We were ready and waiting for the bus that was picking us up at 9 am this morning to go on our Plantation Tour.
Our tour group was a small one so that was nice.
It was about an hour on the bus before we got to our first stop
Laura Plantation.
The giant trees here are just stunning.
This fellow was our tour guide - he was very knowledgeable and I thought he did a great job.
My Honey & I
We walked up on to the deck and the first thing we noticed was this kitty.
Again, I love the light fixture and I love the shutters on the doors too.
Of course My Honey made friends with the kitty.
The kitty was quite happy about that.
I like how they had these figurines in period dress - kind of helped to imagine what things would have been like back then.
This is the family that lived in the home.
They weren't a very happy lot.
Many of them died young and the others grew resentful.
For a plantation, the furnishings weren't all that grand.
I do like how they painted kind of a fern design into the door.
I like the beams on the ceiling as well.
There were lots of pictures of the people who actually lived here which I liked.
I think this is the sitting room of one of the ladies of the house.
More former residents.
and more botanical painting on the door.
I recognized this prayer bench, my grandma has one.
I thought this crib/cradle was just gorgeous.
This was another piece of furniture that I like - I think more so because of the color.
This was a nursery/childs room - I like how they weren't afraid to use color.
Even more residents - I just love looking at old photographs and trying to imagine what the person may have been like.
When we arrived at the plantation more folks joined us for the tour so we ended up being quite a big group.
This fellow was the original owner of the plantation...
and this was his wife.
I think she is a beauty.
The guide explained to us how the house was built.
A group of men went out in the woods, cut down all the lumber, cut out all the pieces, numbered them all (that is what you can see in this photo), then brought them all back and put them together like a jigsaw puzzle.
It's likely far better craftsmanship than what the norm has become today.
This is the back "yard".
I think the things they were able to build are amazing, like this cart.
and these canoes (I want one).
This is a view of the back of the house.
These are the kitchen buildings.
The kitchen were built separately from the homes because of the fire hazards they presented.
Hard to believe how much food they pumped out of these what with feeding the family of the plantation and all the slave as well.
A garden - they grew most of their own food back then as well.
Not sure what kind of fruit this is - maybe grapefruit?
I like the wooden trellis.
This pathway led to the slaves quarters.
We had to take a picture with the banana leaves.
I think it's funny how the bananas grow pointing up.
This was another building the family lived in on the property.
The property was very beautiful.
This was hard to notice at first.....
See him now?
As I am certain occurred on many plantations, the owner also fathered many slave children.
The slave registry.
Our guide told us that many slaves stayed on at plantations even after they were freed because they didn't want to leave their families and they didn't really have any where else to go.
The last ones only left this particular plantation in 1977.
That kind of blew my mind, I had no idea.
This was a slaves quarters.
The guide didn't mention anything about the bell but I am sure it had a purpose.
It looks old and I just liked it.
Another slaves quarters.
This one we were able to go inside and look at more closely.
You can see it actually has two doors and that is because it was for two families.
Each family would have just stayed in one room (not a very big room) but they had very large families.
I can't imagine how that must have been.
They slept outdoors often just because the heat would have been too much inside.
Just a little bench on the porch - wonder if they ever had time to just sit there?
The windows had no glass and old scraps for curtains.
Not much protection from inclement weather or insects.
This is inside one of the quarters.
Not much room for a family to eat, sleep and live that is for sure.
Heading back to the gift shop then the bus.
I grabbed this picture quickly before we left.
We had a few minutes before the bus was leaving so I made my lox bagel and gobbled it down.
I bought it at the hotel this morning before we left and would have eaten it sooner except they gave it to me deconstructed.
I bought it at the hotel this morning before we left and would have eaten it sooner except they gave it to me deconstructed.
I didn't want to open it on the bus because I thought the smell might bother some of the others.
I ended up having to eat part of it on the bus anyway but nobody seemed to mind.
Thank goodness, I was hungry.
Next stop on the tour was Oak Alley Plantation
My Honey took this picture and I honestly don't remember seeing this statue at all.
