(Editor’s Note: WARNING: This may be the longest blog post I have ever written. There was just so much to talk about!! Feel free to jump around at your own discretion) 

Baton Rouge is everyone’s second choice city in Louisiana. No matter how Baton Rouge tries, there is just no way for them to compete with New Orleans.

New Orleans is larger, more fun, has more activities, has a night life…the list goes on and on.

No seriously, even though Baton Rouge is the state’s capital, they weren’t even the state’s first choice to be capital. The state capitol of Louisiana was originally New Orleans (surprise, surprise!), but the state was worried about having too much power concentrated in one place since New Orleans was the financial and commercial hub of the state. So in 1845 they made a law requiring that a new state capital be chosen and in 1846 Baton Rouge was selected as the new capital of Louisiana.
How bad is it that the one thing they are known for wasn’t even their’s to begin with!?

I say this all to preface the fact that everyone thought me and Andy were crazy for planning a trip to spend four days in Baton Rouge.

“But you’re going to see New Orleans for a few days, right?!”

“Are you sure there is enough to do in Baton Rouge?”

“What do you mean you aren’t doing your Louisiana run in New Orleans??”

And in all fairness, Andy and I are genuinely a bit crazy, so there may be some point to all the talk. However, we spent four days in Baton Rouge and not only were we crazy busy the whole time, but we had a blast.

So Baton Rouge (and all other fellow underdogs), this post is for you…don’t let the haters underestimate you! #hatersgonnahate

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Baton Rouge Activities: In full disclosure, I quit my job the day we were scheduled to fly to Louisiana (RIP GT – its been a great five years ✌️✌️). I was so focused on trying to wrap everything up at work that I had not spent any time planning activities for our time in Baton Rouge. I figured that Andy and I would decide what to do once we go there. Once we arrived and started searching for things to do, I was pretty surprised with how much there was available in Baton Rouge. We did as much as we could in the time we had, but we still didn’t get to do everything that we wanted! So much to do, so little time in life…🤦‍♀️

1.USS Kidd: Our first stop in Baton Rouge was the USS Kidd, a Veterans Museum that had a Navy destroyer you could walk through.

The USS Kidd was an actual destroyer that was sent into battles during WWII and the Korean conflict. She (I’m using the pronoun of the museum…I’m still having a hard time understanding how a ship could be a “she” or a “he,” but there’s a lot about this world I don’t understand so I’m just going with it) was in action for nearly 20 years and earned 12 battle stars. She was restored to her 1945 version (specifically August 1945) and turned into a museum to honor Navy veterans.

The best part about the USS Kidd is that you could explore the entire ship. And when I say explore what I mean is that you could pretty much go everywhere on the ship and touch everything. In other words, it was basically a big kid playground for Andy. He was in heaven.

The destroyer had a ton of guns (or gun looking apparatuses…who can really tell the difference?). This made Andy very happy. He talked a lot about the different types of weapons, but to me a gun is a gun is a gun. So I took lots of pictures.

We also visited the kitchen which was called a galley for some reason (I could google this, but I’m pretty sure my grandma knows the reason because she knows everything so I will just wait to ask her. P.S. Mimi – do you know the reason? 😁).

 

Andy really was having too much fun at this museum.

Besides realizing how much Andy was enjoying everything, the museum also made me realize I could never be in the Navy. Everything was so small and condensed. I was getting claustrophobic walking through the ship and there was no one there but me and Andy!

Then there were the stairs…oh man those were scary. The boat went two levels below the main deck and every time I went down another flight of stairs I would try not to think about the possibility of getting stuck (which of course meant all I could think about was getting locked on the boat. This really made the experience so much more enjoyable for me as you might imagine.)

Also, don’t even get me started on the complete lack of any privacy on the ship. First of all the “beds” were just all on top of each other. I mean who has even heard of triple bunk beds?!?

Some of the more important people (I’m not really good with military ranks, but think high up) had “rooms,” but those were still minuscule.

And then….and then we got to the bathrooms.

This is where I really lost it.

I’m sorry, but what is this?!?!? Can you imagine going poop with 15 of your closest friends joining you on nearby toilets?!?!

I can’t decide what is worse…rubbing elbows with someone as you use the bathroom or STARING INTO SOMEONE’S EYES AS YOU BOTH USE THE BATHROOM?!?! (This is a lie, I know which one is worse.)

