Audubon State Historic Site

A few weeks ago my family and I took a trip to St. Francisville, Louisiana, where we went to the Audubon State Historic Site to see the re-enactment of the Battle of Bayou Sara.

St. Francisville itself is beautiful, and the Oakley House certainly fit right in.  For a plantation tour, the entrance fee was nominal because the Oakley House was given to the State of Louisiana and is now part of the Louisiana State Parks system, so if you're not quite sure if a plantation tour is for you, this is definitely a good one to start with.

The bathrooms were clean and well-lit, important for anyone traveling with little ones.  They are located on the outside, before you pay, which was also quite convenient.There is also a picnic area adjacent to the parking lot.

As soon as we walked into the air conditioned visitor's center, we were greeted by the friendly staff.  There are many historic items to look at in the visitor's center.  They even had period clothing for children to try on.  What I found most interesting and unusual was that for a large part of its history, the Oakley House was owned by women.  Makes for an empowering history lesson for young ladies. 

After we left the nice, cool visitor's center, we could either go on a trail to our right or go to the Oakley House to the left.  As the re-enactment was being held behind the house itself, we chose to go left; however, we have been before and found that the trail to the right had a nice, friendly volunteer standing by a pond, who showed our daughter some tadpoles and fish he had caught in the pond.  It was very memorable for my daughter as she recounted seeing the fish and told us all about it on the way to the house.

When we arrived at the Oakley House, a tour was going on, so the doors were closed.  However, this day was a special day, and a woman dressed in period clothing was on the second floor porch handing out cups of iced tea and fans.  There was a handout that went along with the fans that gave a very interesting lesson on how women used the fans to communicate with men in a time where women were expected to keep silent.

After a cup or two of sweet tea, we took our fans down to the battlefield.  I will warn you, when they shoot the cannon, it is loud.  Many of the children we saw were ready to leave after the first cannon.  But my little lady was engrossed by the horses that were part of the re-enactment, so we stayed until the end.

It really was an enjoyable experience, and we were able to explore all over the old plantation.
http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/iaudubon.aspx