an afternoon at a Louisiana plantation on River Rd.

I visited Houmas House plantation this afternoon with a friend of mine.  Yet again, my tour guide license came through for me, I got free "tour guide" entry to the house & the guided tour.  Our tour guide, Judy Davis, was excellent!  She played the piano & sang for us, had an impressive range of accents from British to a slow southern drawl, she was full of energy & enthusiasm, has a great sense of humor, & she was very welcoming.  So, it was an excellent tour, I really enjoyed it & learned a lot...both about Houmas House & of course tour guide techniques.  I bonded with her right away when I told her that I'm a nola tour guide...we agreed that all tour guides are "history nerds" & damn proud of it!!  The plantation house itself is in great condition, an amazing collection of furniture & art, including an original portrait of Marie Antoinette by Vigee Lebrun (the art history nerd in me was super excited to find that).  The surrounding grounds are GORGEOUS...tons of color, texture, dimension, flowing fountains, lily pads, even pineapples!!

There were only 2 other visitors on our tour, a couple from Hamburg...they're headed to nola tomorrow & I was able to give them a few suggestions since they're interested in getting off the beaten path (gotta love the Europeans for that).  I sent them to the 1850 House for FOC's 10am french quarter tour & suggested that they take the streetcar down St. Charles Ave. for a nice lazy ride in the afternoon;  even though they'll only be in nola for 2 days, I think I've led them in the right direction to enjoy their time in the Big Easy, which is exactly why I do what I do.

We finished off our visit to the plantation just as one should, with mint juleps in a charming little bar located in a small building which was once a garconier.

Sadly, we got stuck in miserable traffic headed back into the city, I think it's because tonight is the Saints' first pre-season game.  Something I really don't think about b/c I'm just NOT a football person.  A tour guide friend has season tickets & wants me to join her for one of the games.  Since I'm not paying for a ticket, I'll check it out, it'll be my very first Saints game, should be an interesting experience.  I don't have any saints paraphernalia, but I do have a black tank top with "504 ever" in gold (designed by dirty coast)...I figure that'll do.

Dirty Linen Night in the French Quarter tomorrow...martinis, art, schmoozing, heat, just another night out in the Big Easy.