I’m shuddering as I write this. (No seriously, I’m on an airplane and I really can’t stop shaking my body and people are starting to look at me sideways. If only they knew what I was thinking….)

So in conclusion, after this lovely toilet conversation, all I can say to those in the Navy is THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE! No, I seriously mean this. You are a stronger and better person than I. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Although the destroyer is definitely the highlight of this museum, there were some interesting exhibits inside. While the destroyer is from WWII, the museum highlighted war efforts from well before WWII.

I had some fun shooting a cannon .

They also had a exhibit that replicated a WWI trench in full-size.

I did not brave the trench, but according to Andy it was quite small and uncomfortable. Spoiler alert: There doesn’t seem to be much “comfort” involved with the whole military thing.

Within the museum they had a part of the WWI exhibit dedicated to the “Patriotic Alliance of Diversity.” This part of the exhibit killed me. It stated that although the military was considered an “all-male” organization (the “white” part of this was notably missing), “men and women rushed to support the war effort regardless of race or gender and in doing so, helped to change the existing thinking of the time and make in-roads towards true equality for the generations yet to come.”

Oh please.

Could we paint a rosier picture? Of course men and women of all races helped out, it’s not just white males that can do heroic things. But lets be real about how unaccepting others were of these diverse individuals that helped. Lets not forget about the extreme racism that those individuals experienced. Lets not forget the segregation. Lets not forget the lack of trust other had of them, the less than ideal tasks they were dealt or all the barriers they encountered.

But sure, lets talk about all the good that came from this diversity, not all the bad that came from this “all-male” organization. #FakeMedia (hahaha I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I promise I really do like the media, but it seemed appropriate)

Since I know Andy is over here shaking is head at me, I’m going to get off my soap box and not tackle this whole “true equality” that the museum seems to think exists. But really, someone should take another stab at that whole portion of the exhibit. Just saying.

In other news, we got some cool pictures inside the museum too!

 

If you have kids (or kid-like husbands), I highly recommend taking some time to go to the USS Kidd while in Baton Rouge. Check to see if there is a groupon before you go too – they usually have one to make the tickets cheaper!

2. Old State Capitol Building: The two state capitol buildings are different buildings (located about a mile apart), but they are absolute must sees when in Baton Rouge. We went to the Old State Capitol first and it is beautiful. It literally looks like a castle.

 

The architect of the capitol, James Dakin, used Gothic architecture when designing the building.

Fun Fact: The bricks for the state capitol were built by the prisoners at the state jail. They were apparently cheap labor (shocking), but did not have high quality work (really…I wonder why…🤔). Apparently, Dakin (the architect) became so enraged one day at the poor quality of the bricks that he began throwing the bricks and one “accidentally” hit the contractor overseeing the brick creation. (By all accounts this really was accidental, but I choose to believe that Dakin had an ulterior motive…hehe.) The two men began fighting and they were both arrested and fined. Too bad they didn’t end up in prison otherwise they could have helped make the bricks too! 😂😂 (No, not a funny joke? Sorry I’m working on this humor thing…)

When you walk inside the first thing you notice is the winding staircase leading up. When you stand at the bottom of the stairs and look up you can’t help but to be wowed.

During the Civil War, the Old State Capitol became occupied the by Union and was set on fire.

No, not in the way you are thinking. This was not a revenge fire. This was a “men-don’t-know-how-to-cook” fire. 😂

Apparently, in December 1862 Union soldiers were cooking inside the capitol and accidentally started a fire. They thought the fire was out and went to bed. But the fire flared back in life in the early morning and by the time if was finally put out the whole inside of the capitol building was burned.

Poor capitol building.

Luckily, Baton Rouge decided to rebuild after the Civil War was over so we can still enjoy the building today.

On the second floor of the state capitol is where the Senate and House chambers were located. Off to the side of the House chamber is a “Junior Legislature Chamber” aka a children’s room. Since Andy and I are still really children (Sorry Mom & Dad, I still refuse to admit I am a grown-up) we, of course, stopped by.

I got to dress up as Teddy Roosevelt (Andy said this was super creepy, but I found it just funny haha).

However, my favorite part about the kid’s room was the activity where kids could make political bumper stickers and put them on the wall. Most of the stickers were very kid-like, “Be Nice To Others!” or “LSU IS GREAT.” But then there was this select few of very clever, well-written bumper stickers.

