions of esoteric implements in the dining room really bringing the home and its former inhabitants to life. It took 165 slaves to run the plantation. For a fee, the public can stay in the house overnight, but beware of ghosts. Surprisingly, an African American family was walking the grounds, and I was curious as to their thoughts.
Downtown Baton Rouge
USS KIDD & Nautical Center: A decommissioned WWII warship, now on display on the Mississippi River. The ship has been propped up on concrete blocks, much like a car on a redneck’s front yard. As this is no longer an active warship, visitors are able to wander throughout the vessel, really giving you an appreciation of how our service men lived and why women were not allowed in the navy (trust me the bathrooms were horrible).
Louisiana Art and Science Museum: This museum is housed on the Mississippi River in a refurbished old train station. Although this museum did not have a gem in the AAA book, we were very enthralled by the cool façade and location. Lucky for us we were able to be admitted with reciprocity from our Pink Palace Museum card because this museum is not one to write home about. I figure that the city had this old building that they wanted to unload, so they decided to convert it into a museum but because all of the other museums in town had taken the good stuff they put a bunch of random art and sciency stuff in it.
Louisiana State Museum: Were not sure what we would find here but knew that we had chosen a winner when we saw a family with interesting shoes in the lobby (not sneakers, flip flops or boots). Sure enough they were speaking Dutch. This museum encompasses the entire state, dealing with its rich history, culture and industries.
Louisiana State Capitol Buildings: We walked past the old Capitol building. It looked really cool but was closed for the holidays and refurbishment. So we went to the current building. It is built in the capitol building style with an office tower on top. We took the elevator to the top and went out onto the observation deck to look across the Mississippi River to the other side of Baton Rouge. It makes you ponder why it is not called West Baton Rouge, or even by the name of some other assorted state.
LSU Rural Life Museum: Mainly a collection of old stuff in various states of decay and disrepair that people had in their basements but could not stand to throw away so they donated it to this place. The real treasures are found outside the museum. A collection of original slave quarters, overseers cabins, a country church and other styles of historical rustic homes.
On another note, we visited an outlet mall just east of Baton Rouge.
The highlight of the outlet mall was the Coach Outlet – where Coach sell knockoffs of their own stuff.
Recommendation: Lots of good stuff to see and do.
