South Carolina--Day 3

September, 20, 2011


I guess you can call this plantation day because all we did was visit plantations.

Plantation #1: Boone Hall

Boone Hall is one of America's oldest working, living plantations.  There have been many movies that have been filmed here.  The most recent film was The Notebook.

One thing that Boone Hall is very famous for is its "avenue of the oaks."  In 1743, the son of Major John Boone planted two rows of live oak trees which symbolized southern heritage.  It took two centuries for the moss-draped branches to meet.  So yes...these trees are very old and make great targets for lightening.  In fact, there have been only two trees over the past that have died due to lightening.

Plantation #2: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

 We only toured the swamp gardens at Magnolia plantation.  My dad had to attend a few meetings for his convention during the morning, but he was able to meet up with us and spend the rest of the day with the family.

After touring this swamp I came to the conclusion that I never wanted to visit it again.  Why?  Because of the spiders!  They were GINORMOUS!  There were hundreds of these arachnids all over the swamp and I was getting so creeped out.  This spider was as big as my hand.  GROSS!!!!!  I only wish that my sister Mary was with me.  She and I loathe bugs.  Nathan on the other hand--loved the swamp.

Despite all the bugs, there were a few cool things in the swamp.  We saw a few frogs, ducks, and of course some alligators.

 I thought this was humouring.  There was a little secluded place in the swamp garden that was a cemetery. In the cemetery, we stumbled upon Joseph Smith's grave.  We couldn't help but chuckle a little upon viewing it.

Plantation #3: Middleton Place



I loved Middleton place plantation.  I call this the "Pemberley" of the plantations. The grounds are gorgeous! The only true way to capture it's beauty is to have a birds eye view.  Obviously, the picture above is not mine.  It is courtesy of Google images.

When we first arrived at Middleton place we got caught in a torrential down poor.  The rain altered our plans a little, but by the end of the day we were able to go and walk the grounds.

Here is Gia enjoying the plantation.

When we first walked onto the grounds we were greeted by these two beautiful swans.

Throughout the rest of the grounds we managed to stumble upon other forms of animal life.  We enjoyed the colorful peacock.

And of course we found an alligator.  This gator started to hiss at us.

Here are some other shots I took throughout the plantation.

By the time we finished at Middleton place it was time for dinner.  We went to a BBQ place called Home Team and then we all called it a night.