Either Louisiana has some genius children with very nice handwriting or I am sensing some adult involvement. Either way, they made me laugh 😂😂. Interestingly, the Republican wall was blank…

The rest of the bottom floor of the Old State Capitol has different exhibits about the capitol’s past as well as Louisiana history. And there is no one person more famous in Louisiana political history than Huey Long.

I will admit (a bit sheepishly) that I had no idea who Huey Long was until I arrived in Baton Rouge.

Long was the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928 – 1932 and this man made serious waves in four years. Under his direction, Louisiana built 9,000 miles of new road. He helped increase enrollment at Louisiana State University (LSU) from 1,200 students to 6,000 students. In a mere eight years, LSU became the 11th largest university in the nation. Long was a champion of the poor and felt it was morally wrong for the government to not assist those less fortunate.

All these things seems good on the surface right? Well here comes the controversy:

• Long was a big bully. He is quoted as saying, “I can frighten or buy ninety-nine out of every one hundred men.” Just the type of leader we want for our country right? 🙂
• Long dramatically increased Louisiana’s debt. In just four years the state debt jumped from $11 million to over $100 million. Which of course he let his predecessors deal with since in 1930 he decided to run for US Senate (and won).
• This is not so much of a controversy, but just plain weird. Long won his Senate seat while he was still Governor…but he didn’t relinquish his governorship. YES THAT MEANS HE WAS A GOVERNOR AND A SENATOR AT THE SAME TIME! How sketchy…

In general, Long was incredibly power hungry which probably helped lead to his demise. Long announced in 1935 that he would be running for President in the 1936 election and one month later he was assassinated. Of course, like everything related to Long, his death was not without controversy. Rumor has it that FDR paid off Long’s guards to ensure his death and to this day they still cannot find the bullet that killed him. I won’t get into all the details, but feel free to read some of the articles that examine the conspiracy theories.

3. New State Capitol Building: After visiting the old state capitol building, you MUST MUST MUST visit the new state capitol building.

(Pro tip: Make sure to stop at the visitor desk when you walk in. If you’re lucky, you might get the amazing volunteer guide who took Andy and me on an impromptu tour and taught us so much!)

The new state capitol building was completed in 1932 (yes that would be under Governor Huey Long…are you surprised?). Huey Long wanted the biggest and baddest capitol building in the nation. At 450 feet, it is the tallest state capitol building in the United States. The construction was done in 14 months and while Long budgeted $1 million to complete, it took a total of $5 million to construct the building.

Five million might seem like a lot of money, but this was actually a steal for everything in the building! Just to give you an idea…in the main hall, there are 26 varieties of granite from all over the world. The floors were built from Mt. Vesuvius volcanic lave from Italy. Each of the chandeliers weigh two tons and are solid bronze (they are so heavy they have to be fastened to the fifth floor!). In each of the legislative chambers, the ceiling are made out of sugar cane.

#fancyschmancy

Fun Fact: In 1970, four Texan men pretended to be electricians and entered the Senate chambers on a Sunday afternoon. While in the chambers they set off a bomb of dynamite. The men were members of a labor union that was fighting with their company over employee conditions and the bomb was meant to get the attention of the Governor. All four men were caught and received life in prison without the possibility of parole. But the best part about this story? The bomb somehow caused a pencil to get stuck in the ceiling….WHERE IT LITERALLY STILL REMAINS TODAY!!! 😂😂 Nothing like a little trip down memory lane every time you look up.

Speaking of up, being the tallest state capitol building creates a unique opportunity for an observation deck. Located on the 27th floor of the building, the deck has a great view of downtown Baton Rouge. Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy the morning that we visited, but the views were still phenomenal!

Of course, a trip to the new state capitol building would be incomplete without visiting the location of Huey Long’s assassination. Long was shot in the new capitol building and while the bullet used to shoot him was never recovered, you can still see bullet holes from the retaliatory shots fired from his guards.

Long is buried in the front lawn of the new state capitol building.

