Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile

Moving on from the wonderful time we had in the Lafayette area, we visited Baton Rouge, New Orleans, then Biloxi and Mobile.  Here are a few things we did.

Louisiana’s state capitol in Baton Rouge was a new stop for us. I’ve been to NOLA several times, but not BR.

No offense to anyone in Louisiana, but their capitol cannot hold a candle to the beautiful Texas building.  Every detail in the Austin building from the elevators to the bathrooms to the doorknobs were exquisite.

The folks manning the visitor areas were super, but the building was in disrepair and dirty.  Oh, and very unattractive.  But I’m not a personal fan of the Art Deco style anyway.

The governor’s mansion on the banks of the Mississippi is lovely though.

New Orleans

Big shout out to DF Connie for suggesting the WWII museum.  Townspeople take great pride in the museum as well they should.  If NOLA is in your future, budget some time for this fantastic attraction.

Connie also made a dinner suggestion, but an early evening at Pat O’Briens for a hurricane and bag of warm beignets to go from Cafe Du Monde pretty much summed up our NOLA eating.  I know, it’s a shame we aren’t very adventurous culinary people.

Biloxi

The sky was blue and the water beautiful and the sandy beaches clean and empty.  But dang.  It was cold.  So we took a brief walk along the water and spent a bit of time in a nonsmoking casino and enjoyed the best “smoothies” ever. Mine turned out looking like Mardi Gras!

The Beauvoir-Jefferson Davis House is right on the main road so was an easy and unexpected visit.  Our docent was knowledgeable and congenial.  We were allowed to go into all the rooms and take any pics we wanted.

The property is over 50 acres and was lovely to walk even though not everything is in bloom yet.

Mobile

We didn’t really visit Mobile, but we did stop at the USS Alabama Memorial Park.  John went on the actual battleship and then onto a submarine.  I skipped the tour, but walked the grounds and looked at the outdoor memorials, tanks, planes and helos.

Whirlwind tours through those three states on the gulf coast and then onward to Florida.

What I’m Eating

Okay, I will officially need a diet so I can fit into my jeans.  Lord, it is hard on the road to stay fit and eat healthy.  Some of the hurdles I’m encountering are in the hotel fitness rooms and the weather not really cooperating for outdoor exercise.

In fact, I’m pretty disgusted with most of our hotels, but I won’t go into it here.

So, back to the grocery store and stocking up on fresh veggies.  Salad in our room with sparkling water was dinner tonight.  And will be again tomorrow night.

Oh, and a little fresh crusty bread from the store’s bakery.  I cannot lie.  Makes it so much easier to settle for salad.

Spoiler alert for next post – we made it to our ultimate road trip destination which is Key West.  I’ll let you know about our Florida leg in the next post, but I want you to know we reached the end of the road and now we have a few other boxes to check and then start hitting the long road home.

God bless you and yours and happy weekend.