Day at Oak Alley

This past week one of my good friends from college and her husband were visiting New Orleans. I was working all week while they were here, but yesterday I was able to drive down and see them.

No I am not a big fan of driving. Pretty much anytime me and the boy go anywhere I make him drive. But he was working so it was just me driving. I was planning on meeting them at their hotel, so decided directions from the hotel's website would be better. I called them on the way across Lake Pontchartrain, telling them I'd be able 30 more minutes. Not even close to a good estimate on my part.

Their hotel was in the French Quarter about two blocks off Bourbon Street. Lots of one way streets and overall not a fun place to drive. But I go off the interstate and tried to read the directions while driving. I made the first turn and got into the left lane. check. I made the U-turn. check. But didn't stay far enough to the right. So had to turn around to repeat the steps. U-turn. check. stay in the right lane. check. This was supposed to get to to Toulouse street. Instead I wound up on Orleans. So I circle the block to get back where I started. I turned right to get back to where I started.

Not a good idea. Turns out this was a one-way street and I was going the wrong way. The driver in the first car was waving at me frantically pointing the other way. Lucky for me all the cars when in the right lane, so I was able to go down and turn around. This time I managed to end up in front of the hotel. The hotel who had a full parking lot. I circled around the block hoping to find a parking space. I drove down a few blocks and found a parking lot. $10 till midnight. Not bad.

The rest of the day went far more smoothly. We went to breakfast at Clover Cafe, this tiny place off Bourbon. Me and Megan both had waffles which were pretty amazing. Her husband had the breakfast special: eggs, sausage, and potatoes. After that we walked down to the Mississippi and got onto our tout bus.

Our bus took us down up to Oak Alley, my favorite plantation on the Mississippi. It's about an hour drive from New Orleans, so the bus drive showed us a video of various Louisiana plantations on the drive. I wound up sleeping through most of it. We did make it to the plantation and had some time to take pictures before our tour stated.

This is me and Megan standing at the end of the alley of oaks. If you look closely between our heads you can see the actual house.

The tour itself was good. Although, I have had better tour guides on various plantations. After the tour itself we did have time to explore the gift shop before we had to get back on the bus.

I wound up buying a Mint Julep and these peanut clusters. We also bought a small carton of pralines n cream to spilt on the way back. We drove back to New Orleans down the river road passing Felicity Plantation, Evergreen Plantation, and Laura Plantation among others. We also watched a video of the restoration of Laura.

Once we got back to New Orleans we had to walk by my car to get back to their hotel, so I figured that was probably a good time to make the drive back to the BR. Luckily, I made it back without driving down any one way street the wrong way or getting lost.

Overall it was a really good day. It was really good to see Megan. It's so crazy to think I graduated from college almost three years ago. It feels like yesterday. So crazy how quickly time flies by!

~Shoshanah