Louisiana

We lived in Louisiana from 1979 until 2009 so I should be able to share a bit with you.  The first few years we lived in a small town called Homer.  We happened to be lucky enough to live in an old plantation home there.  It was built from Cypress wood and boasted twelve foot high ceilings.  The home had many unique built in features but very few modern touches.  We had a huge Christmas tree while we were there and enjoyed having so much space to enjoy entertaining friends during the time our children were teenagers.  The northern part of Louisiana is partly rolling hills covered in tall pine trees and partly level crop land.  Cotton, soybeans and similar crops are the most common.  Deer hunting is popular with many people in this area as the pine woods are a great habitat for them.

Sugar cane field at dawn near harvest time

For about three years we lived in the central part of Louisiana, first in DeRidder (a small city) and then in Alexandria, one of the larger cities that has much to offer.   This part of the state is very beautiful with lakes, rivers, forested land and crop land.  Then we moved south to Patterson for a couple of years and on to Houma, a city southwest of New Orleans.  South Louisiana scenery includes Cypress trees, swamp land and sugar cane fields.    



A friendly ghost crab on the beach at Grand Isle

From Houma It is about an hour and a half’s drive down to the tip of Louisiana at Grand Isle.  Driving to Grand Isle for the day was always one of my favorite things to do.  I’d pack a lunch, something to drink, grab my camera and be off to see what I could see. 



One of many Live Oaks



My other favorite place to go was Avery Island, a bird sanctuary and gardens near New Iberia, about an hour and a half drive northwest of Houma.  The sanctuary is planted with an abundance of azaleas, camellias, tulip magnolias. Mature live oaks like the one shown in this old photo are all through the sanctuary.  Wildlife is abundant with turtles sunning themselves, alligators peeking their snouts out of the shallow edge of the water in addition to the many birds who nest in their rookeries.  

Swamps have their own special beauty

One other fun thing to do is a swamp tour.  It can be fun for kids and adults alike to experience the wildlife in the swamp.  You usually see alligators, turtles, nutria, lots of birds including eagles and other interesting things like old trappers cabins.  The peace and quiet is always amazing.

When we had company from out of town, we would take them to New Orleans to see everything there.    I never tired of strolling through the streets of the French Quarter and exploring all the unique shops along the way.  My two favorites are a Christmas store (with an amazing variety of Christmas ornaments and other holiday décor items) and a little shop that features old clothes – hats, gloves, dresses, scarves, fans, corsets and many other items, some from the movie making era of the 1920s through the 1940s.  It is a little girl dress up dream shop!



One of the many natural settings
in the Audubon Zoo



There is of course so much more to New Orleans.  The trolleys run from the French Quarter through the Garden District to the Zoo.  (I’m not sure of their “after Katrina” schedules.)  Audubon Zoo is a wonderful zoo in an area that has many old stately homes.



Replica of St. Louis Cathedral in
the train garden at New Orleans
Botanical Gardens

I usually went to the New Orleans Botanical Gardens Spring Show each year with a friend.  The gardens are beautiful that time of year and we  bought plants from the vendors because we couldn’t resist.  I also really liked the Train Garden they have and brought my great grandson who was thrilled to see the trains.  City Park houses not just the Botanical Gardens but also a marvelous Art Museum, a golf course, picnic areas, tennis courts and so much more.  Nearby can be seen one of the oldest cemeteries in New Orleans.  Katrina took its toll on much of the city but it is working to regain all these beautiful areas.



My niece's little girl with her "throws"
from one Mardi Gras parade

Everyone always wants to know about Mardi Gras.  I preferred the parades we had in Houma because they were not as crowded.  I’m short and could not see over the crowds when we went to the parades in New Orleans.  The parades in Houma had good crowds – 3 or 4 people deep all along the route but not 20-30 people deep!  The parades in Houma are very family friendly.  Little ones, the disabled, and the elderly are lovingly given many “throws” from the floats.  Sometimes “the parade before the parade” is almost as much fun to watch.  Once the road is closed to traffic, people begin to stroll up and down the street to find their friends, find a vendor for a souvenir, drink or snack.  We usually arrived early and brought food for lunch and a cooler of drinks with us.  It doesn’t matter if it’s hot, cold or rainy; you have to go to the parades anyway!

The people in Louisiana are very friendly, quite tolerant of each other and very proud of their state, their cities, their sports teams and their way of life.  Hurricanes are only bad storms and can’t stop these people from loving life.



Hot Air Balloons getting ready to soar
over Baton Rouge during a special event.



Baton Rouge is the Capitol City; other large cities are Shreveport, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Monroe.  Each of these cities has the normal city night life, museums, family friendly attractions, local historical markers in addition to some kind of festival or special event. 

In addition to the Mardi Gras festival, there are festivals of every type throughout the state from The Peach Festival in Ruston to the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City to the Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula, with the Jazz Festival held in the spring in New Orleans.  No matter when you visit, you can probably find a festival somewhere in Louisiana.  All of them will have an abundance good food and many happy, friendly people to show you a good time.

Louisiana is a fun state to live in or visit.  Check the state tourism website to locate the best place for you to enjoy.

http://www.louisianatravel.com/