I headed over to Baton Rouge in November, and I've been steadily checking out its offerings since then. While perhaps not the most exciting of cities, BR has some gems, both hidden and very visible. The manmade Lakes just to the northeast of the LSU campus are a nice feature that have running and bike paths along them, plus lots of ducks, geese, and cypress trees.
The weekly downtown Farmer's Market is a surprisingly good one; not sure why I was surprised, as it should be, since Louisiana is a great place to grow plants with its ridiculously long growing season.
There are levees everywhere, which I guess is necessary for a state with the combination of something like 600 feet of relief across the entire state and the Mighty Mississippi. Located by the levee is the Old State Capitol, which is a really gorgeous building both on the outside and the inside. It's probably my favorite sight downtown.
The LSU Botanical Garden has a nice set of walking trails, where you can see such beauties as trilliums, box turtles, water snakes, and even cottonmouths (not pictured).
I spend a lot of time in trucks and boats on and en route to the Atchafalaya River basin (Cajun country), where I work with a freshwater ecology research group to collect data on the state of water quality. More on that to come. Thus far, Baton Rouge is okay. We'll see what kind of weather craziness the summer brings and see how I feel after that.
