I did a little research to find anything worth seeing while I was there. I found the official tourist website wasn't much help for somebody just wanting to take a day trip there. It was mostly hotels and what not. I went to Yelp.com to see if anybody had any suggestions, and I found a lot of people raving about this little hole-in-the wall restaurant called The Kitchen. I added that to my short list of things to see. The only other things I had down was the lake itself, and a Veteran Memorial. It wasn't much, but I was just excited to see if there was any difference in culture or style in this state that's so close to Texas (where I live). I really feel like there was!
The first thing that was pretty cool when driving into Lake Charles was the big bridge that went over the lake. It almost looked like a roller coaster when I was driving up to it!
So that was a cool welcome to the town! Right on the other side is the lake itself. Nothing to shout about, especially because the weather was so thick and humid...it hardly made lounging or even STANDING on the beach, seem enticing. I only stood there long enough to get some footage and then ran back to the car. I was really excited about The Kitchen anyways! The GPS has a tough time finding where I thought the memorial was, but I ended up finding it just driving along the other side of the lake! It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, online it was depicted as some sort of structure/sculpture. Perhaps that was there somewhere, but I enjoyed the nice memorial I found. It was a tank, a huge flag, a helicopter, and bricks with soldiers names on them. Here's a cell phone picture I took:
The town was much cuter town then expected! The streets were lined with old stops and cafes, it was really charming! The houses were older, and more colorful then I've seen most other places! I wanted one! If the rain wasn't coming down so hard, I would've spent more time driving around, or I would've stepped out and walked around a bit. There were cool buildings and churches on almost every corner it seemed! Then there was the moment I was waiting for...The Kitchen!
The Kitchen is this little brown building in the middle of an old neighborhood. You will see it in my video. The front door is hard to open, and you walk in thinking "...this is highly recommended? REALLY?" The floors are a bit uneven, and there just isn't much to it. Looks are deceiving!
It's a straight up small town, cafeteria style (almost) place to eat. There are certain foods you can order on certain days, and it's served on paper plates. The man who ran the counter was incredibly kind and a little thrown off by a stranger coming through the door! It seemed like all of the people eating there, came there regularly for years. Once I discovered the food was absolutely delicious, I just devoured it and enjoyed listening to some Southern gossip.
Everything on that plate was absolutely to die for, minus the green beans. I love green beans, but they were too spicy for me. I would recommend The Kitchen to anybody who wanted to get their eat on. It was definitely the highlight of my short visit. http://www.eatatthekitchen.com/
After I found a hard to find gas station, I drove around a little bit more just to enjoy the atmosphere. It was such a cute town. The rain was getting awful so I finally headed home, with a brown paper bag full of delicious leftovers, and a camera full of the footage below!
Grand total of the trip: Gas $50 + Dinner $14 = $64
