Road Trip, Stop #3: Greater Charleston

There's more to the Charleston area than awesome historic architecture.

Old military posts.
Swamps.
Plantation houses.

We visited all three.

Josh is a big history buff, and so a trip to a nearby fort was a must-do. We'd been told that the famed Fort Sumter wasn't actually all that interesting, so we decided to check out Fort Moultrie instead. Since it was free to visitors.

Despite the summer heat and humidity, we checked out Cypress Gardens and went on a boat ride around a real, live swamp.

And my, was it gorgeous.

Have you seen The Patriot or The Notebook? Both had scenes filmed there.

Caroline put up with the big yellow life jacket pretty well.

Can I just say that I'm in love with Spanish moss? Because I am.

And lily pads, too.

And the flowers were totally incredible too.

We also toured an old plantation house, Drayton Hall. Complete with a hidden staircase for slaves to use. It had never been updated with plumbing or anything, and was left pretty well untouched since it was built in 1738.

Here's the entrance from the road.

Here's the other entrance, which was used more, because it was off of the Ashley River. Because people frequently traveled by RIVER back in the day it was built.

The interior had all kinds of fancy wood working. I can't imagine how much time that must have taken.

And, of course, slave-wrought iron work too.

The grounds had numerous big old trees on it. Way cool.

Okay, built in 1738?!? Like, when the residents were still English citizens. The sheer history is crazy to me. And the fact that hundreds of humans were once enslaved on that plantation is very sobering.