Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana: Farmer’s Market, Duck Commander, Duck & Dressing, NE LA Children’s Museum

Wow, our first full day in Louisiana was Tuesday. Now I mentioned that Monroe and West Monroe are just separated by the Ouachita River so we were back and forth over the river.

Our first stop was the West Monroe Farmer’s Market. (1700 N. 7th St. West Monroe, Louisiana). We decided we needed to hit up the Farmer’s Market first thing in the morning so all the good stuff wasn’t taken :).

In season right now was onions, green beans, egg plant, watermelons, squash, zucchini, corn on the cobb, tomatoes, peppers, and a few other things I’m forgetting to mention I’m sure.

From there we headed to Duck Commander (117 Kings Lane, West Monroe, LA). I can’t say that I’m a huge Duck Dynasty fan, in fact I knew nothing about the RV. My mom had to tell me. But how can you not go to Duck Commander if you’re in West Monroe… seriously people.  Tbug and even hubby are pretty big fans of it. Don’t worry, we got them stuff from there :).

Now I have to say, my mom bought me the new Miss Kay’s cookbook. When we were going through the line, I guess their system was down because they were having to handwrite everything and calculate with a 10-key (who is old enough to know what that is?). I’m not sure why but I got the one cookbook and they gave me Miss Kay’s first cookbook. That was pretty awesome.

After Duck Commander we decided to see what might be in Downtown Monroe. We found an address for another Farmer’s Market, but it turns out that is just on weekends during the summer. While we were there though, we took Abug’s picture with the Oauchita River in the background.

Driving around downtown we saw this cool building. In fact, most of the buildings were very cool. I could see cool restaurants and cakeries/bakeries and photography studios, and ballet studios, etc in them. Anyway I have no idea what this is, but this was one of the cool old buildings in downtown. Sadly their downtown looks like a lot of downtowns… run down.

Still in downtown Monroe, where Duck and Dressing is located.

Duck and Dressing is a store owned by Korie Robertson and daughter Rebecca Robertson. (411 Desiard St, Monroe, LA).

Just before we went into Duck and Dressing, we found the state of Louisiana sign. I really wanted to get Abug’s picture with the state sign as we entered, but there really wasn’t any way to do it, so I was ecstatic when I found this. Oh and I might have photobombed her picture ;).

What can I say about this store? It is Chic. I wish that I could buy and wear all the clothes in that store, I just don’t think I’m cool enough sadly. I did get a necklace from there, and how cool is this bag? This is the bag my necklace was put in to. Seriously, this store is chic!

Oh and you wanted to see the necklace? Your wish is my command :).

We talked to the girl running the store and asked if there was any really cool downtown areas to see in West Monroe. She told us how to get to downtown but said the buildings there weren’t as old as what they were in Monroe. It was interesting, but not really what I think of when I think of some towns like this. We did catch the gals painting the Coca-Cola sign which was pretty neat.

There was one really cool clothing store (don’t remember the name) we wound up at in West Monroe where I got a pair of patriotic sunglasses.

Then we found the Spice and Tea Exchange (229 Trenton St, West Monroe, LA). Here mom bought some kind of spice (don’t know what) and I got some Vanilla Powder. Yes, you read that correctly. When we were in Cozumel I stumbled across Vanilla Powder and wondered how you used it. The lady at the store here told us you can use it just like you use the liquid vanilla.

Here we asked the lady for a good recommendation for lunch, some place that was local, not a chain. She thought we needed it to be “kid friendly” and said there was no such place and suggested Chucky Cheese. Ok, the kid friendly I need is that my kid is allowed in… Maybe a high chair for her to sit in… So finally she recommended a place (in another post). After lunch we decided to head back over the river to Monroe.

So back across the Ouachita River we went. This time we wound up on a draw bridge…. oooo fancy!

Our destination was the Northeast Louisiana Children’s Museum (323 Walnut St. Monroe, LA). Because we were from out of town, we got to put a pin on the map and I have to say, our hometown wasn’t represented prior to us. Woohooo!

Abug absolutely LOVED this place. It was very hands on and there were lots of different things to experience for the kids. There was also an area for children 3 and under especially designated for their learning.

This was the inside of a mouth if you can’t tell. There was an ambulance you could crawl all over. In the 3 and under children’s portion there was an electronic drawing, buttons to push, balls of all shapes and sizes to play with, mirrors, etc.

There was a tornado simulator, a hurricane simulator, a ball that floated on air (really cool!).

Then there was a science area that was also focused around being a doctor. There was an area to “learn” to wash your hands although there was no running water, large games to play.

Then there was this. Abug was totally infatuated with this. There was a straight and a hilly area that you dropped the ball on and it went into a basket. At one point she wanted to try this and a little boy would not share with Abug. In fact, the little boy took both balls away from her, very rudely. No parent got on to him, I finally had it so I told him that she was entitled to play with that too and he needed to share. Gosh….

Then there was a firehouse pole, but we didn’t go down it. She’s not old enough to go by herself and I wasn’t sure I could hold myself little lone both of us to go down it. I didn’t want us hurt!

And even a jail. I so wish we had some place like this at home! I did find out there’s one about an hour from home but this place was awesome.

While we were there mom talked to one of the ladies who worked there. We were on the hunt for hubby and Jared Crawfish and/or Shrimp. She told us where to go for that so we went there to check it out and make sure they would have some for the last day we were there.  Then we headed back to the hotel for Abug to take a nap and me to write a blog post for my SCUBA blog.

After I had blog posts written, Abug woke up from her nap and we went and played in the pool until dinner and had a ball!