Philippa Road Trip: East Texas / Louisiana

DAYS ONE/TWO/THREE: Austin to 'The Big D' (Dallas Metro)

Daddy don't let your babies grow up to be cowgirls...

Two weeks ago, Tauni's good friend Philippa Grant from New Zealand (by way of China and Japan) came to visit us in good ole Central Texas (the ATX to be exact). A few days after her arrival, I had to go to Dallas for work, so the entire crew (5 strong) came along. This was the week that rain was pummeling Texas and we witnessed some amazing lightning on the 4-hour drive from Austin up to the Dallas. The next night after work, we headed west to Billy Bob's, the self-proclaimed "World's Largest Honky Tonk" (and it was HUGE) in the Fort Worth Stockyards. I felt like John Travolta in Urban Cowboy, minus any sense of personal cowboyness. I'm obviously not a "chew guy", but I did appreciate the impressive ads. Billy Bob's is a "family" establishment complete with live country music, two-step dancing, food, rollerball, an inside rodeo arena, bars, and slot machines (yep). Not exactly entirely "family", but definitely fun. I was amazed at how INSANELY country/cowboy it was. If that is your scene, this is your Great Mosque in Mecca. As for me, at least I could appreciate the BBQ (although not Texas's best). Here was our dinner of champions: Unfortunately, it was a rainy Tuesday night, so the place wasn't entirely hopping. But, I imagine on a nice summer Friday night, it is a cowboy/cowgirl paradise. Philippa was trying to rope herself a stallion... Meanwhile, Coen was more interested in sleeping. So, we wrapped our night in Fort Worth up and headed back across the monster metropolis that is Dallas back to NE Richardson.

After two days of work in Dallas, we left in the early evening off across East Texas, headed to Louisiana. The idea was to drive mostly at night while Coen was sleeping. We headed east through Tyler, stopped at Wendy's in Lufkin, and pushed on through numerous East Texas & West Louisiana towns until we finally pulled into a (rather sleazy) Motel 6 in Lake Charles LA around 2 AM.

DAY FOUR: To The Big Easy We Go

First thing in the morning, we were out of that Motel 6 hole and headed east across Louisiana. It was to be a day of plantation and small-town sight-seeing, mingled with intentional and unintentional crossings of the "Mighty Mississip'". It was honestly an amazing day of southern culture, old and new. One of the longer stops we made was at the Oak Alley Plantation. As you can see in the picture above, the entrance to this house was lined with some incredibly magnificient oak trees. Here is Coen enjoying himself under one of them:
The day was very wet and seemed to really fit the Louisiana 'mystique'. We drove through small back-country towns full of sugar cane and crawfish. In the early evening, we pulled into New Orleans and were amazed by the continued beauty of the French Quarter (minus Bourbon Street). We were able to find an awesome little boutique hotel in the more residential SE corner of the quarter. And this place only cost about $80 on a walk-in rate! Insane. We unpacked (after a lot of driving) and I insisted on a proper Cajun meal that evening, so we headed to Bourbon Street (trashy). Against her will, Kayla tried some fried gator and actually enjoyed it. We dined on crawfish, etoufee, gator, and jambalaya. Good eats in the Big Easy.

DAY FIVE: The Big Easy, Baton Rouge, off to Houston

We woke a bit late on Saturday morning and headed off for a New Orleans breakfast. After having a sampling the night before, I was dying for some more Cafe Du Monde beignets. But, as is typical, we ended up wandering around for a bit first. We walked first out to the Mississippi River, just south of the French Quarter.

We then wandered up a couple of other streets, through a little swap meet, past cafes and bands, and finally into a little outdoor cafe with a cool band itself.

After eating, we wandered around a bit more, packed it up and headed across town. We drove down St. Charles Avenue, an amazing old New Orleans neighborhood. Next, Philippa and Tauni got it in their heads that they wanted to see some of the Katrina damage, so we (cautiously) headed towards the Lakeway area, a formerly nice area. Well, as happens in New Orleans, within blocks we had wandered into a bad part of town. Naive New Zealander Philippa kept asking us how we knew we were in a bad neighborhood. Uh, yeah.

We hit the freeway and headed east on the 10 to see some of the East New Orleans damage from the freeway. It was easy to see boarded up houses, destroyed roofs, sprayed front doors, etc. Amazingly, there were still people wandering the streets in these condemned areas. It honestly looked like such a mess. Needless to say, I feel bad for that area.

We turned around and took the 10 back West towards Baton Rouge, where we took a quick diversion for me to see LSU and Coen to nurse. We parked around a lake by the university and quickly chatted up some local catfishermen who were out enjoying the (very humid) summer night.

Philippa and Kayla fed (and ran scared from) the ducks.

I chatted with this guy (below) nicknamed "Slim" (for obvious reasons). He told me all about catching carp and catfish. Then a local guy drove up and gave "Slim" a shark that the guy had caught in Lake Pontchartrain, just outside of New Orleans. Slim was freaked out by this small little shark, so I convinced to take it home and eat it (it's good eats). I had a great time hanging out with "Slim" and his friends. I've never felt so Southern. These guys were awesome.

And then I tried feeding Coen to the shark to spark his mother's worst fear.

After our fishing fun in Baton Rouge, we headed to Houston where we had "pricelined" the Hyatt Houston downtown for pretty cheap. We crashed the night there, perfectly poised to hit an Astros game at MinuteMaid Park the next day.

DAY SIX: Houston to home.

We woke in the morning and wanted to take Coen to the pool, but it was far too drizzly and a bit cold. Instead, we pack up, loaded the car, and drove the few blocks across downtown Houston to see an Astros game. This would be Coen's first Major League Baseball game and a proud dad was I. Yes, yes indeed. (It was no Angels game, mind you, but I've adopted the Astros for National League purposes. )

As you can see from the picture above, Coen really appreciated the significance of this event, even if he did proceed to pretty much eat, sleep, and sit on his mom and dad; basically, the same things he'd do anywhere else. Regardless, Dad was pumped and the Astros went on to miraculously romp the Rockies, 12-0.

In true McFerson fashion, we slipped down to the box-seats for the last inning and this time Coen truly was finally into it.

All in all, I think Coen really enjoyed his first of many (yes, mom, MANY) baseball games to come.

After the game, we went across town to Houston's Chinatown, ate some dinner and headed back to Austin. By the time we got home, I was beat tired. Dad did some serious driving. But, all in all, it was a great trip. Philippa's being here made for a great excuse for us to hit the road and finally see some of Texas & Louisiana.