Houston to Baton Rouge and New Orleans

"Free" breakfast buffet at the hotel and we  hit the road for Louisiana. Not a whole lot to see between Houston and Baton Rouge. The number of swamps starts to increase steadily. Eventually interstate 10 just seems become an elevated freeway above the bayous for several tens of miles at a time. Saw a couple guys fishing in their boat just below the interstate which was....odd. We made a planned stop in Baton Rouge to visit LSU (mainly Tiger Stadium) and the state capitol building. First thing we noticed upon parking across from the stadium was the Tiger habitat for "Mike" the tiger. Mike was having a nap (cuz it was 500 degrees outside and 1000% humidity) but he had some quite impressive digs. Apparently, they have been having some problems with LSU fans trying to introduce their pets to Mike the tiger. I don't know how else to explain the sign in the photo. We tried walking a lap around the stadium but they have the south side under construction for an expansion so we didn't get too far. We did get to drive around most it and saw their National Award Winners, National Title, and NFL Hall of Fame inductee plaques. We also took advantage of the visit to desecrate their precious tiger. You see Will stomping the tiger in the Athletic Office headquarters...don't know where he gets it :-). The "Pistol" Pete Maravich Assembly Hall is directly across from Tiger Stadium as well. Next stop was a brief trip to the state capitol only a few miles away. Unfortunately,  they had just closed for the day so we couldn't go inside. It's an interesting building in that it looks nothing like the others we have visited.  It's also the tallest of all the capitol building including the US Capitol. The stairs are organized in order of statehood with the first set of stairs being 13 steps for the original 13 colonies. We didn't loiter around outside because,  again, it was 500 degrees. We hit the road again for the final 90 miles to New Orleans and arrived just after 7. Our hotel (Crowne Plaza French Quarter) is on the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. We got a tip on a diner from the bell hop, ate a quick dinner, and took a stroll down 5 blocks of Bourbon St. Highlight of the walk was a stop at New Orleans Legends of Music Park with statues of local music icons. We sat and had a beer, listened to a little music,  and walked a bit further before returning to the hotel.  Kids were none to pleased to hear the hotel pool had just closed. .. so we owe them a morning swim.