Road Trip Day 3

After our free breakfast at the hotel we headed back to the car. I made the kids wait around while I tried to spot a bird making an interesting call that I didn't recognize. I never did get a good look at the bird though. Oh well.

We stopped at Walgreens and bought batteries for my camera and a gallon of water (the same price as an individual water!).

Next we headed north on I-110 and then US 61 to Centenary College State Historic Site located in Jackson Louisiana. This was a really nice tour. Our tour guide was originally from Joplin Missouri which was neat. We got some neat pictures. In one of the old dorm rooms where the old lead paint had been peeled back, this exposed some handwritten messages from the 1800's. It was very cool! 19th century college grafitti. Nothing bad. "Sophomore class of 1857" and a list of names is one example. Latin quotes was another. The really sad thing is that the Main Academic building with its 3000 seat auditorium was torn down in the 1930's. Before the days of historic preservation. There was no one to save the building. Kind of sad.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/icentenary.aspx

We headed southwest on LA 965 to the Audubon State Historic Site at Oakley Plantation. Apparently he taught their child for a few months during the time he was drawing and painting for his famous Birds of America book. We met Gus the turkey and got caught in a sudden rainstorm. Very fun. A small plantation, but really neat because it was in the same family since its beginning, until sold to the state in 1942.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/iaudubon.aspx

Well, by 1:30 we were HUNGRY. The nice lady in the visitor center at Oakley mentioned a little place called the Audubon Cafe next to an antique shop. That sounded interesting so we headed over to St. Francisville and found this place, right next to the local grocery store. The place was very homey, just old tables and chairs and a kitchen tucked into a corner. But the food, oh, the food. I swear that must have been the best egg salad sandwich I'd ever had. The kids each had something called pita pizza which was just a pita bread base for a pepperoni pizza but it looked really good. Then we splurged for dessert. Jordan had Butter Pecan Cake, Steve had Chocolate cake and I had Coconut Pie. Oh MY! Wow. We all sampled each others and WOW is all I can say.

We headed back to Baton Rouge with the thought of a nap. That actually turned into a Burnout Revenge round. Then I thought I would try and head out to Bluebonnet Swamp (to look for birds - just a few miles from our hotel) but when I looked it up on the internet, found out it closed in a half hour, so that was a no go.

Jordan and I got a load of laundry started, stopped by University Lake for a few minutes, and picked up some Wendy's for dinner. We watched the 4400 and then The Dead Zone on TV. The Dead Zone was really good. I hadn't seen it before.

BIRDS: Today I saw a Swan Goose and a Tri-Colored Heron!!!!