Biedenharn Museum and Gardens in Monroe, LA

We did a fun day trip from Poverty Point SP to Monroe,  to visit the Beidenharn Museum and Gardens and Landry Vineyards.

   In 1894,Joe Biedenharn was credited with finding a way to bottle Coca Cola and part of the museum is dedicated to how he discovered the process and houses antiques from the early Coca Cola period. A separate building is the Biedenharn home, which we toured, and lovely gardens.

evolution of the Coke bottle

we even had a 5 cent Coke.....and the tour guide gave us the nickel!

Lots of beautiful camilias and tulips in the gardens!

a goldfish bush

 We then drove over to West Monroe to visit Landry Vineyards and what a treat that turned out to be!  They were getting ready for a concert!  We bought a bottle of wine to drink and enjoyed a few hours of sun, music, and jambalaya....it was awesome!  OK, we bought a few bottles to take with us also;)

What a great afternoon!!

Poverty Point State Park, LA

Located in northern LA, Poverty Point SP is a lovely place with spacious, full hook up RV sites and a nice sized man-made lake.  It is near Hwy 17, but not too noisy.  There are warnings to be on the lookout for black bear but we have been told it is not likely we will see one.

A historic site, Poverty Point houses 5 of the "Marsden Mounds".  Earthen community mounds that contain archaeologic remnants from thousands of year ago!  Pretty old for this part of the world! Not much to see, unfortunately, but just being here and knowing is pretty cool.

The small hill behind the sign is part of one of the mounds, something most of us would easily miss!

A nice park like setting at our end of the lake:

Louisiana is the Pelican State so it was nice to see some!

a cormorant and turtles share a tree stump in the sunshine

close up of pelicans, cormorants and turtles sharing the log

hadn't seen a red tail in a while

Canadian Geese in the swampy part of the lake

Yay, another swallowtail!

Fishing for crappie in the evening

Wrapping up Baton Rouge...for now

We left Baton Rouge this morning in the rain....hmmmm.  It was awesome to reconnect with some relatives of mine that I have not seen in 45+ years!  Crazy!

In between visits we did get a bit more sightseeing in:

The "new" state capitol is very nice and the tallest in the country......

But I thought the old state capitol building was prettier on the outside.....

 And the inside:

 We walked along the levy next to the Mississippi River and here is a view of the Belle Casino and the I10 bridge crossing the river.

We went on a swamp tour and did not see much;) but had a great time and at least saw a gator and barred owl.  Paw Paw, our tour guide made the tour fun.  He is very Cajun;)

 We toured under the I10 and, even though the water is high, you can see where it has been much higher in past years.

Paw Paw

 Here is our only gator sighting....

My best barred owl pic....so far;)

Spring in the swamp

After the swamp tour and lunch we headed over to Bayou Tesh for a brew:

Mike, cousin Donna and Keyna