re: Fall break get away - less than 3 hour drive?

Natchitoches, LA if you're traveling during the holiday season--the city puts up lights along the river, and there are charming B&Bs in historic buildings. You can eat meat pies to your heart's content. Slow pace--lots of history, the nearby Cane River National Heritage area, Melrose Plantation, and Los Adaes state historic site. If those kids are studying or recently studied LA history, they might enjoy it. On the way, you can make a short stop in Alexandria to see Kent House, a plantation with a reproduction 1840s sugar refinery. They'll actually be making sugar in it 11/11 this year. Pretty cool setup, with open pans, fire boxes beneath...long handled dippers used to move the concentrating sugar from one pan to the next as it thickens. LINK