This is one if the three islands located in Hodges Gardens State Park. It is the only island…read moreaccessible by car or foot. The island has a platform where several flagpoles are located surrounded by stone benches with a map on the ground in the center. Even though these structures are falling into disrepair with the map coming up off the ground and a few benches crumbling, it possess a certain charm with it's metal structural supports for the roof structure (above the benches) and breathtaking views. My favorite photo from our trip was taken here among the metal structural supports.

A bridge is a structure built to span a gorge, valley, road, railroad track, river, body of water,…read moreor any other physical obstacle known to man, in this case a Ship Channel. Designs of bridges will vary depending on the function of the bridge and the nature of the terrain where the bridge is to be constructed. Most bridges are utilitarian in appearance, but in some cases, the appearance of the bridge can have great importance. Often, this is the case with a large bridge that serves as an entrance to a city, or crosses over a main harbor entrance. These are sometimes are known as signature bridges but this is not the case with this bridge since the signature bridge in the area is on I-10 and is referred to as the Jean Lafitte Bridge. To create a beautiful image, some bridges are built much taller than necessary I'd say this rings true with this bridge rising some 140 feet above the surface of the water it was built to accommodate most tall ships of the day in 1962. Built as a by-pass route for I-10 it's referred to as the Lake Charles Loop or 210 Bypass which is a mere 12.4 miles long and this bridge spans more than 1.6 miles of the entire loop or roughly 13% of the total roadway. The construction of this bridge came with many stories from the old timers that worked on it, from a tale of two men who fell into the concrete during construction and the hard nosed foreman wouldn't allow time to look for them and they never were found, to another where a laborer being blown off the top of the bridge while carrying a sheet of plywood and ended up flying all the way to Holly Beach, Louisiana on the Gulf Coast which is more that 40 miles away, luckily he landed in the water right next to his brother-in-laws camp right off the beach and hitched a ride back to work before his bossman noticed he was missing, It's doubtful that any of these tales are true but made interesting conversation for us kids that grew up in that era. Regardless of what is true or just a myth this is a beautiful bridge and watching the sunset in the background is breathtaking. The view from the top is just as stunning and provides a bird's eye view of the chemical plants and oil refineries as well as downtown Lake Charles and the newest casinos. It also provides an alternative route for those that find crossing the aging Jean Lafitte bridge a little too daunting.

The Interstate 210 Bridge, located in Lake Charles, La, runs directly over the Calcasieu River…read more It's solid concrete, and has survived numerous Hurricanes and tropical storms. Interstate 210 does a loop around Lake Charles, and connects to Interstate 10 on both ends. I drove over this bridge and also had a great view of it from Prien Lake Park. One of the 2 major bridges in this city!!

Cane River Creole National Historical Park made for an interesting COVID-19 quarantine virtual…read moretour. Thanks to OnCell for sponsoring it. The virtual tour currently comprises of a simple, obscure link embedded in the word "app" on the webpage titled "Oakland Cell Phone Tour." The National Park Service (NPS) webmaster or whatever they are called these days needs to make this link more relevant and easier to find as they have done for other parks' main pages: https://www.nps.gov/cari/planyourvisit/oakland-cell-phone-tour.htm So it's a very simplistic "virtual tour." In actuality, it's a cell phone tour with a few photos of the buildings and landmarks that narrators describe as you would if you visited Cane River Creole NHP in the flesh with a map to guide you. Guided tours with an NPS staff member are also available when a pandemic hasn't plagued our great country. Their schedule is a bit lengthy to repost, so I suggest you call or visit their website ahead of time. The park encompasses two former plantations, Oakland and Magnolia, that are spread out near the Cane River in Louisiana. What was left behind pales in comparison to what the plantations must have looked like so long. The Creole people were extraordinarily clever at using their natural habitat to survive. Overall, I enjoyed learning about the history of this beautiful, live oak-lined area... especially "bousillage" (a mix of mud, Spanish moss, and/or animal hair used in architecture), the Pigeonniers, the Bottle Gardens, the Punkah fan, and the Overseer's house. TIPS - the Magnolia main house is still owned by the 7th generation of the LeCompte family and is not part of the park, thus, is off-limits to the public + the Oakland main house is guided tours only

Great time with good people! We took a private trip, and it was absolutely fantastic. The owner was…read moreso friendly, and our guide was fabulous! If you are thinking about going, DO IT!

Arrived after tour time, but was offered a personal tour instead of waiting for next tour time…read more Friendly staff. Great tour

We really enjoyed this tour. It was incredibly educational…read more The guides were very informative and personable. The education timely!

We enjoyed visiting the old buildings and reading the history of each. They had a live musician…read moreplaying cajun music and he was very pleasant and entertaining. The place is nicely kept.

