Lucie Monk Carter

Dec 30, 2024 | countryroadsmagazine.com | Lucie Monk Carter

Probably the hardest part of hbeing an adult who can now happily eat vegetables—if not always as many as you should—is having kids to whom you have to pretend you’ve always revered rutabaga and basked in the beauty of brussels sprouts. When hypocrisy doesn’t motivate, and I run out of gold stars, and my fridge is bare of ice cream, I may just follow family medicine doctor and Plantry Café owner Katie Crifasi’s example and cut down a tree.

Dec 1, 2024 | 64parishes.org | Lucie Monk Carter |Alexandra Kennon Shahin

In 2005, a few weeks into junior year, eighty new students enrolled at my high school, a splash in our campus community of less than five hundred. But by the end of September, they were gone and so was I. Hurricane Rita tore into my hometown, Lake Charles, and stripped us of status as a safe haven. When our school reopened a month later, maybe one kid remained from our initial Katrina influx.

Nov 21, 2024 | countryroadsmagazine.com | Lucie Monk Carter

Memorable characters have haunted the sprawling restaurant under the overpass that Baton Rougeans will know by different names. When it came time for the property’s latest tenants to choose a mascot around which to center a revitalization, I can’t be too offended that this creative writing major scratching out bad poetry while scarfing down beer and cheese fries with her collegiate friends at Chelsea’s Cafe lost out to an aviating colonel with a penchant for doberman pinschers.

Sep 1, 2024 | 64parishes.org | Lucie Monk Carter |Alexandra Kennon Shahin

A plastic sculpture of seagrass tendrils hangs from the ceiling of Houma’s new marine education center. Laced through the tendrils are little bulbs, which reflect onto the surface of the kidney-bean-shaped water feature below. It’s a stunning view just to your right as you step into the lobby of Blue Works, the new campus of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). But while elegantly designed by architects and artists, neither the water or grass are simply for show.

Apr 24, 2024 | countryroadsmagazine.com | Lucie Monk Carter

In Baton Rouge’s past quarter-century, we’ve seen five governors, four mayors; hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes sending hordes of people into and out of the city; and perhaps most consequentially for Jim Urdiales and his restaurant Mestizo, a greater affinity from local diners for all things “Local”. Now is that local or lo-cal? At Mestizo, it can be both.