Sun Dec 1st - Boone Hall Plantation

Sun Dec 1st - Boone Hall Plantation
We have delayed going to Boone Hall until today, as it is the first day of the Christmas season for the Hall, and it was supposed to be decorated for the season. Unfortunately they were not yet finished... but it really didn't matter as the place itself is worth the visit regardless of the season.

Avenue of the Oaks - Boone Hall Plantation

Boone Hal Plantation House

Pecan Trees - dormant for the winter

Cute way to display bluejeans!!!

More oaks

Slave Quarters - 'Slave Street'

The most amazing part of this Plantation is the entrance driveway to the plantation called 'The Avenue of The Oaks".  The oak trees (evergreen 'live oaks') on either side creating an arbor across the road that are made even more beautiful by the spanish moss hanging from the boughs. That sight alone is worth the price of admission. Quite astonishing and ethereal Some of the trees are over three hundred years old (so they say). We had a busy day at the plantation. First we went on a wagon ride around the property (it is still a working plantation, but no longer grows cotton), we then went on a tour of the plantation house (Boone Hall) where we learned of the history and various owners over the years. This was followed by a Gullah presentation outside one of the old slave homes still standing on the plantation. The Gullah language and culture is a mix of English, African and French and is still a thriving language/culture in the area. Afterwards we spent some time going through the various buildings still standing, which were occupied right up to the 1940's or so (some slave families stayed after they were freed in 1865 and some were occupied by tenant farmers for a while) Each of the old slave homes now contain information about the history of the slaves and their lives in South Carolina with photos, movies and stories in each building. While we felt some of the information was a little 'sugar-coated', we do give them credit for preserving the history and providing some fascinating information. After a delicious ice-cream we took in a small 'history' presentation, which was marred by the sudden attack of gnats and the fact that the person presenting really did not do a very good job (terrible actually.. but fortunately very short!!!).

Having fun at Boone Plantation

Heading out after a long but fabulous day, we drove to the Crazy Crab restaurant on Hilton Head Island and enjoyed some more great seafood from the area (Crab dip, Crab-cakes, flounder, mahi-mahi, shrimp, lobster)  ... YUM!!!  Couldn't eat it all so packed it up for lunch tomorrow! GREAT DAY!!

Self Portrait  tradition

Boone Hall - Main house

Still would like to know what this tree is. Bark pale, wood red!!

Waiting for the tour of the house

Gullah culture presentation

Record of slave ships.. shows # of slaves loaded and number arrived alive!!

Slave Quarters

Share croppers (post slavery)

Ready to leave.. last look at the oaks - great day

Spanish moss fascinates Janice

So eerie looking!!!

And this is what it was all about.... COTTON!!

Sat Nov 30 - 1 YEAR TODAY - Coligny Beach

It is exactly one year since we started our journey and, looking, back we have been to so many places and seen so many things that we need our blog to help us remember them all. From Nashville to Memphis to Texas to Western Caribbean to  UK and Europe to the Grand Canyon, to Yellowstone to all points west through to Vancouver wedding, through the Rockies with friends and across Canada back to Milton. What an amazing year!  As we enjoy the last week or so here in South Carolina, we often chat about the 'What now?' scenario and we always end up with 'let's just keep going for a while and see what happens!' Regardless of when and where we settle down again, we are both 100% glad that we embarked on this magical mystery tour and we plan on continuing to enjoy it for a while.
So back to the blog....

Ready to head to the beach

Oh yes... this is the way to bike!!

Saturday morning we couldn't decide what to do and were quite at a loss. So after a morning latte and light lunch we packed the bikes onto the bike rack and took off to explore Coligny Beach. It was far better than we had imagined. The beach access area has a large shopping plaza (which we looked at from the outside only) .. there are big wooden swings, change areas and free public showers (beautifully clean) ... but the best part was the beach.... very wide and 12 miles long. We took our bikes down by the water and biked along the beach heading south. It was fabulous... the crowds were only gathered at the access point and the rest of the ride was free and easy... loved it. After our ride (we did 15km) we went to a coffee shop in the beach area and enjoyed some festive style coffees before heading back to the rig before dark .... 