We adored our time at the Acadian Village. However, we visited at night during their Noel Acadien…read moreAu Village Christmas event, not during regular hours when they offer their history tour. I fondly remember visiting as a child and having the wonderful opportunity to learn how the early Acadian settlers homesteaded in their quaint Acadian cottages. Everything from making soap with lard, to spinning linen from cotton. They even used indigo flowers to make blue dye. Our visit for Christmas, although absent of a history tour, included a beautiful stroll through an illuminated Acadian Village. There was a beautiful manger set up, as well as the village chapel decorated with thousands of lights. Definitely worth a very inexpensive entry fee to meander through the village and experience some holiday cheer. They also had an amusement park decorated in lights, but we didn't get a chance to check out any rides, as the lines were pretty long for most of them, and we arrived late. Our visit definitely put me in the holiday spirit though! I plan to come back after the holidays for a history tour. It's such a nice place rich in history and culture.

Great history and presentation. Very interesting facts. Good tour. Cute gift shop. Very…read moreknowledgeable guide.

Melrose Plantation. Came to visit my wife's family in the rural parts of Louisiana and she…read morerecommended we visit this place because she had never been and always wanted to go. I'm a bit into history now so this would have been a great history lesson for my book I'm writing so great at idea all around. What I was expecting to hear and see was your usual plantation stories of slaves and Masters, but what I got was much more inspirational. A plantation, founded and owned by FREE people of color. Marie CoinCoin (pronounced "Quan-Quan" I believe) was an African slave who ended up having a 19 year relationship (and 10 kids) with Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. After being pressured by the local church to end the relationship, he eventually purchased her freedom and CoinCoin began building Melrose, selling tobacco to increase the family fortune. The Métoyer family ended up becoming one of the first families in a community of free people of color. There's a lot more to the history, especially learning about the internationally famed illiterate and self taught Memory artist, Miss Clementine Hunter. The last tour stops at 4:15 and it's $10 for a guided tour or you can roam the gardens and see the outside houses for $5 I believe. The wife ended up finding out she was actually related to the Métoyer family so that was an added bonus to her family tree. Overall, it was definitely worth the visit.

Incredible experience honoring those who served our country in the military. Thank you for the…read moresacrifice you made on our behalf. Freedom isn't free. There were plaques for each war celebrating those who served. Also, there were displays of a helicopter, a jet, a tank, and a torpedo to name a few. Please head out there to see what you are missing. You won't be disappointed! I was extremely pleased!

I am a disabled Veteran who was an Army Paratrooper, My name is listed on these walls twice, and I…read moregrew up here.. so let that be known now as my review will contain some bias. While I served overseas my family and I helped have this Memorial and Honor sanctuary be built by donating what we could. This area of Southeast Texas started this project before it was nationally popular thing to be patriotic. They started building this place out of the respect of the community and the veterans that help this country everyday. Personally, I am honored to be listed among so many heroes. Personally, I am proud of the Veteran that lives on the site to protect it daily since some years back a bunch of local kids vandalized the place and tore up the grounds. Yes, they were caught and truly ridiculed by the community and they served their judicial sentence given; but the harm was done, and once again a Veteran stepped up to stand guard with honor over this local landmark. If you spend any amount of time out there you will learn many things and meet Veterans from many areas that travel here to see their friends and other tokens of memories gone by. If you spend enough time here, you will learn that the gentleman guarding the area served on a transport vessel... if you talk to him further you will learn that he manned the Anti-Aircraft gun on that vessel... and if you hold the conversation long enough he will show you a picture of that vessel he served on and point to the ACTUAL AA GUN from that vessel sitting right near the building and ceremony area. (how cool is that?) I have taken many pictures of this area, and this review is long over due, so please spend a moment to go here and respect the care and love that has been placed into building this area. It may seem tattered and weather beaten, but remember that the site has remained through many Hurricanes and floods, weather beaten winters and winds, and honestly.. as a Veteran... I would not want it any other way; spit shine and polish is saved for the parades, the weather distressed monuments attest to the true Veterans that make these places memorable and how they will never go away. God Bless ALL of our Veterans.. and God Bless the United States of America... "This We'll Defend"[U.S. Army Motto]

Meghan Schill gave us an excellent, very interesting and historically vibrant tour of the…read moreplantation. Thank you so very much, Meghan! We really enjoyed it!

Free, yes History, yes…read moreNot a lot to see but it's my first plantation to visit. We saw the Magnolia Plantation featured on a favorite show of ours and had to see for ourselves when headed back home to Texas. Simple place yet incredibly interesting. I'm fascinated with history and/or possibly haunted. Anyway wish we could have spent a wee bit more time. Here's our pics from our short and sweet visit. Stop by if you get a chance!!

IH-10 BRIDGE, SABINE RIVER CROSSING, ORANGE COUNTY, TEXAS - This bridge includes entrance and exit…read moreramps for tourist information centers on both sides of the river and the turn-arounds at both approaches for this mile long, 120-ft. wide bridge on IH 10. It seems both Louisiana and Texas have been playing tic for tac since the settlers first appeared here in the 1820's. The center of the river represents the official border between these two states and have been the focal point of disputes since the territory was first divided and conquered. There really nothing magnificent about this concrete structure besides being the largest bridge crossing the Sabine River which is 33rd longest river in the U.S. at 553 miles long. Most of the river crossings prior to this bridge was via ferries or wooden truss bridges.

It's a bridge! I didn't fall in the water. It's structurally sound. I think. Close enough anyway…read more 10/10 would bridge again.