So I am not sure which location it was at but doesn't matter - I just liked it.
The trees at Oak Alley were amazing.
We took so many pictures of them trying to capture their grandness and beauty but that is impossible to do.
The branches seemed to be resting on the ground - maybe because they were so big and heavy?
My Honey just taking it all in.
My Honey posing for me with all those gorgeous trees.
Moi!
You can see the house itself off in the distance there in this picture.
The grounds were in pristine condition.
It had these window/doors all the way around the whole place.
There was even a Southern Belle at the front door to welcome us.
We waited there at the front for a few other groups to join us
Then we got started on the tour.
It was very specifically timed, they didn't let you linger and take pictures, they pushed you to stay with your group which I didn't really like.
It was hard to take pictures without someone being in your way.
The original owner/builder of the house.
and his wife that he had the place built for.
She liked to entertain so it was built with that in mind.
I love the entrance hallway and the stairs.
This thing hanging over the table is called a "ShooFly".
I thought that was such a cool piece of information.
It was hooked to a rope that someone (a slave) would pull so it would sweep back and forth across the table to keep the flies away (and probably for the breeze too).
Flies were a huge problem because of the big window/doors that would have been wide open and there was no such thing as screen doors back then.
An example of what a place setting might have looked like.
People were smaller back then but these utensils are huge.
I guess it was a way of showing off their wealth.
You can see the rope dangling in the corner where some unfortunate slave would have had to just stand and pull up and down all night.
This was the nursery.
Everything was roped off so you couldn't get up close, you could only peak in.
This is the master bedroom.
The guide told us that when guests came to stay, they would find a pineapple in their room as a welcome.
If they overstayed their welcome, they would eventually find another pineapple and the second pineapple was a message that it was time to go home now (you could take the pineapple with you when you went though)
Another gorgeous cradle - just look at all that detail.
This is our guide telling us the story about this house.
The original owner ended up passing away and his wife had no business sense and ran the place into bankruptcy.
A couple bought the home after them and paid around 30 thousand for it.
What a steal!!!
Then they put around another 30 thousand into it to restore it and they lived there happily for many years.
They shared the master bedroom until the husband passed away at which time the wife moved to this lavender room as she couldn't bear to be in the master room without her husband.
This is the lavender room she moved to.
She lived there another 26 years without her husband before passing away at which time the plantation was opened up for the public to visit as she wanted.
The lavender room remains how she would have left it but the rest of the home has since been restored to look as it might have back when the original owners lived there.
Not sure if this is her but I like to believe that it is.
The piece de resistance about this place is this fabulous view.
You open the doors onto the second floor gallery and the breath is almost knocked out of you.
These trees are just stunning.
I was imagining a nice big porch swing out here and an ice cold glass of lemonade.
I could pass by many an hour here quite happily just lounging and taking in the view.
My Honey is thinking the same thing I am sure.
Here I am loving every minute of it.
Just had to squeeze a selfie in to before they made us leave.
This was a view from the side balcony, the kitchen used to be there until it burned down (twice).
Now the kitchen is build inside the home.
Met another Southern Belle as I was leaving so asked if I could have her picture and she happily obliged.
I commented that she must be hot but she said it was actually quite breezy under the skirt.
We left the house and headed down to the slaves quarters.
These are some things we saw along the way.
House Slave Quarters differed from Field Slave Quarters.
The inside of the house slave quarters.
From another point of view.
Pognon
The laundry kettle.
Lye Barrel
I am not sure what this was for?
There are those rag curtains.
There were two rows of quarters still standing there.
Water Well
Water Well.
I think in most cases, you were luckier if you DID NOT see the doctor.
They usually resorted to amputation.
Some of the afflictions of the time.
The inside of another slaves quarter.
I think this is where the slaves cooked for themselves.
Even the slaves quarters had these beautiful trees all around them.
My Honey likes his flower pictures (I admit it, I like them too).
Not sure what the purpose of this would have been?
Then of course to get back to the bus you have to make your way through the gift shop.
I bought my usual magnet and Christmas tree ornament.
Then we were off and heading back to the city.
