After checking in to the Courtyard Baton Rouge Downtown, we dropped our bags and headed out to explore Baton Rouge. Our first stop was my favorite Irish pub, Happy’s. My friends and I frequented this place in college and grad school, especially on Tuesday nights for their Happy’s Running Club 5k.
After a drink at Happy’s it was time for dinner. I made a reservation at Tsunami, located on the rooftop of the Shaw Center.
We arrived about 10 minutes before our scheduled reservation and were immediately shown to our table. The restaurant consists of one long room adjacent to the rooftop deck so you have great views out over the river. The only place that doesn’t have a river view is the bar, which is located at the entrance by the elevators.
Since we were seated a few minutes before 6:00p, we were able to catch the tail end of happy hour and ordered some cocktails and a couple of sushi rolls to start.
The sushi was very good and we just kept ordering more rolls until we were absolutely stuffed.
After dinner, we headed out to the rooftop deck to watch the sunset over the river and downtown. You could even make out Tiger Stadium in the distance behind the Old State Capitol.
Full from dinner, we made our way back to the hotel along the levee and spent an hour at the hotel waiting for some of our friends to get into town.
Once they arrived we headed over to Bengal Tap Room for drinks before making the trip down to L’Auberge Casino to do some gambling.
Unfortunately for us, luck wasn’t on our side so we retired back to the hotel to get some rest.
The next morning we were up early and headed to the Starbucks in the lobby for coffee before heading out for brunch.
We met our New Orleans, Dallas, and Orlando based friends at The Gregory, located inside the Watermark Hotel for a bottomless mimosa brunch!
The brunch menu was small but everything on it looked good. I had the brunch burger which was very tasty and filling.
As some of our friends have small kids, we all headed back to the hotel to let them play before I headed out for a run. The weather looked fine when I started but, in true Baton Rouge fashion, a summer shower popped up about a mile into my run which caused me to retreat back to the hotel.
With my run foiled by the rain, it was time to get ready for the weekend’s main event, our friends’ wedding. The ceremony was at the Capitol Park museum and had a great view overlooking the Louisiana State Capitol.
It also featured one of the coolest wedding cakes I’ve ever seen, featuring a Yeti cooler holding a cake resembling boiled crawfish. After the wedding we did some bar hopping downtown with friends before turning in for the night.
Sunday we slept in as our flight wasn’t until late in the afternoon. Thankfully, the hotel granted us a 4:00p checkout and we headed out around noon to grab some lunch. With LSU Baseball hosting a NCAA Regional, we headed to Walk-On’s across from the stadium to watch the games and hang out with some fellow Tigers.
Mrs. ATX Jetsetter and I split a massive tray of catfish and then headed next door to get daiquiris.
Drinks in hand we strolled through campus where fans were tailgating for the baseball game and walked over past Tiger Stadium towards Mike the Tiger’s habitat.
Unfortunately for us, Mike was inside so we didn’t get a chance to see him on this trip. I did manage to get some good shots of the statue in front of the stadium though.
After walking through the quad we made our way over towards the Student Union and spent some time shopping in the LSU Bookstore.
At this point it was a little after 3:00p so we called an Uber back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head for the airport. While it was just a quick visit to Baton Rouge, it is always fun to go back to my alma mater and I’m looking forward to my next trip to Baton Rouge in September!
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