How do you pronounce Baton Rouge?
I'll get to that question later.
When I saw the photo on Champagne's Swamp Tours website, I knew I wanted to go if at all possible: https://champagnesswamptours.com/swamp-boat-tours/ That was farther than I wanted to drive from Fairhope in a single day, but it was an easy day trip from where I planned to stay near Baton Rouge. They had openings in the 1pm tour on the day I planned to be there, so I planned the day around that. Soon I had other ideas: beignets and the LSU Rural Life Museum. That's where this photo was taken:
When I arrived, I noticed a docent-led tour of a bunch of school-age kids beginning not far from the front desk. I slowly approached the group, looking at various exhibits, until I got to where I would have had to excuse myself to someone to get past them into the next room. Instead, I checked in with one of the adults in the group to ask if it was okay, and then I tagged along with them for a while. The adult that I spoke with explained that the kids were home-schooled, which I think can be a good thing for some kids under the right circumstances. Then I noticed that all of the females in the group, from the youngest who I think was about 6 years old to the teenagers and all the adults, had long hair and were wearing skirts that came well below the knee. That most likely means that they are being home schooled for religious purposes, so I hope they also take the kids to science museums and not just to places that talk about the old days, but I have my doubts.
When it was clear that it would take more time than I had allotted to this visit to follow their full tour, I broke off on my own and checked out a couple of things that caught my eye. This old cash register was beautiful with all the intricate metal work. I was surprised that something this old would be allowed to sit in a building that is open to the humid southern air, but this is mostly an outdoor museum of old buildings filled with old things. There are also indoor exhibits, but even those are more exposed to the elements than in a typical museum. I saw lots of spider webs, and in one place indoors I saw rodent droppings -- rat-sized, it seemed to me. So they're not kidding when they call this a rural life museum.
The docent said that the museum has received lots of donations from funeral homes. There were a variety of very old hearses in the room with all the horse-drawn vehicles, and through the doorway in the next room, this peculiar coffin caught my eye. On closer inspection, I could see into the mummy coffin through the face window, and it was thick with spider webs. So there must be some way in and out of this thing if you're small enough:
I could have spent quite a while longer at this museum, but I was running a bit low on time if I wanted to do everything I planned for the day, and I was very much looking forward to the next item on my agenda: beignets. When searching for the best beignets in Baton Rouge, I found an article that amusingly claims that the best beignets in New Orleans are in Baton Rouge, and singled out Coffee Call as the exact place: https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/best-beignets-new-orleans-baton-rouge-coffee-call. Coffee Call has an unpretentious name and an unpretentious storefront.
The simple interior manages to evoke the street cafes of New Orleans with the wire-back chairs. Customers go down the cafeteria line serving their own beverages and ordering food that is delivered to their tables.
I chose the small order of beignet fingers and on the recommendation of the article, a cafe au lait, which was dispensed pre-mixed from an industrial-sized beverage thermos. I would learn that day that small in these parts is relative, and usually means "way too much" compared to the regular size which is ridiculously enormous.
I don't know how many years it's been since I've had coffee (long story), but that first sip of cafe au lait was heaven. And no, it doesn't come in decaf. (If you want decaf, you have to order plain coffee and mix it yourself.) Between all the powdered sugar and the caffeine, I had a bit of an unpleasant rush for a half hour or so and then things mellowed out again. It helped that I got really distracted by the view out my windows as I drove toward Lafayette. It was one of the most unusual freeway experiences I've had.
I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette crosses the largest swamp in the United States, the Atchafalaya Basin. For about 20 miles between Ramah and Henderson, Louisiana, the freeway is almost all bridge. It's a low-sitting bridge, maybe 25-30 feet above the water. To either side of the bridge is forested swamp. Each direction of the bridge is separate, with a view of the water below in-between the two directions. Looking off to the side nearest where you're driving, you can't see anything but swamp. Looking across the other direction of the bride, you can see that the swamp has a tidy straight edge that parallels the bridge, and that the bridge is built over something that looks very much like a canal. On google maps, you have to zoom in pretty close to see that I-10 is anything other than regular old freeway:
And we haven't even gotten to the swamp boat tour yet, or answered the question about how to pronounce Baton Rouge! You're going to have to wait for the next installment. This is getting too long and there is a *lot* left to cover.
