A Day in Donaldsonville.

Donaldsonville sugarcane

It seems that the weather always sucks when I'm at the Denver International Airport. My layover there in late March of this year was no exception; there was a massive blizzard that shut down the entire airport, stranding thousands of travelers. I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a hotel room. I gave the tip about which hotel I’d scored a room at to a friendly-looking couple who were hitting the phones near the airport entrance. About an hour and a half later, I saw the same couple outside in the melee. We were in the same boat: we had a hotel room, but no way to get there. The "blue van" service the hotel clerk told us to take wasn’t running, the shuttles didn’t go that far, and the taxi companies’ telephone lines were clogged. “Come with me,” I said to the couple. “We’ll get somebody to let us into their taxi.” We pushed through the whirling snow to a distant lane of the terminal, where we saw a row of white SUVs we hadn’t noticed before. Kindu the driver spotted us and said we could get in with him, the family of 6 he was waiting for hadn’t showed. The going was slow on the roads, but Kindu was valiant, and three hours later we made it to the hotel—who told us the only room they had left, actually, was a two bedroom suite. After a three hour blizzard drive together, the couple from the airport and I had become fast friends. We shared the two bedroom suite for two more days until we could get a flights out from the beleaguered DIA, and it ended up being a really fun time despite all the inconvenience because we got along so well. The couple’s names are Jean and Eddie Brauwn, and they live outside of New Orleans.

So of course we had to visit those guys when we came to town on this tour. The Brauwns put us up swimmingly at their house outside of Donaldsonville, LA. Their Victorian home and jungle-like garden are wonderful.

Eddie took us out for Cajun food at The Cabin, where we had alligator, crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya.





Redwinged blackbird in the Cabin restroom

Huge gator carved from cypress log

Lane in Donaldsonville

Eddie also showed us the True Friends Hall, where many famous jazz musicians once performed. Sadly the historic building is now rotting away and no one is rescuing it.

Eddie is full of fascinating facts and tales. He told us these lilies are called “Naked Ladies” and taught us a new word, “lagniappe.”