North Charleston

Cypress Gardens is a 175-acre swamp garden about 30 minutes from downtown Charleston. The gardens were originally a freshwater reserve for the nearby rice plantation, Dean Hall. We walked through the Butterfly House, however it pales in comparison the the butterfly garden in Gainesville. But I enjoyed the Swamparium, where large tanks feature fish, amphibians and reptiles native to the South Carolina Lowcountry, and I took a great video of a Boa Constrictor yawning! The highlight of our visit definitely was the guided paddle boat ride through the swamp and listening to our guide ‘Cowboy’ as he pointed out the spots that were used for filming scenes of The Notebook, Cold Mountain, The Patriot and other Hollywood movies.

As we still had some time to spare we decided to drive to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens to spend the afternoon there. The plantation was founded in 1676 by the Drayton Family. It is the oldest tourist site in the Lowcountry and the oldest public gardens in America. The current building dates back to 1873 and is the third home on the site. The two former homes were destroyed by fire during a raid on Union troops. The plantation has remained in the same family for three centuries. We walked through the house which is furnished with early American antiques, porcelain, quilts and other Drayton family heirlooms, strolled through the historic gardens, spent time in the petting zoo, rode on the nature train, and I got lost on the self-guided Audubon Swamp Garden tour (thank you GPS for guiding me back to the car!).

For dinner, Bob had made reservations at Virginia’s on King where I ordered the Charleston specialty - she crab soup - and deviled eggs as an appetizer, followed by their specialty: Fried Chicken with collards and red rice! Bob had the meatloaf which also was amazing!
With 16,000 steps for this day, we set a new trip record!Read more