Oak Alley

Today, the Delta Queen was due to pull up to Oak Alley. If you noticed, I didn't say a town name. While yes, it does pull up to a location in a township where there is no town at all, the downside of this is you're forced to either tour the plantation, or stay on the boat as there is nothing else around. The plus side is the tours don't cost that much at all.

Oak Alley is the name of a plantation with a walkway surrounded by live oak trees. If you've never seen a "Live" oak, it's probably one of the only trees in the world you can actually "recommend to a friend" and not look foolish. Imagine an oak tree that never stops turning green, and then picture the biggest one you've ever seen. Now picture it so big, you'll think it belongs in a mythological book of sorts because it looks big enough for elves to live in. Each tree is big enough to make an adequate home for the Keebler Elves. You get the idea.

Now, why is it called Oak Alley? Well, the walkway from the river to the house is surrounded by 24 of these oaks. The walk down this walkway is worth it on its own. I can't imagine anywhere else in the world where I've seen something like this. What makes the other benefit to landing where we did, is the boat pulls up to basically the end of the walkway. Most people have to pull up to the visitor center, at the back of the house, but the visitors at the front of the house pull up to the end of this walkway. Again, that really makes a difference although in my description, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I can't over emphasize the walk down that alley.

The house is nice, too. I could just leave it at that, as it's nice, but wasn't as great as those trees, but Margherita seemed to love to look at the house for decorating ideas. It's a beautiful plantation house, which also tells the story of the owners, Jacques and Celina Roman.

To summarize the story, Mrs. Roman loved the city and was quite young and beautiful. Her husband did his best to make her happy and built this gorgeous house. She hated staying at the plantation and would stay in their townhouse in New Orleans. Eventually Mr. Roman died of loneliness, and Mrs. Roman felt rather guilty in leaving her husband alone. Then she stayed in the house. If you come to Oak Alley, you not only can hear the story of Jacques and Celina, but also get decorating ideas. Margherita wanted me to add that the gift shop had very reasonable prices and was worth looking at while here.

Laura plantation was a Creole plantation, which differs from Oak Alley greatly. Oak Alley is the epitome of a high society southern home and is in brilliant condition. Laura is beautiful, but in a different way. It's a Creole plantation, which has the Creole-influenced house on stilts. This helps with the cooling of the house and helps keep it from flooding.

The house isn't fully restored yet, but is coming along. the tour gives a great look at the house, and the state of the house in a transition.

The tours all ended at around noon, which gave us ample time to get on the boat for our 1pm departure, and thereby time to eat lunch on the boat. The running joke is to never miss a meal on the boat, and they have extra meals in between, just in case you're not putting on enough weight. To prevent this from happening, I persuaded Margherita to go for a walk around the ship and do laps around the deck. I think this is one of the best activities on the boat, as you can constantly see a different view since by the time you finish your second lap, you already have a different view of the river.

Daily Itinerary of Our Cruise

Delta Queen
Day 1 - Oak Alley Plantation
Day 2 - Baton Rouge
Day 3 - Natchez
Day 4 - Vicksburg
Day 5 - Helena