Plantations

Some interesting and noteworthy features of South Carolina are the history and Southern pride, the accents and the antebellum structures. We visited several beautiful plantations on our trip.

Boone Hall

Known for its grand Avenue of Oaks leading up to the plantation house.

The slave cabins were preserved as little museums on the slave culture and way of life.

This is the one of the famous sweet grass baskets of the African culture and still sold along the streets of Charleston today.

Artifacts found in excavation under the slave quarters

This charming lady gave a special presentation on the "Gullah" culture, which comes from the slaves taken from the Angola region of African and preserved through descendants of today.

These massive oaks and spanish moss got me every time.

This guy gets me every time, too :)

Josh and I also visited the Magnolia Plantation, which boasted beautiful gardens and a plantation house preserved with pieces and stories true to its time. The wrap around porch was bigger than our house.

Another beautiful and historic landmark was Drayton Hall. It was one of the few homes that was not burned by the Union troops in the Civil War probably because it was flagged as a smallpox hospital. There was no furniture left in the home but everything about the house, including the paint, was all original. It was said to have housed Cornwallis at one point.

While we were there, a member of the Drayton family was measuring his one-year-old son on the centuries old growth chart in the house.

The front view

The back view to the river. We sat a while on the bench at the end of the lane.

Middleton Place

This plantation was special because we stayed at an inn on site and toured the grounds for a couple of days.

The main house was burned by the Union troops and remains still lay where they were burned. This flanker house is now a museum with amazing furniture and paintings from the actual Middleton family. Some paintings were hidden during the Civil War and returned and restored later.

Middleton Place is still a working plantation, for educational and tourism purposes. We talked with this cooper/carpenter for a while. Josh learned how to make barrels :)

More pictures of the amazing gardens of Middleton in the next post...

Cypress Gardens

Our Sunday morning stop in South Carolina was at Cypress Gardens. "Coincidentally" we paddled through the exact location where they filmed The Notebook (and Swamp Thing although not quite as romantic ;)

 The guys did a great job maneuvering us girls through the swamp, only breaking a mild sweat...

Ryan Gosling ain't got nothing on this guy...

I loved it!

Folly Beach

One night, we enjoyed a cool stroll on Folly Beach and put our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Celebrating 10 years

Celebrating 1 year

Celebrating amazing siblings

Heart of Charleston

We stayed two nights in a very nice place in Charleston called The Vendue. It was recently ranked as one of the best hotels in smaller cities across America. And we could see why...

It is a historic building just a block from a beautiful pier on the Ashley and walking distance from everything else...basically in the heart of the most beautiful part of Charleston down from The Battery where Antebellum houses stand. It also functions as an art gallery with its own in-house artist. My girls would have loved the chandeliers at breakfast...

A painting in our room of the streets in Charleston by the resident artist

From The Vendue, we walked to the City Market where vendors sell all kinds of interesting items from the area.

We also toured the historic Exchange Building and Provost which oversaw all of Charleston's business and trade and even functioned as a prison/dungeon in the basement for pirates. Yes, the guys inspected the 200 year old furniture.

One of my most favorite memories of the trip was sitting with this 15-year-old boy named Anthony on the pier watching him make palmetto roses. He has been making these from palmetto blades since he was seven, and he is learning how to weave the famous sweet grass baskets from his grandma.

 Our food selections were incredible. Here are some of the dishes the four of us enjoyed while in the heart of Charleston:
Brioche French Toast at the Vendue Restaurant
Carolina Crab Cakes and Swordfish at The Landing
She-Crab Soup at a Bistro near the City Market
Gelato on the pier
Sushi and Oysters at Folly Beach
Fried Chicken and Waffles with Peach Chutney at Dixie South Cafe and Bakery
Shrimp BLT with Fried Green Tomatoes at Dixie South

Charleston

We celebrated our belated 10 year anniversary in Charleston, South Carolina, this past weekend.

It was wonderful. charming. romantic. relaxing. fun. expensive. fascinating. historical. breathtaking. special. hot. delicious. wonderful. Really, it was all of these things rolled into one.

The city is beautiful, and the history was very interesting. We learned from a lady on the plane that signs and buildings are not allowed to stand taller than the steeples of the many beautiful churches, as you can see in this picture. Charleston is known as the Holy City due to its foundation on religious diversity and equality. One of these churches is Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal where nine members were shot last month. We happened upon it as we walked along the city streets and viewed the many flowers and memorials laid at the steps.

One of the best parts of our trip was spending time with James and Sydney who drove over from Atlanta for a couple of days! Man, we miss them.

One of our first stops was Ft. Sumter where the beginning shots of the Civil War were fired.

 I have never been good at remembering historic details, but it really makes an impact when you are standing on the actual soil where life-changing history was made 150 years ago.

 History is also more fun when you have two handsome guys explaining it ;)

More wonderful Charleston stories coming up...