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!

Five on Friday

It's the first weekend of December - there are just four full weekends left in the year 2021 - and so we are off and running with the final month of this wildly wonderful year. 

One. A Free Weekend - December is here and it's usually a pretty busy month, so when I tell you that I'm pretty excited about not really having any definitive plans for the weekend - believe me. Every weekend in November was filled with something and so knowing that I don't really have too much that I "have" to do this weekend is thrilling. Granted - it also means I'll have plenty of time to get our Christmas cards addressed, get some laundry done... and I'm sure I'll come up with some other things that need to be done. *sigh*

*Having said that... 

Two. Stephens City Christmas Festival - The church Ryan and I attend is doing a Christmas Festival tonight and we are taking part in it! The Festival will be from 6-8 tonight and will have food trucks, local vendors, a gingerbread house competition, free hot cocoa and cookies, Santa Claus and a live nativity - and more! If you live locally - it's definitely worth checking out! The weather looks great for a Christmas Market: crisp, chilly and clear! Where are my gloves...

I'm also excited (and nervous) because this will be my first time doing a vendor event as a Perfectly Posh consultant! I've been a consultant for almost five years now but never really been able to do a vendor event - so I'm jumping in for the first time on Friday night! I've got gift sets all packaged and ready to go and I'm praying everything goes well!

Three. Long Branch Holiday Home Tour - I do love Long Branch and they are having their Holiday Open House every Saturday and Sunday in December from 12 - 5 and it's completely free! My family has been several times in the past and we even went last year... before COVID descended on our house and things went nuts.

I used to attend book club at Long Branch and have a soft spot in my heart for the place - it really is a beautiful home. I've even gotten the chance to see some behind the scenes where decorating is concerned in the past and that was fun - so I'm looking forward to checking it out this year too! 

Four. Follow the Star - A local church (Fellowship Bible Church) does this live nativity on a rather grand scale and they do it every year but I haven't had the chance to take it in for the last few years. There was the COVID last year and before that, there was just so much going on... and it's only for two days each Christmas season.

This year instead of a walk through, they are doing a Drive Thru event and I am looking forward to checking it out! It's on Saturday and Sunday evening and it looks like all you'll need is a smart phone, a car and yourself to check it out! 

Five. The Commission by Cain - Ryan, myself and my parents attended the one night only showing on Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers on Wednesday, December 1st and the movie/show was absolutely fantastic. It was filled with musical performances by several contemporary Christian artists sharing their favorite Christmas songs and monologues about the many names of God.

The finale was a lovely episode of The Chosen that was all about the Christmas Story - the most important part of Christmas, the nativity. It was all beautifully done but I was especially touched by the song that premiered before the movie even began - The Commission by Cain. So I wanted to share that here for you to check out! 

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That's all I've got for this first weekend of the holiday season! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this special season with those you hold most dear. 

Boats & Planes

So... one of the places that was recommended to us for a breakfast option in Charleston was Hot Little Biscuit (actually called Callie's Hot Little Biscuit) and so we decided to start the day on Friday with a trip to King Street to grab some biscuits (and coffee - always coffee). I went with the Pimento and Cheese biscuit because it's been a long while since I've had good pimento cheese and man - it was a tasty choice! Hot Little Biscuit has two locations in Charleston and I'd say it's worth checking out!

  

The second stop on Friday was the USS Yorktown - an aircraft carrier that had been spied across the bay on Thursday and immediately piqued the interest of both Ryan and my Dad, especially since the flight deck was littered with all sorts of aircraft. Doc and Ms. Marilyn were also interested and so we bought tickets, walked the plank (sort of) and boarded the aircraft carrier for what would end up being quite a long tour... or set of tours, as it was. 

 

 

The USS Yorktown was commissioned for use in WWII and fought in the Battle of Midway; interestingly enough, the construction of the Yorktown began six days before that attack at Pearl Harbor and only took 16 months to complete. The Yorktown was an integral part of the battles that took place in the Pacific during WWII and even retrieved the Apollo 11 Module when it landed in the ocean. The ship definitely had a storied history and it was fascinating to be able to wander from bow to stern and everywhere in between.

A portion of the ship was dedicated to Medal of Honor winners and one of the men who won a Medal of Honor for the Air Force was John L. Levitow - and as we perused the exhibition, my Dad quietly mentioned that during his time in the Air Force he'd been awarded the John L Levitow Award - which is the highest honor given to a graduate of Airman Leadership School. To be eligible for the award you must rank in the top 1% of your class... I've been alive 37 years and never knew this about my Dad!

 

 

The USS Yorktown is pretty gigantic and as such, there are four different self-guided tours that are offered... and we managed to get through the first two (the ship and the flight deck) before we realized it was almost 3:30 in the afternoon. We'd started around 11:00 and the biscuits we'd had for breakfast were starting to feel like they were a long time ago... It was fascinating being able to see so much of the ship and learn so much about it - but hunger did start to set in as well, ha-ha!

 

We watched a short film about the ship before heading for the flight deck to check out the airplanes and we were able to get a group picture thanks to a lovely fellow tourist - the day was beautiful, if a little breezy. I'd left my coat back at the AirBnB but thankfully the gift shop had awesome "Charleston" sweatshirts on sale for just $25 and I grabbed one of those before we started our tour - and it definitely came in handy! I enjoyed getting to learn so much about life on an aircraft carrier - and I also confirmed that the Navy would not be my idea of a good time... too much water, ha-ha!

We used Yelp to look up potential options for a late lunch/early dinner and ended up at Page's Okra Grill - where after a rocky start getting seated, everything else went excellently! The food was classic Southern goodness and seafood, our server was great and it all tasted so wonderful - especially the Peanut Butter Pie we all shared to end the meal! We ended up driving over to the Air Force Base to peruse their Black Friday deals before heading back to the AirBnB for the evening and y'all - the one static display aircraft looked like it had a nose... so I had to "boop" it. 

We ended up having a rematch of Pictionary - guys against girls - and even though the guys played a bit more fiercely and provided a bit more competition this time, the girls still won! Success! We also played a couple additional dice games with some cash and I ended up winning the whole pot - so cheers to me! My MIL said that if Ryan and I ever go to Vegas, he should definitely let me play the tables!

Watson Wednesday

 

Something tells me he is a little confused about how exactly to lay on a bed...