Sunday, December 16, 2012

Old Fashioned Holidays along the Mississippi River

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We boarded the American Queen steamboat in New Orleans on Friday afternoon. The theme of this week-long cruise is “Old Fashioned Holidays” and it was apparent from our first glimpse that we would not be disappointed. The boat is furnished with antiques, and the festive Christmas decorations are everywhere!

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To further enhance our Christmas spirit,  a local theater troupe came onboard to perform “A Christmas Carol” that night as we headed up the river. Our cruise was off to a great start!

When we woke up on Saturday morning we were docked at the Oak Alley Plantation, so named because of the alley of 300 year old Virginia live oaks leading to a large plantation house. This was our view as we walked from the boat:

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We had a guided tour of the main residence, called “the big house” which, was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

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the parlor                                                                              the  nursery

The grounds of this former sugar cane plantation include a Confederate encampment from the Civil War, and the reconstruction of ten cabins which housed the slaves when Oak Alley was a working plantation.

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Confederate general’s tent                                                     slave quarters

Before we left the plantation to walk back to the ship, we just had have Mint Juleps!DSC06750

Cheers!

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