Planes, Trains and Spiders

Wilmington, South Carolina is an awesome city!  It was really scenic, with lots of interesting history dating as far back as the Revolutionary War, great old buildings and homes, plantations, water, beaches and much more.  It is definitely going on the list of possible places to settle down and buy a home. 

We stayed at Lake Aire Campground, which is not going on the list of places to go back to.  It wasn't awful, but the nearby train tracks were noisy, the grass was that prickly, burr filled grass with fire ants everywhere, and knowing that this GIANT spider was only a few feet away from where we were camped made me a bit nervous!  It was over 5"!  I googled it later and found it is a Golden Orb Weaver spider - not poisonous, but has a painful bite!  I'll bet it does!

I

In the morning, we did enjoy the different songbirds, which at least was more pleasant than a yappy dog and the blasted train, or the fighter jets we dealt with in Virginia.  Even if it was at the butt-crack of dawn!

 

We drove into Charleston and visited the Boone Plantation.  The drive up to the house was called "The Avenue of Oaks" and it was lined with gorgeous Live Oaks, dripping with moss.  It was this same driveway of Oaks that were used in the filming of "Gone with the Wind".  Simply stunning!

 

 

 

The house was no longer the original that had been built in the late 1700s; it had burnt down and replaced with a farm house type structure, but then when the property was sold sometime in the early 1900s, this house was built, but they used much of the old lumber, molding and chandeliers.  No pictures were allowed to be taken inside, but trust me, it was gorgeous! 

 

The slave houses provided for the "house" slaves were in front of the property, and each structure had an audio recording about slave history.  It was very educational.  There was also a demonstration of basket making, made from sweet grass, and this craft has a strong tie to the area and the Gullah culture/people, descendants of slaves that remain in the lowland South Carolina/Georgia area.

 

Row of Slave houses, all original

The front of one of them

 

 

Beautifully made sweet grass baskets

 

The plantation used to be a rice plantation, it is still a working farm.  There were beautiful gardens, butterflies and gorgeous old trees.

 

Lots of butterflies here, and everywhere we look in South Carolina

 

One of the trees here has been alive over 600 years!

Noel strolling the gardens before the house tour



From there we headed to downtown Charleston.  We visited the City Market, much like Dayton's 2nd Street Market.   It was a bit more flea market than the market in Dayton, but there was tons of jewelry, and you know that didn't make me unhappy!  There were beautiful fountains, interesting architecture and things to discover around every corner - including a bead store! :)

That pretty much wiped me out for the day, so I followed Doctor Noel's orders and took some pain medication and went to bed before the sun went down!  Next stop: Savannah, Georgia