We're Home from Vacation

We're back.  The drive is really not far and we'd return to Charleston for a visit in the future. 

In addition to our walking tour of Charleston on Monday we went to the Charleston Museum.  That was a good visit too.  Just didn't want to forget anything we did.  I got to see clothes, silver and quilts there and enjoyed the visit. 

Wednesday we headed out to Cypress Gardens and Mepkin Abbey.  We started at the gardens and were able to get on the list for the 12:00 guided boat ride in the swamp.  Yes, they have boats that you can take by yourself, I thought we should wait for the tour since the guide would have more information.  While waiting we went in the butterfly house and walked a little. 

The tour was excellent.  We had 8 in our boat and the tour took about 45 minutes.  Our guide gave us historical information and showed us turtles and even a couple alligators.  Very exciting!  And beautiful.  The water is black because of the cypress oil and has good reflections.  Of course after the boat tour we had to walk the grounds for a couple of hours and saw several turtles and our own alligator. 

We headed off to the abbey but got there just as a bus was pulling in so we could not take the church tour.  It was overbooked with the bus.  We did walk the grounds and enjoyed the beauty.  There were some carvings from trees that had fallen and this is the burial place of Clare Booth Luce and Henry Luce. 

After that we were pretty hungry and decided to go for very casual food in Monck's Corner at Gilligan's Seafood.  Good fried shrimp, okra and iced tea.  A perfect meal right on the water. 

Thursday we had scheduled a Culinary Walking Tour.  This was a great tour and would be good at the beginning of a trip to Charleston.  Susan was our guide and once we met at the tour place we headed out.  There were 6 of us on the tour so it was a nice small group.  We started at the Dixie Restaurant where we sampled grits and pumpkin cornbread.  Very good.

We moved on to several places - Belgian chocolates, several restaurants, Charleston Cooks store.  Susan told us about the restaurants, the menus, we tasted chocolate and we walked.  Pretty fast, but there was lots to learn.

We headed to River Street Sweets where we watched the peanut brittle making and sampled many things - peanut brittle, pralines, pumpkin fudge, glazed nuts, sugared nuts.  Again good.  We each got a huge praline for later.  I snapped a couple pictures of the peanut brittle process.

We also went to Teavanna and learned about teas, and ended with barbecue and collard greens.  Excellent.  The tour was about 3 hours, we went over some I believe.  It is a little pricy but worth it. 

The tour finished about 12:30 so we still had a good part of the day to be tourists. We were not hungry and wanted to try and see the tea plantation so off we went.  Not too far and very interesting. 

We got there just in time for a trolley tour so off we went.  Our guide explained the process and the plants.  The plants are related to camellias and some were beginning to bloom.  The fields look like fields of shrubs.  Every 18 or so days the new growth is sheared to be used to make tea.  The plants are evergreen and will be going dormant soon. 

Old growth fields                                                            New plants

Ready to be trimmed                                                   

After the tea plantation we snapped a few pictures of the Angel tree and headed to a winery for tastings.  They make wine with muscadine grapes and they also make a Sweet Tea Vodka.  I'll get back to you on that.  I've heard it is wonderful but powerful.   

Thursday night we ate at the Hominy Grill and it was excellent.  I had cornmeal crusted grouper, turnip greens and macaroni and cheese.  For dessert a cranberry upside down cake with orange sauce.  Perfect!  We went back for breakfast Friday morning.

Friday the plan was to visit the aquarium and we purchased the optional sea turtle hospital tour.  We arrived in time for the river otter breakfast feeding and then toured the aquarium.  Out turtle tour was at 1:00 and if you ever go to Charleston, go to the hospital.  The director told us about the program, about the turtles, what they do and what we would see before we went in.  Once in we could see all the turtle patients, ask questions, watch some feeding and learn all about everyone.  Very casual, very unrushed, very good. 

The hospital was full with 8 turtles ranging from 70 pounds to over 300 pounds.  They had various problems - run ins with boats, pnuemonia, fish hook injuries, etc.  They are beautiful.  The aquarium is non profit and relies on donations for the turtle program.  Check out the website and blog.  One woman on the tour had rescued one of the turtles a year ago.  She was there visiting her.  Since they have such slow metabolisms they are slow to heal.  Here are a few pictures, but you have to go.

We ended our day with dinner at Cru Cafe and again an excellent meal.  Now we're home and I'll be serving chicken noodle soup!