NO Adventure

Editor’s note: Once again we have a new guest writer – Natalie. She and Jimmy made a two-wheeled journey up the river(it’s getting to be nice weather for that sort of thing).

It may sound boring to drive around and go to plantations all day, however, it makes it way more fun when you are doing it on scooters. It’s not boring at all.  First off, shout out to Kennedy for his awesome blog gave my husband Jimmy the knowledge that we could even rent scooters (I think I threw around the idea in the past, but an idea always sounds better from a newer source…and well, Kennedy made it sound way more exciting!).

We started by waking up around 9:30am to go hit up the rental shop on Canal Street known as Eagle Rider (sounds fierce, I know). After signing off on piles of paper, you’re off!  By the way, we both totally recommend (a) a helmet and (b) buying the $24 per scooter insurance (more for my sake).

They have a parking lot to practice in…and i sure needed it!  Jimmy was great and scooted along just fine with no issues. I, on the other hand, was a bit more spastic.  I had never been on a motorcycle and/or scooter… or driven a motorcycle and/or scooter, so I guess I just didn’t really know what to expect.  But in just about 5 minutes and a few circles in the parking lot, I was ready to go!  I feel as if they are like waverunners for land!   These were our fancy rides:

We began at the Riverbend at the end of St. Charles and just continued down River Road on the East Bank until we got to our first stop, Destrehan Plantation, about 30 minutes later.  We decided to take the tour of this one, being our first. After $15 a head and a 10 minute historical video, we were on our way to tour the grounds.

It was a great experience and we were ready for our next one!  After that, you pass a few non-touring plantations, such as Ormond Plantation and the Graugnard House. About 10 minutes later, you approach The Seafood Pot. We stopped at this great little place that serves up poboys, gumbos, soups and delicious daiquiris! I don’t think you can really pass up any place that has a drive-through daiquiri sign on it.

After a lovely lunch and a 25 minute ride, we arrived at the San Francisco Plantation. We did not tour this one, but I hear they do have a great tour and it really is beautiful!

Oh, along the way, as long as they have not opened it up to the waters, you drive along the Bonnet Carre Spillway, which was really cool and quite peaceful(especially on the way back when the sun started to go down).

We then arrived in Gramercy and crossed over the Gramercy Bridge to the West Bank side of River Road…

where you come first to Laura Plantation(available tour), then St. Joseph(no tour available) and then to the amazing Oak Alley!  This was the second and final one we actually paid to tour(again, $15 a head). It was a nice, quick tour. Afterwards, you can buy a pretty decent mint julep on the front porch of the house and walk the grounds while you enjoy its refreshment.  They also have cottages you can rent and spend the night in, plus a little café and a nice gift shop.

We could have continued on to a few more, such as Houmas House (which does have a great little lunch spot called Burnside Café), but it was 5:00pm and we needed to head back. Straight shot with no stopping from Oak Alley back Uptown took about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Oh…and we did have a few encounters with some love bugs pelting us in the forehead…so don’t drive with your mouth open.