Happiness in a helmet!!

We poured ourselves a glass of Champagne and Kirsch and walked to the harbour in the RV resort and sat watching the sunset as we toasted a great year on the road!!

It is truly the best way to see the beach!!!

And back we go!!

Shower stalls on the beachfront area

Tried hard NOT to feed them!!!

Guy in Parking lot towed on his skateboard by his remote control buggy!!

Celebrating 1 year on the road... cheers!!

Untouched.... Love the sunsets!!

Thurs/Fri Nov 28/29 -US Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Thurs/Fri Nov 28/29 -US Thanksgiving and Black Friday 
A sunny beautiful day for Thanksgiving, though a bit chilly.
Note to self.... do NOT experiment with cooking when preparing something for a pot-luck!!! 

A typical road in the RV Park

View of the swings at RV Park over the bay

The brownies.. while tasty, turned out to be a bit of a disaster, in that they were a big tray of chocolatey mush. Even after trying to re-cook them for 45 minutes they were no better and only with great effort did we we manage to get some of the outer edges formed into squares and plonked on a plate to take to the RV resort Thanksgiving pot-luck lunch. We quickly and furtively put them with the rest of the offerings and moved sprightly away. Fortunately there was a huge amount of food and desserts for all to enjoy and we both had a great time mingling with the 60-70 people who crowded into the lounge. The Turkey was absolutely delicious and were able to taste several types of stuffing (called dressing here) including one with oysters in. We also tried grits and several dishes that we have no idea what they were... a jolly celebration, and day for Derek and I to be very thankful for such an eventful and adventurous year on the road. This week a year ago, the movers came in and moved our furniture into storage and we spent Wednesday with our friend Kathy cleaning the house out. We slept in the 'condo' on wheels in the driveway of our empty house on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.
So much has happened this year (just looking back on the blog, we realize how lucky we are in so many ways.)
On Black Friday we were persuaded by horrific reports of crowds, to avoid the stores at all costs, bargains notwithstanding!!!  Instead, we spent some money on us, by heading to the Skull Creek Oyster restaurant and enjoyed a lovely fish lunch (Cod).

View from RV Park

One of the RV's in the park  decorated for Xmas

In the afternoon we actually got into the mounting Christmas spirit by writing our annual 'Taylor Tales' and Christmas cards for our international friends and family. We even got the cards to the post office before closing and got them mailed... yippee!! In the evening we walked around the RV resort to admire the Christmas decorations that have sprung up literally overnight around many of the rigs. We were admiring one particularly festive display when the owners of the rig saw us and invited us to join them at their patio table and we whiled away an hour surrounded by Christmas lights and decorations sharing stories of life on and off the road. 
Getting back to our 'condo' we finally enjoyed the chilled shrimp and seafood sauce and watched the hockey game, a sad but not disastrous overtime loss! At least they get a single point.  

