Let’s talk about Charleston some more, hmmmm?

We did so much while we were there and by the end of the week we were tired. It was a lot of go-go-go and Dale said to me on Thursday night, do you want to just go to the beach tomorrow? He knows I love the beach and his offer was very very tempting. But when I got up Friday morning I thought, NO. We can go to the beach at home but you know what we can’t do at home? Visit a plantation. So off we went to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.

In some ways Magnolia is similar to Boone Hall. There is a big, beautiful mansion. Seriously. Would ya look at that porch? And it goes all.the.way.around. I could picture myself sitting there, drinking a lovely glass of wine and reading a book. Oh yes.

Also like Boone Hall, there are live oaks. And slave cabins. But unlike Boone Hall, admission at Magnolia is sort of a la carte. General admission gets you in the door and you can stroll the grounds and look at the gardens and wildlife all you want. But if you want to see the slave cabins it’s an extra charge and, while I would have liked to have gotten closer for pictures, we didn’t think we’d learn much new so we passed on that part. All of this is just a really long way of saying this is as close as we got to the slave cabins.

Honestly, though, that a la carte pricing is pretty good. We chose to do the nature tram and the nature boat in addition to our general admission. We had to wait a bit for our time on those two rides so we walked the gardens and they are beautiful.

There are several ponds and a couple of bridges. The flowers are plentiful and gorgeous and, even though we missed the camellias and we were too early for the azaleas there was still plenty of things in bloom. Including, although I’m not sharing a photo today, amaryllis. That’s right – amaryllis growing outdoors in the ground. I thought of all of my amaryllis loving blog friends when I saw those!

The gardens at Magnolia cover a lot of acreage and they aren’t as formal as the ones at Boone Hall. They are more free form and wild and I really enjoyed walking the paths and seeing all of the scenery.

There is also lots of wildlife at Magnolia. This is an Anhinga and there were several of those on the property. We also saw a Little Blue Heron, lots of Egrets and a Black Crowned Night Heron, too.

There are peacocks just strolling around. That blue is gorgeous and was so vibrant in the sunshine.

And this Great Blue Heron posed for me for quite a while. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten as close to one as I have to this guy. (Don’t forget to click on the pictures today and see them full sized. It’s much better.)

Finally, the other thing that is abundant at Magnolia is alligators. We saw quite a few although we never saw one completely out of the water. Honestly, that eye ball staring at me was enough.

And the portion of this one’s back right there? I can only imagine how much more of him is below the water. Shudder.

The guides at Magnolia were really informative and talked a lot about the alligators and the life cycle of all of the wildlife there. We saw turtles and ducklings and so much more. We had a great lunch from their cafe – I had a pimento cheese sandwich and three bean salad because, you know, when in the south . . . and it was a really great day.

Would the beach have been more relaxing? Absolutely. But was going to Magnolia Plantation the best decision? You bet.

Shall we get back to our Charleston travelogue? Today I’m going to tell you how we spent Tuesday. Or, as Dale called it, Ft. Sumter Day. You may have guessed that a big part of the attraction of visiting Charleston, for Dale anyway, was the Civil War sites and Ft. Sumter was at the top of that list.

The only way to visit the fort is by boat and it’s a really pleasant thirty minute ride. We saw lots of pelicans and jellyfish and even a porpoise. As for the fort itself, well, to me if you’ve seen one fort you’ve seen them all.

Dale, on the other hand, thought this was a really big deal. He wore his East Bridgewater Civil War Roundtable t-shirt and he just loved getting to be in the spot where it all began. I was very glad for him but I was also very glad that the boat left after one hour and that meant we had to go, too.

After our safe return to Charleston proper we headed to 167 Raw for lunch. (You’ll notice I made Dale change out of that EBCWRT shirt. Ahem.) I had read great things about their oysters and they have a restaurant in Nantucket as well so I thought it was fitting for us to visit. Imagine our surprise when we saw that their oyster list that day included Duxbury, MA – the very spot where we often get our own oysters.

We treated ourselves to The Big Boy, a platter that included oysters, little necks and shrimp. That, along with a couple of beers, was just the ticket after our tramping around Ft. Sumter.

By then it was late in the afternoon and we headed back to our air bnb for a little siesta and regrouping. We eventually got hungry again and decided to head to Halls Chophouse for dinner. Halls had been highly recommended by the owner of our air bnb weeks before we visited but I hadn’t been able to get a reservation. We figured we’d give it a shot and hoped we’d be able to get seats at the bar.

