Thursday, August 23, 2018

June 26, 2018 Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, SC








Tuesday
Joe and Erin and researched visiting a plantation.  Erin is into photography, so they picked going to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.  It was founded in 1676 by the Drayton family.  It operated as a plantation with rice as it’s main crop until after the Civil War.  When they could no longer operate the plantation on the same scale as they did with slaves, they decided to open their gardens to the public.  In 1870, “tourists” traveled by boat up the Ashley River from Charleston to be able to walk the gardens and picnic for the day.  It has been open to the public ever since. 

With our all inclusive ticket, we were able to wander the grounds, tour the plantation house, take a Nature Train through the grounds, take a boat tour through the rice fields, and listen to a presentation about their history with slavery and see some of the quarters that were set up in 4 different time periods.  We also walked through the swamp gardens.  We arrived about 10:00 and stayed until about 5:00.  It was a beautiful day.  Erin just purchased a $4000 lens, so she had a great day zooming in on wildlife.

When we were heading to a took out tower near the rice fields/now swamps, we heard an angry growl.  We scurried up the steps and spotted a large alligator along the bank of the river.  After we came down, I hurried off to the house for the tour we were scheduled for and to meet Dave.  Erin and Joe took a little time to see if they could get a better photo.  I warned them that it was like trying to get closer to buffalo.  I was glad to see them when they arrived for the tour. 

The ponds with cypress trees were just beautiful.  I remember as a child having “cypress knees” that were our grandparent’s, at least that is what remember.  They were part of the root system that sticks out above the water.  I just had to include many of the photos. 












The rice fields used to be in this area behind Erin and Joe









bamboo forest







checking out an alligator.

alligator in the red algae on the water

hiking path through the swamp.  looked like easy access for a gator to me
 
 The following photos are Erin's closeups.

















On the way back to the boat, we stopped at the Tattooed Moose for happy hour and ended up having dinner there.  It felt like a bar you would find in MN, but I guess unique to the locals.  Their claim to fame was french fries cooked in duck fat.  They didn’t seem any different to us. 

We spent some time trying to catch crabs off the dock right by our boat.  We caught 3, but kept them for dinner the next day.

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