Monday Nov 25 to Wednesday Nov 27th - Rainy days and Outlet Malls

Mon Nov 25 to Wed Nov 27 - Rainy days and Outlet Malls

As is so often the case, we are told by locals that the cold rainy windy weather we are experiencing is 'unusual' for this time of year, and by rights we should be lazing away on a beach. We have started to take the locals word with a grain of salt, and not planning golf games or beach walks until the 'morning of'. And this week has been one of those weeks for hunkering down by the electric fireplace and breaking out the wooly PJ's at night.  In fairness, we did bravely wander from the 'condo' and herewith is a summary of one of the slowest weeks we have had on the road!! Plans for golf on Monday were quickly ditched when the temperature remained in single digits by noon, so we stayed home and we did some planning and research and basic admin. Later in the day cabin fever led us to venture out to a big outlet mall (Tanger) to discover that we actually didn't initially find it. We wandered inadvertently into 'Big Lots' and 'World Market'.. stores which captured our attention for so long, that a trip to the outlet mall consisted of only one store (Nike) and the rest was delayed for another day.
On Tuesday after a valiant session in the gym we decided to continue our quest to investigate the outlet mall. We were blown away with the 'pre-Black Friday' prices of stuff in stores such as Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Bahama, Levi, Crocs etc  (if you need more 'stuff').   What was notable about this day was the rain... it was torrential to put it mildly.. and, with gale force winds, we (well Janice anyway, who is far more dramatic in her imagination) had visions of the 'condo' floating away and breaking up in a rubbled heap. But thankfully the shelter of the pecan and live oaks, left the unit with little more than a good shake up and a couple of nuts on the roof (no not us!! Pecans!!). Live oaks for those who are wondering are so-called because they are 'evergreen' oaks and therefore stay 'live' throughout the year. They are common in this 'Gone With the Wind' area of the USA and some parts of Europe. The acorns are very small (fortunately) and plentiful. A walk through a stand of live oaks is frequently fraught with flying acorns unceremoniously shmacking you on the head.
Anyway, back to Tuesday. Exhausted from looking for bargains we didn't need, but pleased with our few purchases, we headed back in the rain and spent the rest of the evening looking out of the window at the storm outside, and feeling very cosy and content.
Wednesday (after the obligatory session in the gym) we went back to Benny Hudson's seafood for some fresh fish. We had actually been there on Monday and had some great flounder.. so today we bought some local sea trout and a pound and a half of huge fresh shrimp to boil up and have cold tomorrow. A trip to the grocery store (Harris Teeter) for some supplies to make brownies as a pot-luck contribution for tomorrow.
We made the brownies, which we have never done before, but we are not sure they are 'done' enough, we will cool them over night and check in the morning. Also made some leek/carrot soup for the freezer. 
The sea trout turned out to be fabulous with watercress and a mustard/yogurt sauce... wow!! We are going to miss the access to such amazing fresh seafood when we leave here in a couple of weeks.
Sorry... no photos... we must get to be more diligent about recording our adventures ... just getting lazy about taking the camera everywhere.

Sat/Sun Nov 23/24th - Home Base - shopping - sea food.

Sat/Sun Nov 23/24th - Home Base - shopping - sea food.
A very late morning after staying up watching a movie until almost 2am.
This weekend the weather was supposed to be sunny and warm on Saturday and COLD on Sunday so we decided to stay around and enjoy the sunny day on Saturday with quick trip to Benny's for some fresh fish... we bought some local flounder and some more shrimp. Found a great grocery store (Harris Teeter's) and a shopping area called 'The Shops on Main'... after we got back we sat outside and read our books on the patio in the sun. Janice went to the gym while Derek did some prep for supper. He cooked up THE best meal.. Shrimp boil, followed by grilled flounder. MM MM MM!!!
To top off a great day the Leafs won!! On Sunday Janice got up early and headed back into the gym. Derek continued to flaunt his culinary skills and cooked up a light and delicious breakfast. (Egg white scramble, with turkey bacon and mushrooms) what a star. Most of the day has been taken up with getting some travel / RV research done and getting the blog updated. It is nice to have reliable internet for a change. The weather turned cold overnight and Sunday is cold but beautifully sunny.
Made a roast dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Fri Nov 22nd - Charleston South Carolina

Fri Nov 22nd - Charleston South Carolina

Patrick and Earl.. looking down Church St.

Beautiful lush gardens

Beautiful homes

 We decided that a 10:30am civil-war walking tour would be a good introduction to the city. As Charleston is a two hour plus drive, we were up early (for us ) and off we went. We arrived in Charleston just before 10.30am but missed the tour ... if indeed the one we wanted was running that day. ...lesson learned...pre-book wherever possible.

