What’s the most terrifying animal you can think of? A lion? A tiger? A bear?
No. It’s the geese found around the LSU lakes (oh my).Even with this cleverly diguised predator lurking close by, you should try to find time to visit the Baton Rouge Beach. The beach is a small expanse of sand between University Lake and Stanford Avenue.The whole area was redone nicely last year, and hanging out there provides a nice alternative to watching TV and movies in the afternoon. At this point in the summer, many of us are itching to find something different to do with our extra time and — as our parents told us when we were younger — it wouldn’t hurt us to go play outside. While students often run or bike around the lakes, the Baton Rouge Beach is less frequented. It’s a good place read a book in the shade, set up an impromptu game of volleyball or have a picnic. But if you’re going to bring food, watch out for those sneaky geese.Across the lake are three buildings most students have driven by many times on Lakeshore Drive, but have rarely visited.The Lod Cook Alumni Center houses the LSU Alumni Association and the LSU Foundation and a room dedicated to Lod Cook, an alum who contributed to the University and various charities. Cook has letters from the White House and pictures with at least five presidents and various celebrities. Not bad.Directly behind the Alumni Center, the Cook Hotel is used by traveling teams, parents of students and anyone else who may want to stay on campus. The suites are quite nice, and several famous alums own suites, including Shaquille O’Neal.Speaking of Shaq, have you seen his enormous shoes? You can find one in the Andonie Museum. Also, the museum has every piece of sports memoribilia you could ever want to see. Every sport is represented with pictures, jerseys, tickets and balls. Displays are dedicated to the ‘03 and ‘07 national championship seasons, and you can watch the same video they show visiting football recruits. It’s got highlights of every great moment from the past couple of seasons and gave me goosebumps as I remembered the intensity of the games.It also made me do some quick calculations: 86 days until football season.—-Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]