The Shadetree and other St. Francisville Adventures

On our second trip to St. Francisville, we brought our children along. It was Spring break and our son had been working on a birding badge for cub scouts.
He'd done some of the activities in the area below my Grandmother's house where my sisters and I played as children while we were visiting there for Thanksgiving. He'd done more work  in a swampy area behind our own house in Northeast Lousiana and across the road near a bayou. Still, he lacked the necessary sightings of some birds. With the end of the school year badge ceremony bearing down on us we decided a visit to a bird sanctuary might just do the trick.
I remembered seeing a sign just outside St. Francisville called Audubon. And as anybody who knows anything at all  about birds and birding knows, a place that bears that name might surely be a bird haven. Besides, here was my chance to go back to St. Francisville and spend some time.
Initially, the plan was, the Hub and son would do the birding while the girls and I toured antebellum homes. As it turned out, our goals merged at Oakley House. Oakley stands just at the entrance of the Audubon Bird Sanctuary and is the place John James Audubon lived when he painted the first dozen or so of his Birds of America series.
He worked there as the tutor for the daughter of the master of Oakley. What time he was not about tutoring the daughter, whose name was Eliza, he was about his art.The rich subtropical climate of the area served as a birders paradise in Audubon's and in the early 90's when our little family visited. As I recalled, the son got everything he needed to complete his badgework and his sisters and Dad and I had fun helping him spot birds. We also had fun touring the grounds and house at Oakley and around St. Francisville.
We stayed again at the Shadetree, knowing the kids would love it's location right on the banks of the great river. It is built up the side of the sloping levee which makes it seem like a tree house.  Sky lights permitted star gazing at night from our room. The next morning, as we had our breakfast on the covered porch, a couple of golden retrievers came to visit from next door. They stayed to romp with the kids in the yard and stood beneath the tire swing yipping at them as they swung there.
It remains one of my favorite family trips and St. Francisville remains one of my favorite places.