Baton Rouge
December 25, 2025
We spent a quiet holiday anchored next to the Queen Casino in red sticks. You might know the city better by its French name, Baton Rouge. It’s the capital of Louisiana, home of LSU, and the nation’s tallest Capitol building. It’s 490 feet high and wouldn’t be totally out of place amid the skyscrapers off New York.
I’d say it is long rather than tall in honor of governor and senator Huey Long. If you have not read T. Harry Williams hagiography, you’ve missed a real insight into the life of this populist for the common man. He rivaled FDR until Long was assassinated when he was in his early 40s. He was also instrumental in the elevation of LSU to major football and academic excellence. One that owes a fired football coach $54 million.
The university was once near our anchorage but is now elsewhere. We were bussed to the LSU Rural Life Museum for a Christmas dinner of Jambalaya gumbo and Cajun music. Columns from the original library share space with villages moved to the museum grounds.
A city of roughly 250,000(our driver from a small town nearby called it a big city), but game day fills a 102,000-seat stadium. Someone on the bus yelled, “Roll Tide.” I think they’re still looking for him.