4. Mike the Tiger: So I am pretty sure that Mike the Tiger is probably the most well-known tourist spot in Baton Rouge. You know I love all types of cats, but even I find it a bit sad that a city with as much history as Baton Rouge is known for a college mascot! Not that this stopped me and Andy from going to see the tiger of course 🙂

The tiger is located on LSU’s campus, right next to the football stadium. Mike is named after Chellis “Mike” Chambers who was an athletic trainer at LSU. Mike Chambers was largely responsible for raising the funds to bring a live tiger to campus. We first stopped by at night and while we did not see Mike, we did get a picture of Andy riding a tiger which is basically the same thing right? 😂😂 

We were also treated to a wonderful light show at the football stadium. I loved it especially because of the purple and gold coloring!

We decided to stop by a second time to see if we would be able to catch a glimpse of Mike during the daytime and it was a success!!

5. Plantation: In between New Orleans and Baton Rouge there are plantations galore! Most of the plantations are owned by private residents who allow visitors (aka tourists) to stop by and take a tour. When we arrived in Baton Rouge we were basically told to just pick a plantation out of the bunch because “once you have seen one, you have seen them all.” For no particular reason, Andy and I chose Houmas House which was about 40 minutes outside of Baton Rouge.

While I don’t think that Houmas House is usually very crowded, somehow Andy and I arrived at the exact time as a bus from New Orleans with loads of tourists. In retrospect, I wish we had decided to eat lunch first and then take the tour so we wouldn’t have all been crammed into the one we were on.

In the early 1700’s, the land that Houmas House currently resides on used to be occupied by homeless Indians (no I’m not quite sure how they were homeless if they had the land, but I swear that’s what our guide said 😂).  Sometime in the 1740’s two travelers traded with the Indians to acquire the land: $150 in goods for 300,000 acres of land. Seems like a lopsided deal to me! Fast forward 250 years and all that remains today is 38 acres.

A few interesting tidbits from the tour:

• Back in the day they had some very fancy fly catchers that were placed on the dinner table. You would essentially put sugar water in the contraption which would attract the flies. However the flies were unable to retreat and they would essentially die a slow death at the dinner table. Talk about a nice view while eating your dinner!

• During the 1800’s ankles were sacred. Yes, ankles! Ladies had to tell men when they were walking up the stairs so that men could look away. If a man saw a lady’s ankles and they were both unmarried…well you were then soon to be married. We should all be thankful that this rule doesn’t exist today!!
• Mr. Kelly, the current owner of the house, bought Houmas House in 2003. Now, I never had the chance to meet Mr. Kelly, but I got the impression he was not your average guy. First, after doing massive renovations on the house after buying it, he hosted a grand opening ceremony, complete with a wedding on the lawn. This in itself wouldn’t be strange except for the fact that the wedding was between two dogs (Princess Grace and King Sam to be exact)!!! There is, to this day, a bookshelf commemorating the marriage within the house.

Second, it is tradition for each family who owns the house to have a mural of the family painted. Mr. Kelly decided to have a mural done of…yep, you guessed it…the dogs!! And finally (because this one really seems the most weird), Mr. Kelly literally lives at Houmas House! As in, he actually sleeps there at night. Even though the plantation is open seven days a week for 11 hours a day…my mind is blown.  Regardless, Mr. Kelly did seem on all accounts to be a very nice man. 

After touring the house, we took a stroll around the gardens which were just beautiful!

And quite interestingly, there were some turkeys just roaming about the gardens. Which of course Andy could not leave alone and had to provoke. Which then led to us being chased by turkeys throughout the gardens. Which led to me freaking out and Andy having the time of his life. Sigh.

Overall, we enjoyed our tour of Houmas House. Would we go back? Meh probably not, but it was nice to see such an important part of Louisiana history.

6. Louisiana Art & Science Museum: I love museums. I really do. But I am just not that into art and science. However, Andy is and since Andy was being such a trooper by coming with me to all my political places, we decided to make a stop at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum. Admittedly, we spent most of our time in the “science” part of the museum as opposed to the “art” part, but if you are a fan of science or art I would highly recommend this museum!

They have a planetarium with rotating shows. We watched “Dream Big: Engineering Our World.” I enjoyed the show, but it was a little too fluffy for Andy (he was hoping for more technical and less feel good). Outside the planetarium there is an omniglobe where you can see really interesting world-wide patterns (such as hurricane or migration paths) on the globe.

