DAY 3: A DAY ON THE PLANTATIONS
An early start today as we met up with Cajun Encounters for our plantations tour.
They took us an hour west of the city to the town of Vacherie. The drive itself was a bit of an experience - New Orleans was heavy with fog this morning and the highway out is built on, and cuts through, swamp land that was covered in a thick mist. Even when we crossed the Mississippi, you couldn't see the river, only barely making out the top of docked shipping containers as we went over the bridge - quite eerie to say the least.
Anyway first stop was "Laura's Plantation". I thought it was pretty impressive until we reached stop #2, "Oak Alley Plantation", which was bordering on Gone with the Wind territory. Massive pillared home with paths lined with equally massive and centuries-aged oak trees. Hard to put into words, so I hope some of the photos we took do it justice.
After we were dropped back, we took a mule-drawn ride around the French Quarter, before sampling some more local cuisine at the restaurant across the street from our hotel for dinner (I'm growing quite partial to this whole Cajun/Creole cooking!).
Tomorrow we jump on the Cajun Encounters bus again, this time to take in a swamp tour, before finishing off our New Orleans stay with a steamboat dinner and jazz cruise up the Mighty Miss!