Day 6 - Plantation & Angel Tree

Sunday June 11, 2023
Posted from: Yemassee Holiday KOA, Yemassee, SC
Miles driven: 133
Total trip miles: 1536

We wanted to see a plantation while we were here (maybe Grace and I wanted to see one more than the others), and there is no shortage of plantations to visit. 

We chose the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens for many reasons, but primarily because it seemed to have something everyone would be interested in. Like gardens for Mom and a chance to see alligators for Caleb. 

The house itself was lovely. This version built over time after the civil war. It burned down once from a kitchen fire and a second time by Union soldiers at the end of the civil war. 

Caleb and Grace were able to try out the Charleston bench that we saw on our walking tour yesterday. It really does bounce you around with very little effort. 

I’m now trying to figure out how to add this porch onto our house. It was amazing how much cooler it was on the porch than anywhere else. They knew exactly how to make porches to catch the breeze, and keep the sun off the house. Cameron was still not 100% so I’m pretty sure he would have stayed here all day. 

Lunch was sandwiches at their little cafe.



Caleb’s favorite part was the nature tour around the swamps looking for birds and alligators. We definitely saw lots of both. 

This picture didn’t turn out great, but there were a LOT of birds and nests in this tree. There is also an alligator in the water but he is even harder to see. I post these pictures for my mother-in-law who loved nothing more on family vacations than coming home and developing the film and realizing several pictures were taken of a prairie dog (or some such animal) several yards in the distance that no one can actually see in the picture. *sigh

The live oaks on this plantation were impressive. Even though this plantation is on the outskirts of Charleston, it clearly did not take the hit from hurricane Hugo that the downtown did. The cover picture for today’s post shows the live oak lined lane coming into the plantation, which was very common. 

Another reason we chose this plantation was because they had a special tour focused on slave life. So after the house tour and the nature tour we went on the slave tour. 

There were 4 living quarters set up to represent different time periods. At one point there were 11 living quarters on the property housing up to 180 slaves…these were NOT big dwellings. 

Once the slaves were freed, many stayed for meager wages due to a lack of opportunity elsewhere. This plantation had descendants of slaves living in these houses until 1990. That’s not a typo. Until 33 years ago. They lived in the third house in the distance of this picture below. 

Inside of the house representing conditions before the civil war. 



Other than their weekly rations of corn meal and maybe some dried meat, they had to grow their own food. 

This was a rice farm, which was a very dangerous and difficult crop to grow in South Carolina. Once the slaves were freed, the plantation never grew rice again because it was so terrible that you couldn’t pay anyone any amount of money to do the work, no matter how desperate they were. 



Leaving the slave quarters, we walked to the gardens. They were stunning. This bridge didn’t even seem real. 



Warning, there will be a few random picture of flowers, most of which I don’t know the names. Like this one. 



The kids on the bridge.



Matt and I….and our photographer who had trouble not including himself in the picture. 



Take two!



While taking a picture of the hydrangea flowers, this poser made his presence known. 

Alligator right off the path. This is where you learn a little bit about each other. Cameron and my instincts were to keep walking…



While Matt, Grace and Caleb walked closer and ended up finding an even bigger alligator. Super.



Hydrangeas 

No idea, but the color! Wow!

And finally, we had to stop and see the petting zoo. Caleb insisted. He fell in love with a little deer that wandered around and loved to be petted. Somehow we didn’t get a picture of Caleb and his new little buddy. 

But we did (finally) get a picture of us with the peacock. Matt was so determined. This was like take 14 or something.



The outtakes are more entertaining than the final picture. In this one Caleb gave up and walked away and I was just about to. Geesh.

The Angel Oak 

We left the plantation and drove a few miles to see the Angel Oak tree. This is an old live oak tree that is simply massive and so interesting to look at. 

I tried to take a wide lens of the whole thing. 

This is a baby live oak.

Some interesting information:


And finally, it was time for ice cream. 


We drove through storms on the way back.


The rain dropped the temperature significantly. 


This is a little shop we stopped at yesterday on the way home. It was a cute shop with a lot of local food and crafts. We bought some peach cider and peach jam. 


With the rain, tonight was leftovers heated in the microwave with some fruit and veggies. 


And a movie. This is our usual movie set up. The couch and table are made into areas to lounge. Dad gets the antigravity chair and I get the bed in our bedroom. 

The end of another good day.