Day 27 - Louisiana

Day 27

November 8

Vacherie, LA

My Dear Miss Smith,

We are on our way to a doll museum in Baton Rouge right now. I am letting Amy drive for she has promised not to scare me, and I wanted to get this out in the mail to you before noon.

I’m sure Mikayla told you all about our wonderful day yesterday seeing all those animals, so I won’t go into that again.

This morning Amy got us all up early. It was before six o’clock! She does like to rise early. But this morning she had good reason for we had decided to breakfast at Oak Alley Plantation and we had a ways to drive to reach there. Having spent the night and enjoyed breakfast at Nottaway Plantation, we were sure we knew what to expect.

We couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, both are plantations restored as much like the original as possible, but Oak Alley made you feel as though you stepped back in time. I told the girls that I felt as though we should have our hoop-skirts and bonnets on. At least I wore my cream and gold hat. I offered hats to the others, but they all refused them. I’ll have to keep working on them; Amy especially needs help with her choice of hats. But I digress.

Imagine standing before a rot-iron gate and looking down a lane lined on either side by tall, spreading oaks. At the very end of the lane, framed by the arching branches, which in summer I’m sure are a mass of green, stands the mansion; its white pillars standing like sentinels before the large doors while lights glimmer through the windows. We were all speechless for several minutes. And when I say that, you can know for certain that it was all beyond description.

We took a tour and I felt as though I had stepped out of the page of a history book. The tour guides were all in period costume and, oh, Miss Smith, I am at a loss for words to describe it. I could have stayed there for weeks just wandering the grounds,

studying the decorations, the paintings, the furnishings. I would love to sit and dream. I know that were Bekah to come here she would compose a new novel, for the very air seems to inspire one with the past.

At last we did return to dine. The restaurant is not in the main house, but in a smaller one nearby, but still on the grounds. 

It was truly a southern breakfast complete with grits. Amy and Grace didn’t care for them, but Mikayla tolerated them while I ate them with great enjoyment.

Our stop at the gift shop caused us to leave with a few small things and then, with great reluctance, we tore ourselves away as we still had two museums to see before bed.

Mikayla just saw the sign for our turn off, so I will end this now.

With love,

~Priscilla