Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sunshine & Sightseeing

Well after a much needed good night's sleep I woke up to plenty of sunshine outside. The beach house we are staying in has a pool, so I fixed a bowl of cereal, grabbed my swimsuit and a book and spent about 2 hours soaking up some much needed sunshine. It was a great way to start the day off but I didn't want to spend the whole day lounging about as I wanted to get out and see the sights. So I came in around noon, got cleaned up and headed out to visit Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens. The road that you travel up to the main house is called the Avenue of Oaks and it's absolutely breathtaking. These oak trees were planted in 1743 by Thomas Boone, son of John Boone, the original owner of this plantation. I took this picture of the avenue at the gates of the main house on the plantation.

I loved the gates at the brick wall that led you to the main house. The current plantation house, built in 1936 by Canadian Ambassador Thomas A. Stone sits on the site of the original home.
You might also recognize these gates from a recent movie called "The Notebook". Two scenes from this movie was filmed here. They used the gates to the main house as the gates that were at Allie's parents home. There is a shot from the movie when her mother goes out the gate to the mailbox to take letters Noah had written to Allie. (same gates from the plantation)
The other thing the movie filmed from Boone Hall was Boone Hall Creek. This creek is shown in the movie when Noah took Allie out on the water, through all those trees where they came upon all of those beautiful white swans.
I also learned that Boone Hall Creek is a natural saltwater creek so there is an abundance of seafood thanks to the tide and all. I saw plenty of crabs on the rocks of the docks behind the dock house. This picture of Boone Hall Creek was taken from grounds behind the main house.
Here is a picture of the dock house. The grounds of the plantation were beautiful to walk around.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nine original slave cabins at Boone Hall were home to the skilled slaves that provided the services that supported the Plantation. And when they use the term "skilled slaves" they said that those were the slaves that needed to be closest to the main house like the blacksmith, tailor, etc. And at one time there was said to be between 300-400 slaves that lived and worked on the plantation. It was very interesting to see.
I spent my entire afternoon at Boone Hall and it was a great way to soak up some of the culture "what once was" from the South. Since it was close to 4:30 and I was quite hungry from not having any lunch (the kitchen i had planned to eat at on the plantation was not open today), I headed back to Isle of Palm to eat at a fun beachside eatery called Coconut Joe's. I had a fruity, coconut drink and a delicious flounder sandwich. It was a great way to end the day only bad thing is I gave myself a headache from not eating sooner. Back to the beach house to relax for the evening as I have a full day in Charleston planned tomorrow.

1 comment:

RU said...

FUN! Looks like good times on the plantation.
NC beaches are flat and you can see for miles on them- if you do get to the Outer Banks, I highly recommend Nags Head.
I had a headache from not eating enough every day while in Boston (pack a snack!)
Have fun!