Tinbergs on Tour: 6/24/26. Vacherie LA - partly cloudy - hot and humid

6/24/26. Vacherie LA - partly cloudy - hot and humid - 93F

Port Information. Vacherie LA is located in St. James Parish and is actually located in the New Orleans metro area and is essentially across the lake from the Big Easy. The name is French for “cow shed” *we dud bit see any cows). The population of Vacherie is around 2000 and the main tourist site is the Oak Alley Plantation. The TV series, “True Detective”, was filmed here. The boat is docked at Vacherie Landing.

Later on we got a chance to see Vacherie itself.

I slept a little better – room is quiet – the AC unit kicks on with a big burst of air and then quiets down. I didn’t hear the boat dock. I went to get breakfast in the Sky Lounge on Deck 4 at 7 AM. There is a breakfast buffet but the only thing I could eat there were scrambled eggs (not creamy just overdone). My only option was cereal and milk. The only cereal out was Honey Nut Cheerios. I asked Emma (the crew member in the Lounge) if there were any other cereals and she said there weren’t. I had the Cheerios with milk and coffee from a fancy machine.

I ate outside on the shady side of the deck, which was nice. I expected bugs but there weren't any. The boat docked by just easing on close to the shoreline and lowering a gangway – in this case, the gangway crossed both water and grass.

A little like pulling into a parking space. I zeroed on Wordle after 23 days. I stayed out of the deck until around 7:30 AM, when the Restaurant opened and went to the cabin to pick up Ellen.

Ellen and I went to the Restaurant for a real breakfast. Ellen had French toast and eggs and I had a veggie omelet and a bagel – the omelet was a little over. With the assistance of the host, we did score a table for two – there are no dedicated tables for two but he said no one would be seated with us. Antisocial? I guess so. We filled out our meals for the day using their app.

We wanted to use our veranda but it has been overrun by “fishflies”, the River’s version of midges but on steroids. These flies are over an inch long and not pretty. To add to that, it is very hot out there especially when we are on the sunny side.

While it was still relatively cool, we spent a little time on both Deck 4

and Deck 5.

Lunch was in the Restaurant. We both had the Salmon Cesar Salad with no anchovies. Best meal so far. Of course, the Pale Ale only enhanced the meal.

At 1:15 PM we scanned out via QR on our lanyard, headed down the gangway to the bus area. From there I got a good shot of the Heritage docked.

We enjoyed a 30 min ride on a comfortable bus to the Manchac Swamp for our "Cajun Pride Swap Adventure". The boat ride will take us through part of the "Greater Manchac Area", a 200 square mile area ecosystem and isthmus. On the ride a crew member, Kaylie, discussed the difference between Cajun and Creole. She's a "speed narrator" so I only picked up about 50 percent of her stuff. And because she had that Southern way of speaking, there was some built in humor, as well. All of the admission fees, as I expected, were included in the already free excursions. After parking, we walked a short distance to the boat launch area. There were three color coded swamp boats and we all got in the red boat.

It was very hot - heat index north of 102F. The metal seats were uncomfortable and my left knee wasn't cooperating so getting up and down to take pics was challenging. The waterway was quite scenic.

We sat across from each other (Ellen on the outide of the boat) and snapped each other's pictures. Clearly, she wins the best look.

We saw Whistling Ducks (no pics), racoons (no pics), wild boars,

and lots of Mississippi Alligators.

We were throwing marshmallows in the water to attract the gators.

We also saw one of the other tour boats.

One of the most interesting things on the shore was the Frenier Cemetery in La Place, Louisiana, also known as the 1915 Cemetery.

It serves as a mass grave for residents of the small swamp town of Frenier who perished in a devastating hurricane in 1915. Local legend claims this area is haunted by Julia "Aunt Julie" Brown, a reputed voodoo priestess who predicted she would take the town with her when she died. She didn’t but a hurricane did. We also saw an old dwelling - maybe occupied at one time pretty well abandoned.

As we continued down the waterway, the guide showed us how gators can jump out of the water by dangling a marshmallow on a string from a pole. The gator jumped about two feet to grab the candy. The captain, 30 years doing these tours and a perfect example of a swamp boat captain (lots of Cajun going on) continued to emphasize to keep everything inside the railing. The last 30 min of the two hour ride involved passing around baby turtles, a grasshopper as big as a Buick, and a baby gator, Bruce, that people could hold (no thanks). Just sitting still with no breeze approached heat stroke level. More machine gun level narration on the way home.

We basked in the AC in the room until dinner. We reminded the host that we wanted to sit along and we got a nice table at the window. We both had the Sea Bass (good). I tried the Cajun ratatouille over grits (Cajun spices were too much and grits are an acquired taste, which I will never acquire). The tomato rice was the best side dish . I also had the Blue Cheese Iceberg wedge Salad (very good). Apple tarts with vanilla ice cream topped off the meal.

We listened to the Enrichment speaker (Tom) in the River Lounge and stayed for the show. James DeLisco, Broadway star, las Vegas entertainer, and terrific singer and dancer. We had never seen him before. It's a very small stage and he bounced and jumped all over the space. He had an unusual song list which included The National Anthem and America the Beautiful (first time on a ship for us).