Isle of Palms and Charleston

We have been busy.  We spent 3 days with Paul and Janette Gifford at their beautiful home on the beach at Isle of Palms.  What a wonderful setting.  How would you like to get up each morning and walk down the boardwalk to the beach and stroll the beach?  Jon and I sure enjoyed it and Molly, well, need I say more.  The beach was calling to her every morning and every night.  It is a beautiful beach to walk and a great one for frisbee jumping.
Below is a picture of Gifford's house, then I turned around and took a picture of  the beach.

Boy Molly was tired after playing frisbee on the beach

AND Covered in sand!!  But she sure had fun

While with the Giffords we did some sightseeing.  We went to Boone Hall Plantation which is the oldest working plantation in the country.  They still plant and grow all kinds of veggies.  The Live Oak trees that line the entrance to Boone Hall are 270 years old and can live to be 470 years old

One of the traditions of Charleston is the Sweetgrass Baskets woven by African Americans.  I think these baskets are beautiful but they aren't cheap.  Try in the hundreds!

Well, after our visit with the Giffords, Jon left to go back to Seattle to work for a few days and I stayed in Isle of Palms on the boat with Molly.  Every morning we had to go to the beach.  She literally drug me there! I went and did some sightseeing on my own in Charleston and walked all over the town.  Then just when I thought it was going to be a lonely week, our Canadian friends showed up.  Karen and I went to Drayton Hall Plantation one day.  This one was different from Boone Hall in that the house has been preserved (not restored) in its original state.  We were both amazed that all those generations of Draytons decided to let this beautiful piece of property remain in its original state, no electricity, no plumbing in the house and it was eventually sold to a Trust who preserves it today.  One interesting fact is that at one point in the 1700's, I believe, it was against the law to have a kitchen in your house because of all the house fires.  So the kitchens were in an outbuilding next to the house, far enough away so as not to catch the house on fire.

So now we are up to today.  After visiting Charleston and surrounding areas and visiting again with our Canadian friends, we are on the move again.  Today we made our way from Isle of Palms to Beaufort, SC.  The landscape has changed somewhat again.  We went through the marshes and between Charleston and Florida, we wind our way through various rivers, creeks and cuts.  For much of the trip it has been long straight canals but now we are literally winding our way south.  In trying to put our routes together for the next few days, I found it difficult sometimes to know where to go.  On the charts there is a magenta line that denotes the ICW but sometimes when you get into a good size river, the line disappears and you have to do some searching in the charts to find where it picks up again.  Fortunately, it's usually pretty well marked.  Just follow the red triangles and the green squares.  Tomorrow we're off to Savannah!