I love fireworks, but this year, 2020, proved different. With the Covid-19 mandate to avoid large crowds, most destinations canceled their annual event. I needed something to make the fourth seem like a holiday. Then, a photo of this Flag Ice Cream Cake caught my eye, and I made a plan.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the last destination I visited before the coronavirus lockdown. I went for a travel conference, and honestly wasn’t expecting too much from the city. But I was wrong. The revitalized and clean downtown really impressed me. I found fantastic interactive museums, an old and new capitol building, and a lively spirit that flowed through the city, likely due to hometown Louisiana State University’s (LSU) football team winning the National Championship.
As a child, I never encountered okra unless disguised or unknowingly snuck into something like canned soup. I was simply unaware of its existence. I grew up in the 1950s, and my mother served us basic meat and potato meals, plus the popular Campbell’s soups: chicken noodle when sick, tomato soup when eating a grilled cheese sandwich and vegetable soup during the winter. Mom admittedly was not the best cook, and her repertoire of fresh vegetables consisted of iceberg lettuce, celery, carrots and potatoes, corn on the cob, and tomatoes added in the summer. Frozen vegetables that supplemented our diet became peas, corn, mixed vegetables, succotash, and the unpopular, lima beans.
