Saturday, October 19, 2013

Red Stick

That is the translation of Baton Rouge

The meaning of Baton Rouge could be questions.  But, it is an interesting capitol city.  It is part of Acadiana, or Cajun Country, the capitol of Louisiana and the home of LSU.  We stayed at Farr Park, a city-owned park that is home to many horses.  As we arrived, we saw several mounted police.  Not to worry, they were exercising their horses.  The equestrian center had many horses that were being trained or exercised, throughout the day and evening.  We were not able to watch them often, as we were away much of the time.
After we arrived, we decided that we would take advantage of being in Acadiana and find some good Cajun food.  We tried Chimes.  The name is certainly not Cajun!  It is on the edge of the LSU campus and is on the corner of Highland and Chimes.  So the name seems to be explained.  However, we first got out of the car, we heard the carillon on the LSU campus.  This explains the name!  It is bar with a four page beer menu.  But, the food is quite good.  The best hushpuppies I have ever had.  I was tempted to try Boudin Balls for the first time and crawfish etouffee.  Both were great.  If not the best I have had, right up there in the top few.

The next day, we visited the Governor’s Mansion built by Huey Long.  He was such a colorful part of Louisiana history.  He had a great influence on the history of the area.  And it is a wonderful story  Our next stop was at Nottoway Plantation.  This is not a cotton plantation, but a former cane plantation.  The tour was interesting and the house was an interesting look at past life.  The lunch that we had here was good.  All in all, it was a fun day in Baton Rouge.
At night we wanted to go out for some Cajun music.  For some reason, I had a great deal of trouble finding any music.  I finally found Boutin’s, a Cajun restaurant that has live music.  So, we decided to go and were able to take 16 of our caravan friends.  We had fun with the group and dancing to the music.  We have had little or no music for so long that it was great fun for us. I think everyone else enjoyed the experience, as well.