Plantations and Peacocks…
Today we did the Charleston tourist thing.
We started out at 10:30 am with a bus tour out to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.
Magnolia Plantation was established in 1676 by the Drayton family and is still owned by their descendants today.
The first house stood from 1676 till 1810 when it accidently burned down. The second house lasted until 1865 when it was burned to the ground by retreating Yankee troops.
The present house started out as a small cottage built on the old foundation and gradually added on to until the present day.
Magnolia Plantation House
The plantation originally consisted of about 2200 acres. After the Civil War the family gradually sold off land to finance the rebuilding of the plantation. Today there is about 500 acres remaining.
And amazingly family members still live on the grounds, although not in the main house, which is open to the public.
After a 1 hour walking tour through the gardens and grounds, we had a 45 minute tram ride around the plantation itself.
We finished up with a 30 minute guided tour through the house itself.
Here are a few pictures.
They have a small petting zoo on site, including ‘white’ peacocks.
White Peacock
White Peacock 2
Peacock
Live Oak
Resurrection Fern
This metal frame is all that remains of the first greenhouse built in North American circa 1690.
First Greenhouse
The View from the back porch
Baby Gator catching some rays
Mama Gator
Plantation Reflecting Pond
After we returned to Charleston about 2:45 pm, we hopped on another tour bus for a 90 minute tour of downtown Charleston.
It was interesting to find out that although the town itself dates from 1670, the oldest houses only date from the early 1700’s. This is because of several accidental fires sweeping the city in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, the Yankees burning part of the city in 1865, and then more recently, a devastating 7.5 earthquake in 1886.
And Hurricane Hugo in 1989 didn’t help things either.
There are only about 12 houses left from the 1700’s. Nothing earlier.
At the end of our tour it was almost 4:30 pm so we decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant both tour drivers had mentioned called Jestine’s Kitchen.
This was good ole Southern cooking at it’s finest.
We started off with an appetizer of Fried Green Tomatoes and then Jan sequed into the Fried Chicken with 3 cheese macaroni & cheese and green beans. I had the Pecan Crusted Chicken Breast with mashed potatoes and collard greens.
We then topped this off with Coconut Cream Pie for Jan and I dove into Blueberry/Peach Cobbler with ice cream.
Jan had so much chicken on her plate she brought half of it home, and we each brought home half of our desserts. Mmmmmm, leftovers!!!!!
After that we waddled back to the truck and headed home.
Tomorrow a Charleston Harbour tour is on the docket. We’ll see…
