Seniors Enjoy the “Festival Capital of Louisiana”

 Lake Charles is where senior citizens will be given a warm Cajun greeting and feel welcome any time of the year. Lake Charles,  with a population of 75,000, is the fifth-largest city in Louisiana and is located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River between Lafayette and Beaumont.

Founded in 1861 in Calcasieu Parish, today it is a major industrial, cultural, and educational center in the southwest region of the state and home to McNeese State University. Lake Charles is where senior visitors will experience the very essence of Louisiana.

Due to all the lakes and waterways throughout the city, metropolitan Lake Charles is often referred to as the Lake Area. On March 7, 1861, Lake Charles was incorporated as the town of Charleston. Six years later, dissatisfaction over the name arose and Charleston was renamed and incorporated as the town of Lake Charles. In 1910, a fire, known as the “Great Fire of 1910″, devastated much of the city.

 Seniors Enjoy the Boardwalk, Mardi Gras and Zydeco

Senior visitors can take a stroll along the beautiful Lake Charles Boardwalk and enjoy some good cajun dishes at one of the fine restaurants. The Beckers would enjoy an evening with the local symphony orchestra that hosts concerts at the Rosa Hart Theatre.

There are five museums in town, one of which houses the largest display of Mardi Gras costumes in the world.

 Senior visitors are never bored in and around Lake Charles. They can enjoy a classic Mardi Gras, Contraband Days, the Louisiana Pirate Festival, Christmas at Historic City Hall, casino gambling, 75 annual festivals, the Creole and SWLA Boudin Trails, museums, galleries, great fishing and hunting, scenic parks, great shopping and nightlife unlike anywhere else in the country.

If you spend any amount of time in town, you are bound to hear Zydeco.  It is a musical genre evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native people of Louisiana.

Moi, j’adore Zydeco. At its core it is the sound of an accordion paired with the scrapping of a washboard and horns. Once you hear Zydeco, you won’t forget it.

Seniors Discover the Lake Charles Architectural Style

Tour the Charpentier Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places that covers more than 40 blocks of turn-of-the-century buildings of mixed styles with turrets, towers, gables, shingling, leaded glass and gingerbread accents on the porches and railings.

The Charpentier (French for “carpenter”) District stands in homage to the carpenter architects who freely designed as they built, creating a unique Lake Charles style. TripAdvisor suggests three scenic parks to top off their list and a walk over to the Gator Pond to see some live gators.

So set your GPS for Lake Charles and enjoy a great variety of fun things to see and do. -jeb