The museum also has a Solar System Gallery with several interactive machines about space. I liked the machine that told you how much you would weigh on each planet. Andy put on the weight when he went to Jupiter!! Hefty, hefty, hefty!!

Finally, we stopped in to the Ancient Egypt Gallery which (at the time we were there) had the only mummy on exhibit in the entire country!

7. River Path: Tired of all the museums we’ve highlighted? Never fear, Baton Rouge has a ton of outdoor activities too! Being that we were there in January, it was not really the time of year to do anything on the river, but it was still a great time to take a walk (or in our case a jog) along the river path. The river path is a 4-mile stretch of paved trail right along the water. It is wide enough for walkers, joggers and bikers! We took a mini run on a super foggy day so our pictures don’t do it justice (mostly they just look like something out of a haunted movie), but I would highly recommend taking a stroll if you find yourself in downtown Baton Rouge.

Baton Rouge Food: While we were in Baton Rouge, we ate at some GREAT places. Below are a few of our favorites!

1. Christina’s: We went here several times for breakfast and were not disappointed! It’s certainly not any kind of fancy fare, but it was fast, cheap and yummy which is really all Andy and I want in life.
2. Louie’s Cafe: Louie’s Cafe is certainly the most well known diner in Baton Rouge and a fan favorite for brunch. Andy and I went one morning to see what we were missing. While we did have really great food, I’m not sure it was worth the hype. There were crazy long lines so be prepared to wait for a while (or go early) if you chose to stop by.
3. Pit-n-Peel:Two of my parent’s best friends – Katie and Josh – live in Baton Rouge with their son, Marlowe. Andy and I were able to meet up with them for dinner while we were there and they took us to a local spot called Pit-N-Peel. It was SO DELICIOUS! However, for wimps like me and Andy, please note that it is pretty spicy so be prepared (ask for lots of water in advance!).
4. White Star Market: White Star Market is basically a fancy food court. We stopped by for dinner one night and there were so many options! Every where we turned there was another restaurant to try. There was a great vibe to the market as well. The place felt trendy and there was lots of large groups there just getting drinks or grabbing dinner.

Baton Rouge Race: Andddd I swear we actually did come to Baton Rouge for a half-marathon 🙂 Honestly, this was one of the better races that I have done. I really should not have been surprised as it turns out it is organized by the same group that did my half-marathon in Mississippi (which was incredibly well organized). 

Race Pros:

• Shirt: SUPER comfy shirt! I’m not a huge fan of the lime green color, but I still find myself wearing the shirt all the time because it is really great material.
• Race Route: Thank the lord, but this race was mostly flat! As someone who never trains, I really really appreciated the flatness of the route. Also, the route was generally pretty. We started and ended in downtown Baton Rouge with a part of the race being run through LSU’s campus and around some lakes.

  

  Running through the streets of Baton Rouge

• After-Party: Although I thought the after-party in Mississippi was better, this one was still very great. They had a ton of food and drink options (not that I was drinking because hello I’m way too out of shape to have a beer after running).
• Packet Pickup: On the Saturday before the race, they had a huge street party outside of where packet pickup was. It was pretty chilly so Andy and I didn’t stay for too long, but they had a ton of food options and live music. A nice plus for this race
• Free Pictures: My favorite perk ever!!!!! Free photos so you can see me in all my bundled up glory 🙂

Race Cons:

• Weather: WHYYYY is it always so darn cold at every race that I do!?! I swear I have a weather curse. It is really not supposed to be that cold in January in Baton Rouge and it was FREEZING.

Andy, Katie, Josh and Marlowe came to cheer me on around mile 11 which was a great motivator to stick it out (since you know I stay hitting that ten mile slump). In the end, I finished with a time of 2:18:18 (pace of 10:34) which I was pleased with, especially since I was running by myself!

New Orleans Activity: Andy and I flew in and out of New Orleans (after my Mississippi debacle, I don’t mess with connecting flights), so after the race we high-tailed it back to New Orleans to catch our flight. However, since our flight wasn’t until later in the evening, we decided to make a pit-stop at the National WWII Museum.

H.O.L.Y. S.M.O.K.E.S.

What a museum!! You honestly could spend a week in this museum and still not see everything. Our four hours was a mere drop in the bucket.

