Day 62 - South Carolina

Day 62

Dec. 12

Charleston, SC

Dear Miss Smith,
    Wow. We saw some pretty cool places today! It was quite the full but fun
day:)

    We were all up and on our way early because we knew there was a lot to see! Our first stop was Drayton Hall. Drayton Hall is a beautiful brick house located outside of Charleston. It has survived the American Revolution, the Civil War, a local earthquake in 1886 and large hurricanes. It's one of the only Pre-Revolutionary houses that stand in close to their original condition today, and is the only plantation on the Ashley River to survive intact. Through the years, it had been passed down through 7 generations of Draytons, and served as a rice plantation, a military headquarters, a site for strip mining, and a country retreat before being bought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1974. The Trust decided to preserve the site as is, instead of restoring it to look like a certain time period like many other places do. Quite the history, huh?

    We took the house tour, which lasted just over 45 minutes. The house had beautiful wood floors and walls. In one hall there was a marble mantle which was original to the house!

A couple rooms had plaster ceilings, which were pretty cool. One of these plaster ceilings was the original 1742 ceiling for that room. The basement was all stone; walls, floors and all!





    Once we finished looking around the grounds, we ate lunch as we headed to our next stop, the Magnolia Plantation.

There is so much to do there! We started with the tour of the house which took us through ten rooms.
    We explored the slave cabins and spent some time in the Zoo and Nature center, then headed to the gardens. The gardens were amazing. It must be unbelievably beautiful in the warmer months!! Definitely a place to come back to!

    The Swamp Garden was probably the coolest part of it though. Trees growing from the water . . . egrets and herons . . . lots of bridges and dikes. And you're right in the middle of it all. I took lots of pictures!

    By the time we finished our walk through there, we decided we wanted to give our feet a break though, so we took the Nature Train. The ride took us over the plantation and it was a good way to get a sample of every bit of the place. We even saw an alligator! Before leaving, we stopped at the Peacock Cafe and got something warm to drink. It was warmer than usual today but we were still getting a bit chilly after being outside most of the afternoon!

    Now we're enjoying our last evening at the Cottage. It's been really nice having a cozy place to come to the last several evenings :) Only one more day in South Carolina! It's gone really fast!

-Abigail

Day 60 - South Carolina

Day 60

Dec. 10

Charleston, SC

Miss Smith,

            We got up early today so we could finish the drive to Charleston. Our first place we stopped was Boone Hall Plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation

We only spent a few hours there so we could go everywhere we wanted to, but we could have spent longer. The house was beautiful.

Middleton Place

            After that we went to the Middleton Place. The house museum was neat.

The furniture and furnishings were beautiful. We went to the garden afterwards. The flowers were pretty. They had some white flowers blooming that were just gorgeous.

 

Middleton Gardens

            Eventually we tired and decided to go to our cottage. We stayed at the Cottages on Charleston harbor. The cabins were roomy.

Soon we settled in for the night.

My favorite part of the day was when we took a tour of the Middleton house. Got to go now.

Sincerely,

Susanna

Day 59 - South Carolina

Day 59

Dec. 9

St. George, South Carolina

Dear Miss Smith,
    This morning we got up and quickly ate breakfast. We were eager to be on our way and finish our drive to Redcliffe! The Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site is near Beech Island. It wasn't too long of a drive until we arrived.

    The Redcliffe Plantation was finished in 1859 and was once the home of James Henry Hammond and three generations of his descendants. The mansion is a tall house, but it didn't look quite like what I think of when I think of a Plantation house. I guess it's more box shape than spread out. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, but it was pretty in it's own way: white with dark green trim.

    We decided we wanted to take the tour of the mansion, so looked around a bit while we were waiting for the next tour to start. The wide open front porch had a really cool view. It would be a really relaxing place to sit and unwind! Especially in the spring or summer!  It was kinda breezy and cool today so we didn't spend too much time out there.

    The tour of the house lasted around two hours. Plantation houses are so cool! Especially all the wood floors! The square grand piano in the parlor looked so tempting to play.:)

    After the tour, we headed outside to check out the slave quarters and the magnolia lane. Redcliffe Plantation has one of the few surviving 19th century slave quarters in the state. The magnolia trees were larger than I expected! It must be so pretty in the spring when they're blooming!

    We're now on our way to Charleston and spending the night at, you guessed it, another RV park ;) Not that I mind, it's been fun spending evenings with Priscilla and Susanna!

-Abigail

Day 27 - Louisiana

Day 27

November 8

Vacherie, LA

My Dear Miss Smith,

We are on our way to a doll museum in Baton Rouge right now. I am letting Amy drive for she has promised not to scare me, and I wanted to get this out in the mail to you before noon.

I’m sure Mikayla told you all about our wonderful day yesterday seeing all those animals, so I won’t go into that again.

This morning Amy got us all up early. It was before six o’clock! She does like to rise early. But this morning she had good reason for we had decided to breakfast at Oak Alley Plantation and we had a ways to drive to reach there. Having spent the night and enjoyed breakfast at Nottaway Plantation, we were sure we knew what to expect.

We couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, both are plantations restored as much like the original as possible, but Oak Alley made you feel as though you stepped back in time. I told the girls that I felt as though we should have our hoop-skirts and bonnets on. At least I wore my cream and gold hat. I offered hats to the others, but they all refused them. I’ll have to keep working on them; Amy especially needs help with her choice of hats. But I digress.

Imagine standing before a rot-iron gate and looking down a lane lined on either side by tall, spreading oaks. At the very end of the lane, framed by the arching branches, which in summer I’m sure are a mass of green, stands the mansion; its white pillars standing like sentinels before the large doors while lights glimmer through the windows. We were all speechless for several minutes. And when I say that, you can know for certain that it was all beyond description.

We took a tour and I felt as though I had stepped out of the page of a history book. The tour guides were all in period costume and, oh, Miss Smith, I am at a loss for words to describe it. I could have stayed there for weeks just wandering the grounds,

studying the decorations, the paintings, the furnishings. I would love to sit and dream. I know that were Bekah to come here she would compose a new novel, for the very air seems to inspire one with the past.

At last we did return to dine. The restaurant is not in the main house, but in a smaller one nearby, but still on the grounds. 

It was truly a southern breakfast complete with grits. Amy and Grace didn’t care for them, but Mikayla tolerated them while I ate them with great enjoyment.

Our stop at the gift shop caused us to leave with a few small things and then, with great reluctance, we tore ourselves away as we still had two museums to see before bed.

Mikayla just saw the sign for our turn off, so I will end this now.

With love,

~Priscilla