Charleston, South Carolina

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

We have been very busy entertaining Terry & Jim, John’s sister and brother-in-law; we are really having a great time with them they are great fun. 

Still keeping up with boat chores, trying to get ready for the day we take off again. Charleston is a great place to provision and just have some laid back time--not that we had much of that.    John, Terry, Jim and I went to Magnolia gardens, about 10 miles outside of town; we spent several hours there and saw the House, gardens, slave quarters and old rice ponds.

Before the civil war rice was grown in the area; when the slaves were cut loose after the war no one would venture into the ponds because of the bugs and alligators.  The slaves were brought here from an area in Africa that grew rice--the skills they brought with them were rice growing and the baskets they made, called sweet grass baskets. Made of grass, pine, or palmetto fronds, these baskets were used to winnow rice on the plantations.  The grains were tossed into the air and the wind “fanned’ the chaff from the rice.  These baskets were originally made for the hulling of rice, but today they are made by the descendants of the slaves who cultivated the rice.  We saw perhaps 8 or 10 alligators just sunning on the banks of these ponds. 

We had Thanksgiving Dinner with Terry and Jim Kelly at Magnolias on East Bay Street.  After a lovely dinner we walked around Battery Park.