Louisiana calling

     I recently visited two beautiful and interesting locales in Louisiana.  I visited them both in the 1990s, and they deserved a repeat visit.

     The first, Longue Vue Gardens, is in New Orleans.  The house and gardens were developed from 1924 to the 1930s.  It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005.

     The second is the Atchafalaya Swamp, about a hundred miles west of New Orleans.  Two levees were built alongside it in the 1930s to prevent flooding following a devastating flood in 1927.  It is 2200 square miles in size, and it is primarily populated with bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum).  Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneiodes), an epiphyte, commonly grows on the trees, and it was harvested by the Cajun people (French people originally from Nova Scotia in the 1760s) for use as car seat stuffing, diapers, and many other uses.