Given that we were only there a short period of time, Andy and I jumped around the museum quite a bit. Our first stop was the D-Day Exhibit. As embarrassing as this might be to admit, growing up all I remember being taught about D-Day is that it was the allied invasion of France that help change the tide of the war (yes, very specific I know). So clearly I learned a ton in this exhibit (which is probably more of a reflection on how little I actually knew about D-Day and less about how informative the exhibit was).

Things I didn’t know about D-Day (to highlight a few):

• D-Day was actually called Operation Overlord
• The Germans knew the invasion was coming, but they didn’t know where. The Allies tried to convince them that the attack was coming in one place (the most narrow/straight channel) when the attack was really coming at Normandy
• General Eisenhower was chosen to lead the Allied forces in the attack. The Allies chose June 5th as D-Day because of favorable tides. However, on June 4th there was terrible weather (a storm occurred) and Eisenhower had to decide whether to go forward or not. He postponed for one day, but then decided to go forward on June 6th
• The attack on Omaha Beach, which is often considered a success after the amount of land gained from the Germans in battle, was way more deadly than I realized. One out of every 19 soldiers either died or were wounded. Can you imagine??

General thought after this exhibit? Military strategy is WAY more intense than I ever imagined. I loved that the exhibit showed the behind the scenes on tactics, decisions and areas of conflict.

Next we stopped at the “Road to Tokyo” Exhibit. The exhibit looked at how we went from being attacked at Pearl Harbor to attacking Tokyo. Since Andy and I had just recently visited Pearl Harbor, it was very interesting to see the continuation of the story. Some quick thoughts:

• I didn’t realize how much America (and Allied forces) fought in the Pacific. There was a whole attack by the Marines on Guadalcanal (one of the Solomon islands) that I had NEVER heard of. This victory was apparently a turning point for our war in the Pacific and I had no clue.
• Obviously, I know about the atomic bombs that we dropped in Japan, but it was really heartbreaking to read about it and the number of lives that were lost in the attack. One day I would like to go to Japan and take a tour so I can learn about the impacts of the bombs from their perspective, not just the American version we were taught growing up.
• The set-up of the museum was amazing! They really went all out making you imagine what geographically the soldiers experienced during their fighting.

Our next exhibit was the “Road to Berlin” which went in depth on the American soldiers journey to defeat the Axis powers. Interesting items I learned in this exhibit:

• During Mussolini’s fascist regime, Italy actually had a fascist flag. I studied Italian in college and I didn’t even know the flag was different!
• The famous Iwo Jima statue/photo does not depict the first flag placed into the ground at Iwo Jimo. It actually captured American troops replacing a smaller flag with a bigger American flag.
• There was a really interesting map in the exhibit that showed visually the Axis control within Europe. The height of the German Empire was in August 1942.

Our final stop was the Kushner Restoration Pavilion which has many WWII artifacts and explains the background behind a lot of the inventions that came out of the war.

• German Sound Detector: Germans wanted a way to be able to have advanced notice of enemy air raids, so they went about creating a sound detector. Their inspiration? The human ear! They essentially studied the anatomy of the human ear and then used that to make a larger detector that could be used in the battlefield.
• While New Orleans may seems like a strange place for a WWII museum, there is some historical relevance. New Orleans was home to Higgins Industries which used their knowledge of creating boats to work in the shallow bayous of the city to create a landing craft that could land on shore without any established harbors.

To wrap up our trip in Louisiana, we experienced a very traditional event: FOOTBALL! Unbeknownst to us, the New Orleans Saints were playing the LA Rams in the NFC Championship. The entire city (this is not an exaggeration) was watching. As we arrived at the airport the fourth quarter was about to end and it was a close game (tied with 2 minutes left). I have never seen anything like it…the entire airport was basically on standby. Every single shop, store, worker, passenger, etc. was crowded around TVs trying to watch the outcome.

And in case you missed it…the outcome was not favorable to the Saints. Not only was it not favorable, but there was an incredibly controversial call by the officiating team that significantly impacted the Saints. The ENTIRE airport was livid. I know I wasn’t at the stadium, but honestly I felt like we were with the amount of yelling and groaning at the televisions! Although, the Saints did not prevail in that game, their experiences caused the NFL to completely review and revamp their process for that particular rule.

So if you made it all the way to the end of this post: CONGRATULATIONS! You have survived the longest post ever.

In summary: Baton Rouge is pretty legit and well worth your time if you are in the area.