We saw some other plantations along the way.
Love, love, love those gigantic porches/galleries.
Oh yeah, I got this at the gift shop too.
Pecan turtle.
We gobbled it up in the bus and it was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!
Something else My Honey noticed that I did not.
When we got back to the city, we decided to go check out the River Walk.
It ended up being just a mall with a bunch of stores that I can go to any time so we just walked along the outside of it by the water.
These jesters are all over the place around here.
We watched the boats on the river for a bit.
Then we decided to take the trolley in a different direction down towards the French Market.
It was My Honey's lucky day, he found this blowing on the tracks.
The trolley stopped right on it so we had to wait until it left to get it.
He thought he would save it for something special and ended up giving it to a homeless fellow a little later.
We went back to the Crepe place again and this time I had the Elvis.
It had peanut butter, bananas and nutella.
It was too rich, it needed some crunch or something.
My honey went to this place.
and got these.
It was little croustinis with greens and deep fried oysters, some kind of sauce too.
They were yummy.
I liked that it wasn't too crowded but that was because they were getting ready to close up.
Since we were near by, we decided to walk over and check out the local hang out, Frenchman Street.
There are even beads on the hydrants!
Right away we stumbled upon a place we'd seen when doing some research,
Dat Dog.
They aren't afraid of color in here.
My Honey isn't that into hot dogs or sausage but because they are house made he decided to give it a go.
We had the Hot Sausage (really good)
and the Crawfish Etouffe fries (also really good).
I don't get this bathroom sign?
Is if for superheros and people with afros?
Even the bikes here are colorful!
So much colorful artwork every where.
Sticking with the jester theme.
and Blackmouth.
Crazy killer dog?
A cute little place.
Punch buggy silver!
Just a guy walking down the street with a tuba, no big whoop.
Yup - so true!
My first time seeing this, not sure why we didn't go in?
Ha ha ha - love it!
Love how they really get into the spirit of things for Halloween around here too.
This place especially.
Something else My Honey noticed that I am now seeing for the first time.
Is being haunted a selling feature for real estate here?
(We found out on a later tour we took that yes it absolutely is).
Wow - they are really intent on keeping intruders out.
I have never seen anything like this before.
I guess that is one use for broken bottles.
This is the kind of buildings I was expecting to see here in New Orleans.
Another darling little place.
Another shot of the spouts I love so much, this one is in better shape.
We decided on Acme Oyster House for supper.
We had grilled oysters (they were on the overdone side but still good).
My Honey had a po boy with oysters and crawfish.
I had Oyster Rockefeller Soup and half an oyster po boy.
The soup was just ok, the flavors weren't doing it for me.
Dessert was pecan cobbler.
It was kind of like pecan pie filling with ice cream on top.
It was super good.
My Honey tried their version of bread pudding with whiskey sauce.
He said it was good but could have used more sauce.
I skipped it because it had raisins and I am not a fan.
We went to the casino for a bit after supper to try our luck.
I ended up putting in 20 and taking out 50 which was pretty good.
I was happy that I was able to share with My Honey even though it wasn't a huge amount.
After that we headed back to the hotel room.
I still did pretty good with my fitbit stats considering we spent a fair amount of time on a bus today.
I checked out Facebook while I was chillaxing in the the hotel room and more memories popped up.
My Honey and I arriving in London, 3 years ago today.
Look how happy I am.
Right away I saw a double decker bus (never did get on one and go for a ride, aside from the hop on hop off tour)
Another iconic London sight, phone booths.
Ha Ha, look how tall My Honey is next to that car. He would have to fold himself in half to fit in there.
The little alley ways everywhere you looked were so charming.
We took the train from Heathrow to Paddington Station.
Our first taste of London was a pasty in Paddington Station.
It was delightful.
And of course when in Paddington Station, you must get a picture with the local celebrity.
We went to a pub and had - what else - fish and chips.
Also tried scotch eggs and a sausage roll.
We also tried out the subway (or tube as they call it here) right away and I couldn't get over how clean it was.
And that is a wrap for today.
Until next time, be happy!
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