She said, "If you do not like my driving,  my name in Barbara.  If you like my driving, my name is Brenda!"









Before our tour, we had time in the gift shop, and around the visitor center to enjoy the country air and vegetation.















The ceramic jars were purchased filled with olive oil.  Emptied, they were burried to the neck to store gain.



This lower level of the home had many, many wine racks like on the left.















Rose banana










Oak Alley Plantation

 



300-year-old oaks line the entrance from the Mississippi River.



Oak Alley's back door.



Dinner bell that could be heard 4 miles away from the plantation house.



Employees are dressed in period costumes.





Our tour guide.



There are ample mirrors in the house for self portraits.







Handkerchiefs cover fly catchers.

Giant fan, operated from a rope in the corner by a 10 - 12 yr. old slave boy who moved the fan slightly for a breeze, but not enough to blow out the candles.



View from inside the first floor of Oak Alley with the Mississippi River beyond.



Family China pattern, recently purchased at auction from the family descendants.



Upstairs rooms.



Guest breakfast.  If the pineapple was not cut, it meant that you were to take it on your journey home, "Good bye."



 

View from upstairs hallway toward the river with resurrection ferns on the limbs of the Oaks, which regreen with rain, even after 15 years of being brown.

     Other 2nd floor bedroom views 




2nd floor outside balcony view



Upstairs doors and shutters.  All could be opened in summer for cooling.





Yours truly from outside, reflected in an interior mirror.



Section of original interior wall.  The house was restored from being used as a cattle barn for 20 years.



Sugar plantation office within the house.



South of the house through only 150 yr. old Oaks and simulated slave quarters.



Simulated slave quarters.







Oak Alley Inn, modern accommodations.  Rates $148.50 to $247.50 plus tax.  My friend Carole Walker has stayed here.

Oak Alley e-book of their photography contest

List of productions filmed in part or entirely on location at Oak Alley Plantation - http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/learn-explore/filmed-here




St. Joseph Plantation. A nearby plantation home not open for tours, but rather used for film productions.



Bridge back to New Orleans after the Plantations Tour.





Some exports.



Transferring product from river barge to ocean vessel.



Beautiful weather returning to New Orleans past the Superdome.



Another cemetery view. 



With the humidity here, wild ferns start growing in abandoned buildings.



N. Rampart/St. Claude Streetcar Expansion



Since Matt had not been on the streetcars yet, we boarded the Loyola Ave. streetcar near the Holiday Inn Superdome and rode Canal St. downtown.



Each of the two days, I purchased the $3 Day Pass allowing me to ride up to the 4 streetcar lines.





Inside the streetcars is this layout, however you must watch the street signs outside to see your location as opposed to modern streetcar electric signs.



For one block, the St. Charles (right) comes out onto Canal Street then turns back west.  Note Police cars using the level streetcar tracks to move more quickly through traffic in downtown.



The back of the "Haunted" sign said, "Not Haunted".

We walked down N. Peters St. to Decatur, then toward the French Market to get to St. Louis Cathedral.



A Mardi Gras parade must have come this way.



Drugs in the French Quarter.



Thinking of Sue, I spotted this sign as we had crossed to Chartres Street to get to the Cathedral.



The owner was just locking up for the day, but reopened to show us her loom inside.



While I photographed the loom, Matt noticed the resident cats.



Bicycles are a popular mode of transportation in the French Quarter.



Again for Sue we noticed the store at 629 Chartres.



With the sun in our face, I found a crepe myrtle tree to block the sun for a shot past banana trees of St. Louis Cathedral.



Jackson Square, on the Mississippi River, had well manicured tropical plants.





True to tradition, the wrought iron balconies around Jackson Square had the initials of the creator within.



St. Louis Cathedral, with Andrew Jackson statue, from Decatur Street.



There are several artists set up around Jackson Square.



Cafe Du Monde, for beignets.  Cash only and a long line, but we captured a photo of it.



If you go around back, you can watch them being made.





Fountain behind Cafe Du Monde.



We took the Riverfront Streetcar from French Market to Canal Street, close to our dinner date with the Creole Queen Riverboat. (Windows up means no air conditioning on this line.)



If no one is seated in the back control seat, passengers can sit there.  I was surprised that it was not covered like all others I had seen.



Code numbers that the driver must enter as various passes are shown and cash is entered into the fare box.



Creole Queen boarding for our Dinner and Jazz Cruise on the Mississippi River with Hwy. 90 bridge behind.