Spanish Moss & Sassiness

 Saturday was our last day in Charleston - it was a quick trip - and I had mentioned wanting to check out one of the many plantations in the area; chiefly, Magnolia Plantation. Magnolia Plantation was originally built in 1676 and is one of the oldest homes in the United States - it's also on the National Register of Historic Places. The house belongs to the Drayton family and is to this day still owned and operated by the Drayton Family - 15 generations later. *WOW*

 

The house has botanical gardens that were built in the 1800's as the owner's way of convincing his wife; a Philadelphia socialite, to move to South Carolina - where there were spiders, large bugs and six types of venomous snakes, not to mention hurricanes and brutal heat. I mean... I get it lady - he was driving a pretty hard bargain. However - the gardens worked and they are still in place today for all the visitors to Magnolia Plantation. The husband (owner) in discussion is also responsible for introducing both the Camellia and the Azalea to the United States - so thank you for that, sir.

 

We went on a 45 minute nature tour around the plantation - which covers 500 acres and was once a rice plantation, filled with rice patties that have now been allowed to revert back to the nature around them - which means swamps everywhere! There are also numerous live Virginia Oak trees on the property, many of them at least 350 years old - if not older. The nature tour was on a little tram and let me tell you - that was a brisk ride in the the 45-degree temperatures... but we lived to tell the tale!

 

 

Ryan and I went on a tour of the house and that was fairly interesting - the house that was original to the location had burned and been rebuilt three times, including the Victorian addition to the center of the house that gives it the distinctive look it has today. Another interesting tidbit we learned was that after the Civil War, the house was opened for tours: you took a two hour riverboat ride down the Ashley River from Charleston, got off and had a box lunch and toured the house and gardens, then rode the riverboat back to Charleston - all for the low price of $40! What a deal!

The biggest gem that I stumbled on as we poked around the gift shop was Simon - the painting raccoon! Simon was rescued by the Zoo/Animal Welfare Center on site at the plantation and as part of his rehabilitation - he was given the opportunity to paint! Simon is unable to be released into the wild and so he was introduced to another injured raccoon named Melvin and they became dear friends - although Melvin doesn't have Simon's artistic spirit... he usually just tries to eat the paint brushes! I didn't purchase a raccoon painting - but now I kind of wish I had!

 

The final tour of the day was a 45-minute look at slavery on the plantation and allowed a look at how slaves were brought to the United States and what their lives were like on Magnolia Plantation. We were even able to tour/see four different cabins from different periods within the plantation's history and how they were used by former slaves that lived in the plantation. We finished up shortly before 1:00 and headed to King Street to meet Ryan's Mom and Doc for a late lunch at El Jefe - which was pretty tasty "Texican" food - not sure what that means though!

 

We perused the Charleston City Market for a second time - there were so many more vendors than there had been on Thanksgiving (makes perfect sense) and the enclosed portion of the market was also open to explore. Ryan and I saw plenty of fascinating and fun things that would have been fun to purchase but refrained because we didn't really need them! We rounded out the "tour" of Charleston by stopping by Rainbow Row to snap a few pictures and then breezing by the Citadel to take a few more pictures before heading back to our home base for the evening.  

 

We ate Thanksgiving leftovers - there were plenty - and packed up our things before watching the Iron Bowl and My Fair Wedding and climbing into bed. It was a great trip - if a quick one - and I'm so glad I was able to experience the city of Charleston with some of my favorite people!