Hello from Baton Rouge, the capitol of the state of Louisiana. Baton Rouge is a little over an hour by car from New Orleans, the much more famous city in this boot-shaped state. I’m here for the national 60 clay courts which begins on Monday at the Bocage Racquet Club. The Tab Soda is still available here in the vending machine!

My doubles partner, Susan Wright, and I arrived yesterday in Baton Rouge, and today we practiced in the morning at the site of the tournament. The club is homey, though there are lots of clay courts and a smattering of hard courts. All white attire (other than shoes) is required here…it’s also a very traditional club. An Easter egg hunt was about to start when we arrived…there were lots of excited children, girls with dresses and big bows in their hair and boys in collared shirts and shorts, and parents taking photos.

After lunch, we decided to go downtown, to see the old and new state capitol buildings. The current state capitol building is the tallest state capitol in the USA at 450 feet. We could see it for miles and from the top should have a good view of the riverfront (it was closed, being a Saturday). There was a nice garden in front with boxwood hedges.

Then we drove to see the old state capitol, which is now a museum. It looks like a castle and a massive oak tree dominated the landscaping in front. On the opposite side of street was the Mississippi River. Baton Rouge is a big port and we saw lots of tankers and containers waiting for either a train or ship to transport them. There are also casinos on the river and a huge riverboat for Mississippi River cruises.

There were quite a few sculptures along the river front.