Day 27 Sunday 14th September, Oak Alley Plantation, Mississippi River, Louisiana.

Today we visited Oak Alley Plantation which is approximately 1/3 of the way between New Orleans and Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River in the state of Louisiana.

The 1/4 mile of 300 year old oak tress which give Oak Alley its name

The day started with breakfast of almost whatever you wanted followed by a short walk off the boat and over the levee to the plantation gates. What a view once you get to the gates.  This boat has crew ready will and able to help anyone as some of the passengers are quite elderly.  Police were on hand to make sure everyone got across the highway (stopping all traffic while we crossed the road) and for those who couldn’t handle the ¼ mile walk, the boat has golf buggies and wheel chairs were available.

Under one of the magnificent oak trees'

A guided tour of the mansion gave us an insight into life both before and after the civil war and the subsequent fall and then restoration of the property. The last resident owner was Josephine Stewart, who incidentally lived there for the longest period.  She refurbished all the gardens giving them her own flavour and set up the trust to maintain the property as a “historical" monument to the times and area in which the house was built. The alley of oaks which gives the property its name pre dates the house by about 100 years and no-one is exactly sure who planted them.  All of the materials used to build the house were sourced on the 12,000 acre property.

Inside the "Big House" sitting room

One of the bedrooms

Part of the tour included a free “Mint Julip” each, Maritta had a taste of hers and decided not to go any further and after I finished hers I certainly didn’t need a second. I’m told it is made by crushing some mint leaves, filling the glass with crushed ice (about 500ml) and then topping up with your chosen spirit, in today’s case it is Bourbon but some use whiskey or whatever else suits you. Apparently this usually means about 3oz of spirit (75ml).

Maritta tries a Mint Julip

It is quite warm and very humid.  We returned to the boat for an excellent lunch, red wine (or anything else that takes your fancy) and then an afternoon nap before dinner.  unfortunately we missed cocktail hour again!

In front of Queen of the Mississippi near Oak Alley Plantation