When I saw the photo on Champagne's Swamp Tours website, I knew I wanted to go if at all possible: https://champagnesswamptours.com/swamp-boat-tours/ That was farther than I wanted to drive from Fairhope in a single day, but it was an easy day trip from where I planned to stay near Baton Rouge. They had openings in the 1pm tour on the day I planned to be there, so I planned the day around that. Soon I had other ideas: beignets and the LSU Rural Life Museum. That's where this photo was taken:
When it was clear that it would take more time than I had allotted to this visit to follow their full tour, I broke off on my own and checked out a couple of things that caught my eye. This old cash register was beautiful with all the intricate metal work. I was surprised that something this old would be allowed to sit in a building that is open to the humid southern air, but this is mostly an outdoor museum of old buildings filled with old things. There are also indoor exhibits, but even those are more exposed to the elements than in a typical museum. I saw lots of spider webs, and in one place indoors I saw rodent droppings -- rat-sized, it seemed to me. So they're not kidding when they call this a rural life museum.
The docent said that the museum has received lots of donations from funeral homes. There were a variety of very old hearses in the room with all the horse-drawn vehicles, and through the doorway in the next room, this peculiar coffin caught my eye. On closer inspection, I could see into the mummy coffin through the face window, and it was thick with spider webs. So there must be some way in and out of this thing if you're small enough:
I could have spent quite a while longer at this museum, but I was running a bit low on time if I wanted to do everything I planned for the day, and I was very much looking forward to the next item on my agenda: beignets. When searching for the best beignets in Baton Rouge, I found an article that amusingly claims that the best beignets in New Orleans are in Baton Rouge, and singled out Coffee Call as the exact place: https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/best-beignets-new-orleans-baton-rouge-coffee-call. Coffee Call has an unpretentious name and an unpretentious storefront.
The simple interior manages to evoke the street cafes of New Orleans with the wire-back chairs. Customers go down the cafeteria line serving their own beverages and ordering food that is delivered to their tables.
I chose the small order of beignet fingers and on the recommendation of the article, a cafe au lait, which was dispensed pre-mixed from an industrial-sized beverage thermos. I would learn that day that small in these parts is relative, and usually means "way too much" compared to the regular size which is ridiculously enormous.
I don't know how many years it's been since I've had coffee (long story), but that first sip of cafe au lait was heaven. And no, it doesn't come in decaf. (If you want decaf, you have to order plain coffee and mix it yourself.) Between all the powdered sugar and the caffeine, I had a bit of an unpleasant rush for a half hour or so and then things mellowed out again. It helped that I got really distracted by the view out my windows as I drove toward Lafayette. It was one of the most unusual freeway experiences I've had.
I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette crosses the largest swamp in the United States, the Atchafalaya Basin. For about 20 miles between Ramah and Henderson, Louisiana, the freeway is almost all bridge. It's a low-sitting bridge, maybe 25-30 feet above the water. To either side of the bridge is forested swamp. Each direction of the bridge is separate, with a view of the water below in-between the two directions. Looking off to the side nearest where you're driving, you can't see anything but swamp. Looking across the other direction of the bride, you can see that the swamp has a tidy straight edge that parallels the bridge, and that the bridge is built over something that looks very much like a canal. On google maps, you have to zoom in pretty close to see that I-10 is anything other than regular old freeway:
And we haven't even gotten to the swamp boat tour yet, or answered the question about how to pronounce Baton Rouge! You're going to have to wait for the next installment. This is getting too long and there is a *lot* left to cover.
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