Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for louisiana
Underwater in New Orleans
By Linda Tancs
Located on the Mississippi River adjacent to the French Quarter, Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans, Louisiana, offers a top-rated underwater experience. In addition to local species from the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, the facility features underwater wonders from the Caribbean to the Amazon. Overall, more than 3,600 animals from more than 250 species are represented, including endangered species such as African penguins and rare animals like white alligators.
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America’s Historic Pharmacy
By Linda Tancs
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is an 1800s apothecary-turned-museum featuring 19th-century medicines and potions. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis Dufilho Jr., practiced there. Tours are self-guided; no reservations are required. You’ll find it on Chartres Street in the French Quarter.
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The Cajun Corridor
By Linda Tancs
A great way to experience Cajun heritage is to eat your way through it by driving Louisiana’s Cajun Corridor Byway. The route is 34 miles long, running between Gueydan and Delcambre. In addition to typical fare like shrimp, crawfish and oysters, you’ll find specialties you might be less familiar with, like turducken – a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. You can learn the recipe for this and other treats at a Cajun cooking class like the one offered in the city of Kaplan at Crawfish Haven. Throughout the route you’ll find amazing vistas encompassing “dual crop” farms (rice fields that are also home to thousands of crawfish) and sugar cane fields as well as allées (alleys of shade trees) and cheniers (coastal ridges covered with stands of oak trees). Enjoy the ride.
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Following the Mississippi
By Linda Tancs
You may have wondered whether you can drive along the course of the Mississippi River. Yes, there’s a road for that. The Great River Road National Scenic Byway follows the course of the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, passing through 10 states. Its designation as a National Scenic Byway is in recognition of the route’s outstanding assets in the areas of culture, history, nature, recreation and scenic beauty. The different roads and highways comprising the byway are marked by a green pilot’s wheel logo to keep you on track. Watch for river-related attractions and interpretative centers. You can take in the whole route in 36 hours of straight driving, but why not stretch it out for four to 10 days and enjoy the ride.
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The Cajun Food Trail
By Linda Tancs
Cajun cuisine is a staple of Louisiana’s food culture. That’s especially true in the Cajun Bayou. Just 45 minutes south of New Orleans, it flows through wetlands and Cajun communities, the perfect place for a Cajun Bayou Food Trail. Along the route you can sample the Cajun delights of over a dozen restaurants. Stop by the visitor’s center in Raceland for a foodie passport and trail information. You can exchange your passport for a free, commemorative t-shirt once you’ve visited seven restaurants.
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D-Day in NOLA
By Linda Tancs
Appropriately enough, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, opened on June 6, 2000, the anniversary of D-Day. In fact, it was originally named the D-Day Museum. Designated by Congress as the official World War II museum of the United States, it’s located in downtown New Orleans on Magazine Street. New Orleans is home to the LCVP, or Higgins boat, the landing craft that brought U.S. soldiers to shore in every major amphibious assault during the war. The six-acre campus features five soaring pavilions (and two more on the way), a period dinner theater and restaurants. Visited by over 2 million tourists from around the world, the facility is a premier research institution, offering visitors the fruits of decades-long research by the late Dr. Stephen Ambrose, the museum’s founder. He tirelessly researched and wrote about the war, Eisenhower and D-Day and collected more than 2,000 oral histories from D-Day veterans.
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Spinning for Over 60 Years
By Linda Tancs
In New Orleans, Louisiana, there’s one carousel that requires adult admission. That’s the famous Carousel Bar & Lounge in Hotel Monteleone, a long-time favorite NOLA hotspot. It’s the city’s only revolving bar, spinning for over 60 years now. The brightly hued, circus-style merry-go-round seats 25 guests and turns on 2,000 large steel rollers, pulled by a chain powered by a one-quarter horsepower motor. Patrons circumnavigate at one revolution every 15 minutes. Prized for its whimsicality as well as its drinks, the Goody and The Vieux Carre cocktails were first concocted at the bar. Why not go for a spin!
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The Essence of Creole
By Linda Tancs
Creole, a blend of western European, African and Native American influences, flourished in Louisiana before it joined the Union in 1803. You’ll find its essence alive and well at Laura, a Creole plantation in the heart of New Orleans Plantation Country. Originally called l’habitation Duparc (after Duparc, a French naval veteran of the American Revolution who acquired the property in 1804), it was renamed Laura Plantation after Laura Locoul, a descendant of the Duparc-Locoul families. At its largest size, it was approximately 12,000 acres, which included properties amassed over time. More than a house and garden tour, visitors are enriched in Creole culture through a 70-minute tour (in English and French) sharing the compelling, real-life accounts of multiple generations of the plantation’s Creole inhabitants—plantation owners, women, slaves and children who once called this centuries-old, sugar cane farm their home. The property is located on Highway 18 midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, only 35 miles from New Orleans International Airport.
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Life Along the Bayou
By Linda Tancs
Ever wonder what life was like along the bayou in colonial days? You’ll find out at the Pitot House, the only Creole colonial country house that is open to the public in New Orleans. Located on historic Bayou St. John (accessible via the Carrollton Spur streetcar), the site is named for James Pitot, the first mayor of New Orleans after the city’s incorporation, who lived at the residence in the early 1800s. Guided tours are available from Wednesday through Saturday.
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Amazing Grapes
By Linda Tancs
Amazing Grapes is an annual wine auction event in New Orleans benefiting the Hermann-Grima and Gallier historic houses. These Victorian homes are two of the oldest in NOLA’s French Quarter. Taking place this Saturday at the Hermann-Grima house, the event will feature a wine tasting from Bizou Wines, a buffet by Broussard’s Restaurant and auctions featuring rare and hard-to-find wines as well as luxurious vacations and art.
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