Boone Hall Plantation

This morning we woke up early and had a delicious hot breakfast to prepare for our big day. We headed to Boone Hall Plantation to learn more about plantation life in the Carolinas. Boone Hall is one of the most photographed plantations in America (popular from “The Notebook” and the recent nuptials of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively). We started off with an open air coach ride through roughly 700 acres of some of the most beautiful trees you could imagine. Since it is still a working farm, we learned about many of their crops (blueberries, strawberries, peaches, pecans, corn…about the only thing they can’t grow are apples) and the history of the plantation. The current owners are a brother/sister team that grew up in the house and the brother still lives on the plantation and oversees its operations. The tour was incredibly interesting and informative.  

Ready for our coach tour around the plantation.

Photos just can't do it justice. With the 300 year old trees and the Spanish Moss blowing in the breeze it was absolutely stunning. 

Norah loved searching for turtles as we drove!

We then headed to the butterfly gardens. This was one of the girls’ favorite spots as the butterflies swarmed them. It was very peaceful and *a little* cooler.

Grace loved when butterflies landed on her.

From there we headed to a tour of the mansion. They don’t allow photos given that the owners still occupy the 2^nd and 3^rd floors, but you can imagine the grandeur. You aren’t allowed to touch anything, but I could tell Grace was thinking about plunking some of the keys on the beautiful baby grand piano sitting in the library!

The thing about southern hospitality, everyone asks if you would like them to take a family picture. 

From the house tour we headed out to the Gullah Theater to hear about slave life from a woman who is Gullah Geechee. The Gullah are the descendants of enslaved Africans who live in the Lowcountry region  of South Carolina and Georgia and she taught us a little of the Gullah Geechee dialect and the meanings and hidden messages behind some of the lyrics of the most well-known songs like, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The girls liked singing along, but were being swarmed by a huge bumblebee, so they were a bit preoccupied in fear.

The presentation gave us a great opportunity to re-hydrate! It was HOT!

We headed out to the Cotton Dock (above) and then to tour the slave homes (there were 9 of them still on the property). 

Each home featured a different piece of history in regard to slavery and the emancipation proclamation, so it was really informative. Given that it was 98 degrees today, it gave the girls (and us) a whole new appreciation for working from sun-up to sun-down in the heat without sufficient food and water. Grace also just finished studying about Rosa Parks, so once the information became a bit more recent and got into information on Civil Rights, she had a lot to offer.

Each little house had a short video to explain the lives of some of the slaves who worked on the plantation in addition to information about the time.

It was a beautiful plantation, rich in history. I was worried that the girls wouldn’t be old enough to appreciate it, and the heat would be too much for them for 5 hours of “learning” in the hot sun, but they did a great job and we really enjoyed it!

Our little explorer found a few new "friends" on the plantation. She really thought this tiny toad should come home with us..."no one wants to live in a slave house."

Charleston

We pulled into Charleston about 1pm and checked in early to our hotel. The girls love this southern hospitality...there were cookies and lemonade awaiting our arrival! After our sweet treat we headed to the Maritime Center where we took a boat tour of the Harbor. Since our time is limited here it was a great way to see over 75 landmarks in Charleston in only an hour and a half. A few highlights that were our favorite, Ft. Sumter, Ft. Moultrie, the USS Yorktown, the Ravenel suspension bridge over the Cooper River (longest in the US, who knew?!), and not on the list but exciting none-the-less…dolphins! So much history about our country...we're all learning so much!

Checking out the pier (and all the elaborate yachts) while we waited for our tour.

Getting ready to board the Carolina Belle for a boat tour of the harbor.

Ft. Moultrie, built to protect South Carolina during the revolutionary war, was made of Palmetto logs which were soft enough they absorbed the shots. They said even cannon balls bounced off the walls! This is why people refer to S.C as the Palmetto state. 

Perfect day for sailing the harbor...forget history, Emma liked the dolphins.

After our tour we scoped out a few of the highlights from land instead of water. We spent some time walking through Battery Park and checking out the cannons and cannon balls. This tree lined park was the perfect way to escape the heat and take a relaxing stroll through the heart of Charleston. Walking along the harbor was beautiful and the houses on our walk to the park were huge.

After sightseeing downtown Charleston we headed over to Mt. Pleasant to check out Patriots Point. We were hoping to eat at the Vickery (a delish little seafood place where you can overlook the harbor and watch the dolphins) but there was an event going on in Patriot’s Point and it was CRAZY busy down there. No parking, tons of people, traffic was at a standstill. We opted for Coleman Public House. It was…ehh. Mark got the shrimp and grits and I had the fish tacos, but we left really wishing we could have eaten at the Harbor.

We thought tonight would be a great night to get the girls to bed a bit earlier and bring a little normal back to our lives. However, these outdoor pools in the Carolina heat just call our names. After a nice little evening dip we headed up to the room for a little shut eye. Big day tomorrow at the plantation.