I love how driving on the east coast, after just a few hours you are in another state. Growing up in the middle of California, we really only drove up and down the coast of our own state. Of course it takes 13 hours to drive from the bottom to the top...
One of the places I decided I needed to go while on the east coast was Charleston and since I have a cousin here, it was the perfect first weekend trip. There are some great Plantation tours in the Charleston area. Last summer we were here as a family and toured Boone Hall Plantation. It was a fun place, and it was one of the sets from the movie The Notebook, but not the oldest or most grand plantations by any means. This time I decided on Magnolia Plantation for the availability of a house tour, train tour, boat tour and garden tour in the same place. (One day, I need to make it back to tour Middleton Place. This is the most grand and most Jane Austen-esk out of all the SC plantations I've read about.)
After the 5 hour drive to Charleston, we arrived at Magnolia to find out the boat tours were closed due to a technical difficulty. I was disappointed, to say the least. As this was the least impressive house out of my three choices, I really just wanted to go there for the boats. We called over to Cypress Gardens to see if we should just go there for the boat rides, rather than stay, but with the time it would take us to get there, it wouldn't really be worth it. Feeling slightly defeated, but ready to see some pretty nature, I ventured on through the plantation gardens. Magnolia has the oldest public gardens in the nation, parts surviving from founding of the plantation in 1676. In the very beginning of our walk around the gardens, God showed up and gave me a present: the reason that we were at this particular plantation, and taking the time to walk around the vast gardens. Towards the back of the land, far from the main house, lies a replica barge, a large plantation flat that was used to carry produce down to Charleston. This replica was named after one that they knew of from letters dated back to 1832 from the plantation owner: the Miss Julianna.
The grounds of Magnolia Plantation were gorgeous, and absolutely worth the day there.
You know what I think is really beautiful? Swamps and bridges and spanish moss.
Cool photos specifically for Jacob:
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