They make movies in Canada.
Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth!
That's true.
Except there weren't any chairs except the two that they were sitting in.
Oh.
No chairs, no drinks = not staying long
I can see that.
I'm good with staying in the 21st century.
Too bad not everyone has joined us here.
Hmmmmm, so you were an ornery little kid? Eh?
That and everything in between.
Yes, it was very smooth. I've mostly had Bacardi Rum and this tasted nothing like that, it was very easy to drink and no harsh aftertaste.
Interesting. Maybe I would've liked it.
Probably not, though.
You can see how far inland the water extends.
Looks very familiar with the water right up to the road.
Was there water on the other side of the road as well?
I found it interesting that all these houses were built on stilts.
Smart.
Now it would have made more sense to visit Rosedown Plantation first as far as the genealogy is concerned, but I’m glad we did it the way we did because the second house was much more impressive.
Save dessert for last.
The homeowner still lives there and leads the tours herself.
No way! That's so cool!
The two of them had a son William J. Fort Jr. who married one of his mother’s sisters from Rosedown Plantation.
He married his
aunt?!?!?
Fort Jr's first wife died after 18 years of marriage, and so he married another one of the sisters.
Another one!!!
Mississippi mud.
Mary greeted us from her Porch.
The way she's standing there. She looks like such a proper southern lady.
With the butt of his rifle, he put that hole in the neck of the dog as he walked on to loot and destroy the house.
Cool. Love little details like that.
These pictures were very unique, you can’t tell by the photos, but they are made with real fabric for the women’s outfits.
I've seen that before. Not that exact one, but similar.
But I can't for the life of me remember
where I've seen it.
This trunk was authentic for the 1800s, pretty much a suitcase for the time.
Want?
She was a dog lover and had something like 8 or 9 dogs. One of the guys on the tour got bored with the inside of the house. I heard him say he was going outside, and all of a sudden the dogs all went crazy, barking and stuff!
Basically scolding him to get back with the tour.
All of these pieces of china we from the period. Many of them were buried in the yard to hide them when the Union Soldiers came. She showed us a chip on one of them where it had been chipped during the digging up process.
Another nice little detail.
Mary talked about this pot during the tour and how she would have loved to use it as a “cooler” to serve beverages at for parties, but she was afraid it would get broken so instead it became a plant holder.
I wonder how the former owner of the pot would've felt about that.
But, yeah. Would've been a terrible thing to break it.
It was interesting to think that she lived in a museum.
I was thinking that too.
Can you imagine riding up this impressive drive in your horse and carriage?
Rather breathtaking, no?
Now I will say that I heard the Europeans on the tour saying that they thought these houses would be more impressive. I know that there are far more impressive castles in most of Europe, but you have to remember the South is a bloody swamp! Many people lived in shacks, the fact that these people have giant houses with all the amenities is no small feat for the 1800s in the middle of a swamp in the middle of nowhere!
I get that. But I also get the entirely different circumstances.
Notice the wallpaper. This is not the original as it was painted over so many times that it was ruined. However, they were able to find the manufacturer (someone in France) and they still had some of this left in their archives, so it is “original” just redone in the 20th century.
I find that really incredible that they found archived wall paper.
This flooring was quite remarkable for the time. It was painted canvas,
Really!
That's fascinating. Truly from another era.
You can see the slave staircase hidden here. It extends from the top floor to the basement.
Look how steep it is.
This room was added on, the ceilings in this wing were 17 feet instead of 14.
Whoa. There's definitely money there.
Your “sink” for tidying up before bed.
Been there, done that.
Martha Washington cross stitched this for the couple as her sister’s great granddaughter married the Turnbull’s son who was killed crossing the Mississippi at age 27.
No way! Cool!
All these Azaleas were supposedly grafted from one original plant.
Huh. Impressive.
I found out how the boat got tied up that morning. I pity that poor sap!
Someone drew the short straw.
I liked the look of this bridge.
Me too.
I decided to try and do laundry again. There was loads running in the washer but they only had about 10 more minutes so I ran down to the room (not really, my legs were too tired to do that) and got my hamper full of dirty clothes. When I came upstairs the person using the machines was just finishing up, so I got both machines and started my whites in one machine and the rest of the load in the other.
So you did manage to get the laundry done. And both machines were free, too!
Evidently there are casinos there and the crew was excited about a night on the town.
Did a lot vanish as soon as you docked?
We also arrived in Baton Rouge while we were having dinner so the evening staff was happy to get things wrapped up quickly.
"Here you go enjoy your meal do you need a refill would you like dessert no okay then goodnight."
Both of us were really feeling the congestion and coughing.
That's too bad.
They had a Modern Family kind of family (but without the patriarch having a trophy wife)
But that's the best part!
I had and couple bites of her croque Madame.
Is that a custard on top? Or melted cheese?
This was our first real port where we docked instead of landed.
You're in the big city now.
This ship, the US Kidd was included in our tours but Fran would have had a hard time navigating the ship so we skipped it.
Too bad. I can't fathom such a ship on the river.
The Red Stick or Le Baton Rouge
There's an actual baton rouge???? I had no idea!
As soon as I post this, I'm off to Google.
This statue is of Christopher Columbus and was erected by the Italian community of Baton Rouge before they found out his Portuguese heritage. Oh well.
The Governor's Mansion built by Huey Long was closed today. That's one we would have liked to see, oh well, next trip. This became a common phrase this trip.
Crap.
I may not have posted a lot of comments about the plantations, but I read every word and enjoyed every photo. Thanks for that!
Sounds like last night was fun if everyone is still asleep. 
Sorry to read yesterday was so busy. Michael was at 
At a few minutes to midnight, the posted wait time for Space was still 70 minutes. 
Even if the CMs fudged a bit, I am thinking it was still about 30.
I'd actually be disappointed about going down the river during the night hours though. For me, a big part of the fascination of the trip would be sitting and watching the scenery pass by. 
