Travel Media Showcase & Lake Charles, LA

Travel Media Showcase is an annual industry event focusing on the USA domestic market, pairing representatives from mostly small to medium sized regions with a variety of journalists. Travel shows for the industry such as this one are a great way for journalists to make personal contact with destinations and brands – learn about some of the latest activities and attractions in each region and help coordinate future visits. This show was TMS’s 15th year and was held at the L’Auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Visits are limited to 15 minutes – “speed dating” if you will. A number of my 15 minute visits were to Texas destinations – a huge and varied state, that perhaps comparatively does not see as many visitors from the West Coast as from other parts of the country. And it is certainly a state I haven’t yet spent enough time exploring. There is plenty to choose from including Cowboy culture festivals, rodeos, a thriving food and micro-brew scene, huge ranches, Route 66 history and local music.

Other highlights that personally appeal to me are the Apostle Islands in upstate Wisconsin on the edge of Lake Superior, the Lake of the Woods – partially in Minnesota, various Niagara Falls related adventures and at some point a revisit to New Orleans and Lafayette where one cannot go wrong with the Cajun food and music!

We always enjoy visiting Louisiana for the genuine hospitality of the people who live here, the seafood paired with the Cajun style cooking, bread pudding and the variety of tasty alcoholic drinks that one invariably enjoys when visiting this part of the United States (oh, and drive through daiquiris) which coming from California just doesn’t seem to make sense (but I’m not complaining).

Part of a Travel Media Showcase includes a variety of introduction trips to the area. The Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge Visitor’s Center is a 9,500+ acre preserve that is located in the middle of two major flyways. The visitor center highlights local species, the wetlands and of course highlights some of the avian life that passes through this region. Nearby Pintail Wildlife Drive has both a 3 mile long gravel drive through wetlands where you will see a huge variety of bird life as well as plenty of alligators resting either in the water or on the sides of the banks right next to the road. A hiking trail is also located here.

And since one is so close to the Gulf, a visit to this marine breadbasket of the south, was in order. We motored down to Rutherford Beach, a part of the gulf that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Green fields of farming, wetlands and natural vegetation stretch in all directions – dotted by the occasional home lifted above the ground on wooden posts (higher than the flood zones during storms and high waters). Rather than the fine white sand beaches you find in say Gulf Shores, Alabama or Panama City Beach, Florida as examples, this beach is mostly brown sand and is full of pretty little shells.

Crayfish season has unfortunately ended, we passed a few crayfish shacks looking like they had seen better days so rather we feasted on freshly cooked spicy shrimps washed down with a special “local drink”, Rum Slushies later in the evening!