We went to New Orlean, Louisiana during spring break, March 7th - 11th. On March 12th, the day after we left NOLA, the 1st case coronavirus infection in Louisiana was reported. Two weeks later covid-19 outbreak took place there. NOLA is among the hotspots of coronavirus infection in the nation. By chance or by nature we left NOLA unscathed!
Part of the luck was due to our nature, we prefer outdoor activities over indoor activities
except gourmet dining. In fact we were out of the city
every day when we were there.
In addition to
swamp boat tour, we visited Oak Alley plantation, rode steamboat on Mississippi river for a lunch history river cruise, and drove to the mouth of Mississippi river.
Oak Alley Plantation
This plantation is a more well known and more frequently visited plantation in NOLA and it is located at west bank of Mississippi river. When we talk about plantations, we talk about sugar canes and sugar, slaves and slave masters about 160 years ago. The oak alley plantation was built and owned by Jacques and Celina Roman.
When we walked into the plantation, through the backyard parking lot, the first buildings in sight were three small cabins, where slaves lived. One person a cabin, not too bad I thought. It turned out they were for slave nanny and chef, who worked for the masters in the main house during the day. Slaves for field labor lived in less conditioned log cabins.
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| cabins for slaves |
The mansion is big even by today's standard. Two things in the building caught our attentions: 1) the beds, chairs .... everything seems to be just a little bit smaller than what we have now days, 2) there is a wood frame hanging over the main dining room table. The feel that furnitures were smaller was not our imagination, but a fact because people then was shorter, 11 cm shorter according to
BBC news. The wood frame over the dining table served as a fan - when in use there was cloth hang from it, and a slave standing at the corner of the dining room pull a rope up and down to swing the frame to produce breeze for masters and their guest.
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| the mansion |
The most impressive feature at the plantation to me was the oak alley as shown below, which had huge oak trees lined alley, which lead to the main road by the west band of Mississippi river.
The trees are magnificent and felt exotic, intriguing.
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| oak alley |
Mississippi River Historic River Cruise
One thing I would like to do was to experience the Mississippi river, the longest river in North America and the 4th longest in the world. We took the river cruise on our send full day at NOLA. The cruise terminal is walking distance from the hotel we stayed at French Quarter.
The main destination of the river cruise is Chalmette Battlefield. On the way there we enjoyed the view of riverfront NOLA, we saw that Domino Sugar plants with tattered windows prominently standing by the river after 100 years, we heard our on-board historian/tour guide proudly announced that Domino sugar produced 1 million ton of sugar last year!
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| Creole Queen Steam boat |
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| Bridge over Mississippi at New Orlean |
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| Riverfront NOLA |
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| Domino Sugar - |
Chalmette Battlefield, the site of the January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans, the last great battle of the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. We walk onto the battlefield, looked up the memorial monument, and stood by the cannons. It is interesting to note that the general of the American army was Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of United States.
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| Monument |
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| Chalmette Battlefield |
The Mississippi River Delta
On march 10th, our last full day at NOLA, we drove to Mississippi river delta, hopping to get to the mouth of the river. We drove all the way to the end of highway 23. Unfortunately we could not really see the wetland or Mississippi river from the highway.
We stopped on the road a few times to see the swamps and Mississippi river. One time we stopped the car by the highway and walked on to the levee to see the Mississippi river. A state trooper followed us onto the levee, when he was informed that we just want to look at the river and the port, he told us we could drive on the levee to the riverbank.
The swamps are full of water fowles - mostly pelicans, egrets, ducks as well as many dark feathered birds that I could not name. The bayou near the end of the road was especially beautiful and had many pelicans, egrets and herons, we stayed there for quite some time to watch and take pictures.
One has to take a boat to see Mississippi river pour into Gulf of Mexico. We did not have such a chance.
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| marsh land |
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| pelicans and ducks in wetland |
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| swamp of Mississippi delta |
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| Pelicans rest on trees |
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| The harbor at the red dot in the following photo |
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| Mississippi River Delta |
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| Road to the mouth of Mississippi river |
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