Okay, my friends, I’m about to gush so just stick with me. We were greeted at the door by Jeanne Hall. Yes, Jeanne Hall matriarch of the Hall family that owns Halls. She put her hand out to me and said, “Hello, I’m Jeanne Hall, welcome to Halls, we’re so glad you’re here.” I smiled and told her my name and that I was visiting from Massachusetts. And she said, “that’s wonderful, dear, let me check your reservation.” Oh, I thought, here it comes, when I tell her we don’t have a reservation she’ll drop me like a hot potato.

But that’s not what happened.

I explained that I hadn’t been able to get a reservation and that we hoped we could find seats at the bar. She turned to the hostess and said, in her beautiful Southern drawl, “honey, go check those high tops at the bar, I think I just saw some people leave. See if there aren’t seats for this lovely couple.” You could have knocked me over with a feather at that point. I mean, here in Massachusetts, well, restaurant people just don’t treat you that way. Mostly, especially high end restaurants of this type, they act like they are doing you are favor by letting you in the door. That hostess came back straight away and said she had two seats for us at a high top near the bar and would we please follow her and she would seat us.

Amazing. And I have to tell you before I forget to mention it that Mrs. Hall came back to check on us twice and her son, Tommy Hall, came over and introduced himself and asked if we were getting on okay and could he do anything for us. The waitress was wonderful and took great care of us. She helped us with the menu and answered questions and left us alone at just the right times, too. I have never felt so valued and welcomed in a restaurant in my whole life.

As for the food, it was fantastic. Expensive? Oh hell yes. But worth every penny. The steaks are huge and cut to order. We wound up sharing a dry aged rib eye – mostly because 16 oz is a lot of meat and we knew that would be enough for us to split – and also because, well, $56 for a steak isn’t a small amount of money. We also got the creamed spinach and the loaded mashed potatoes, which was really heaven in a cast iron skillet. The steak was out of this world. Seared and crusty on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. Truth be told I think we both could have eaten a whole steak! And you’ll just have to trust me on all of this because, in a completely out of character move, I have no pictures of our dinner.

That’s right. No pictures because it was so good I forgot to take any.

I know.

The only picture I do have is this one of the remnants of the bread pudding we had for dessert. It was loaded with cherries and pecans and topped with a bourbon sauce that was sweet and boozy and wonderful. Our waitress brought us complimentary glasses of port to accompany the bread pudding and it was the perfect ending to a really perfect meal.

In case you haven’t gotten the gist of my post – if you’re ever in Charleston and you’re looking for a wonderful steak dinner in a truly exceptional restaurant – go to Halls. Tell ’em that lovely couple from Massachusetts sent ya.

Today I’m going to share our visit to Boone Hall Plantation with all y’all. It’s an absolutely beautiful spot and the ride up their driveway is legendary thanks to the abundance of live oak trees.

Seriously. It’s breathtaking and awesome and I could have driven up and down this driveway many many times. I can’t even really explain why it moved me so much, I can just tell you that it did and it’s a sight I will never forget.

The house itself isn’t original, of course, it was built in 1936. It’s stately and beautiful, though, and the tour we took gave us great information about the history of Boone Hall and all of the changes it has undergone since 1681.

The row of slave cabins are original and sit off to the side of the driveway. They were built by the slaves of Boone Hall and are made of brick since brick making was part of the operation of the plantation. There are 8 cabins set up and they trace the history of slavery in America and show what the lives of slaves living at Boone Hall may have been like.

It’s eerie to stand in front of these cabins and think about the men and women and children who lived and worked here. There is a terrific live presentation of Gullah culture that is included as part of the tour and that also gave us some insight into what it must have been like on the plantation years ago.

The obligatory selfie. This is behind the slave cabins with the Horlbeck Creek behind us.

The gardens, I must say, are spectacular and were a big part of the reason why I wanted to visit Boone Hall. There are antique roses that are over 100 years old but for me it was all about the foxglove. I’m not even going to tell you how many photos I took of just the foxglove.

The poppies are beautiful as well, and there was orange and white and even yellow varieties.

But again. Those foxglove. Just stunning.

Boone Hall is a working farm, producing all kinds of seasonal produce. We were there just in time for the strawberry harvest and stopped at Boone Hall Farms Market to get some to snack on in the car. They were so sweet and delicious and a real treat.

We had a great time touring all of Boone Hall Plantation – the gardens and the house, the slave cabins and the nature train. But every time I think about this place I come back to those live oak trees. They are lovely and haunting and incredibly special.

P.S. I don’t often say this but clicking on those photos to make them bigger is worth it. Especially today.