Day 3, Tue, Oct 19, 2021

 Tue, Oct 19, 2021

Our 1st "official" day of vacation.

We've arrived and now the fun begins...

Our first stop is Magnolia Plantation.

Our first stop at Magnolia Plantation will be the conservatory.

Notice the tree behind Jan...the gray plant hanging down are commonly called "Spanish Moss" which is incorrect. They are neither Spanish nor Moss or fungus. Instead, they are air-born plants that survive on the tree using air as it's main source of life. The plant does not take life from the tree so is harmless to the tree unless it becomes so plentiful the tree no longer can use the leaves to photosynthesis to produce life for the tree.

After the fall of slavery and thus the fall of rice production, the Magnolia Plantation became a haven for visitors to get away from the hustle and bustle of Charleston for some R&R at the beautiful gardens at Magnolia Plantation.

I tried to capture the spider web in this photo.

This was a lookout tower over the rice fields.
I was a bit disappointed I didn't get a picture once we got to the top, because I wasn't that impressed with the view until after our boat ride which explained what the view was all about.
Oh well.

Another beautiful view of one small part of the gardens.

Here's the plantation itself.
The slaves would live on the ground floor with the owners living high and mighty on the upper floors.
This plantation would be burned during the civil war (all but the first floor), but would later be rebuilt.

We paused to take a picture of the beautiful yellow flowers which you could view from the back porch of the plantation.

Now we're on the pantoon boat tour.
This Great Blue Heron let us go by without making a move
(probably thought we couldn't see him/her if s/he didn't move).

We learned if you measure between the eyes and the snout in inches you could determine the length of the alligator in feet. This one was probably about 7 feet long.

I'm not sure what this is, maybe an egret, but it stood there daring us to take a picture.
So I did.

I thought of Deneuve Crockett when I took this picture. She is a fan of batman and this bird, with its wings spread out, made me think of the batman logo.

Before we leave Magnolia Plantation I wanted to share some slave facts with you...

There were over 10,000,000 slaves that came from the continent of Africa.
However, they would not be known as African, because they were best known as people from their people groups. Similar to American Indians who would be known by their tribal names like Apache, Potawatomie, etc.
2,000,000 slaves would die on the journey to the west.
4,000,000 slaves arrived at Brazil.
Most arrived in Central America and the islands in that region.
Only 400,000 slaves came to North America.
200,000 of those slaves entered North America at Charleston SC.
Their specialty was planting, growing, and harvesting rice.
However, it was very dangerous and back breaking work.
When slavery ended, so did rice production.
No one else would do the work required and get paid enough to make it worth while.
Magnolia Plantation became a garden center used by the rich for R&R away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

We took to the beach tonight to catch the sunset, and as we did, we were captured by the moonlight instead.

Good night!

End of Day 1 (minus the travel days)