'Front door' of a Charleston 'Single' House

Stucco etched to look like stone blocks

Patrick and Earl

Janice and 'Earl'

Anyway we decided to do a horse drawn carriage tour and figured that all tours would originate at the Visitors' centre located North of where we were, so we began the mile+ walk up Meeting Road. At the centre we learned that the horse drawn carriage tours begin near the bottom of Meeting Road at the Market Place..Who Knew?? So we decided to take the free trolley back down... they are every 15 minutes! After 34 minutes it arrived and we took it back into the historic district where we had started.  From the trolley stop we hoofed it to the Carriage tour company to discover that next tour would be in 35 minutes. What a great start (not!!) ..we’d been in the city for over two hours and hadn’t even got started !

Interesting colour tree (Bark is light)

Same tree (anyone know what it is??)

Well the "Old Country" carriage tour turned out to be quite a good. Our driver was a student of architecture and we learned much about the building styles and stories of the past. We saw many of the famous Charleston Single Houses, so named because they are a single room wide. However they are very deep. The 'front door' on the street is actually fake as it leads to a long porch, half way down which is the real entry to the house. If the 'fake' entry door was closed it meant the resident was either out, or did not want visitors, if open, then visitors were welcome. We saw some of the last remaining wooden houses (most were burned down over the years in large fires in the city). The newer brick buildings were often covered in stucco and then etched to be made to look like stone blocks. After we said goodbye to Patrick (our carriage driver) and Earl (the horse) we toured the market on foot. Very interesting stuff including sweet grass hand woven roses and bowls, sesame wafers,  dried okra snacks, and lots of artisan jewelry.  Wallets intact we then went on our own walking tour of the historic district and waterfront by following a 'walking tour' guidebook we bought at the visitors centre. We  picked up most of the points of interest in the old historic district (slave markets, old taverns and homes etc. During our self guided tour we enjoyed a delicious Belgian Caffe Latte (Janice) and a phenomenal Pistachio ice cream (Derek) as we looked out over the harbour. After a couple of hours walking we decided some 'real' food was in order. We didn’t actually find the type of bistro the we were searching for, so gave up and decided to go to James Bay County Island for the Festival of Lights. 
The Festival was very reminiscent of Vancouver's Stanley Park Festival that we have been to a couple of times with Evan. We drove through the light display first in the truck. Then we parked and walked through the 'Santa Village'. We took the Santa Express Train through more light display areas (actually a john Deere tractor in disguise) and we ooooh’ d and aah’d our way around like a couple of kids while bobbing away to the Christmas songs. Finally, the Cheese/Jalapeno stuffed pretzels were something else. (especially as we had no lunch or dinner!!) The festival was a fun event, and we were glad to have been there. We drove home and arrived back at about 10.30pm, settled in and watched the news and a movie (Couples?) so to a very late bed.

All in all quite the day, it started out with all sorts of delays, but we loved Charleston. The history, the architecture, the stories of the slave trade, plantations and southern belles.  The cobbled streets were made using rocks that were originally used as a ballast in the ships coming over from England, and deposited at the dock. The ships then refilled the space with indigo, cotton and lumber etc for the return trip.  The old buildings from the 1700 and 1800's. The stories of a bygone era, of hurricanes and earthquakes and those city fires that destroyed 200, 500 and 600 homes at a time. Yes Charleston is certainly a fabulous city today and yesterday!
ENJOY THE REST OF THE PHOTOS FROM OUR DAY:

Oldest Theatre in Charlston

 

Red light district... of old! House for sale ($1m)

 

Old slave market location

Narrow cobbled alleys

Ice cream smile

Aircraft carrier 'Yorktown' at marine Museum

Interesting sign

The fountain to 'wade in at your own risk'

 

 Large houses where split in two .. and renumbered

Rainbow Row

Interesting Trivia

The Pointsett Tavern

On the Santa Express

Janice in her element

 

St James Island County Island Park Festival of Lights