Visiting Baton Rouge |
 The tall building on the left is actually Louisiana’s capitol building. It’s definitely one of the more unique ones and it’s design was influenced by Nebraska’s capitol. At 450 feet, it is the tallest capitol building in the United States, and the tallest building in Baton Rouge. Above is the Governors Mansion in Baton Rouge on Christmas night. The governor at the time when I visited was Bobby Jindal, the first governor of Indian decent in America. |
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| The building to the left is the original capitol building of Baton Rouge, I was expecting it have the more traditional look as other capitals do throughout the states. I wasn’t expecting it to look like I castle, but it was actually once called Louisiana Castle! Before the civil war, New Orleans located in southeast Louisiana was the country’s 4th largest city, and many feared that New Orleans would have a monopoly of power over the state, so the capital was moved to Baton Rouge in 1847, at the time it had only a population of 2,000 people, the total population of my high school! |
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| Above are two pictures from Baton Rouge, an oak covered street on the left and a more upscale house located inside the city. Baton Rouge seems to be a relatively quiet city, especially when compared to its bigger brother New Orleans in the southeast. |
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| Only two more photos here from Baton Rouge, one of the main streets in the downtown part of the city on the left, and a bar with my name on it farther out in the city limits. Parts of Baton Rouge have plenty of locally owns businesses such as Zeeland Street Market, which is a great place to get some southern soul food. Outside the downtown areas, it seemed like Baton Rouge was mostly made up of chain restaurants. |
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| After the city of New Orleans, the next best think that Louisiana has to offer is its wilderness. I’ve been to the state a few times and have gotten up and close with alligators before, but don’t have any photos to share of that trip. Even though Louisiana is in the subtropics, most trees lose all their leaves and you get the nasty dead brown forest look. These photos above were taken in December, when going through the swamps wouldn’t be so interesting. Despite being in the center of Baton Rouge, all these guys here made the city their home! The bird on the upper left didn’t seem to mind hanging out in the winter. I made an honest attempt to look online and see what species he might be but I failed. The unique roots above were along the edge of a swamp and these guys definitely deserved to have their picture taken. These root formations are known as “knees” in Louisiana. |
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| I came across this big beaver on a very cold day by Louisiana standards. This guy was swimming around in the water when it was just above freezing temperatures! Beavers have quite a range when it comes to habitat. While this guy is able to swim during the winter time his cousins are hibernating through subzero temperatures in Canada. I suppose the one here does have to worry about being eaten by hungry alligators though. Below is a species of duck that I have never seen before and a large group of egrets on the lower right. |
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