Day trip to Charleston, South Carolina.

If your going to Savannah you really should take the Amtrak to Charleston. It is a very cheap trip. For $44.00 you can get a round trip ticket leaving at 7:30 a.m. and returning at 7:00 p.m. There are many things to do in Charleston but our choices were Boone Hall Plantation and a harbor boat tour.

First on our agenda for the day was Boone Hall Plantation with its beautiful, very long, driveway lined with Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss hanging from them. The “Avenue of Oaks” was planted in 1743 and completed in 1843. There are 88 Live Oaks and one Magnolia evenly spaced. It was like a scene from a movie.

We toured the main house and grounds as well as the slave quarters and learned about the Gullah people. They have had over 300 years of continuous farming on this land, which continues to date. The main house was owned by three different owners who added their flare to it. One owner was an Arabian prince. The house was completed in 1936 which replaced the lost original house on the site. A number of the slave quarters are still there which were inhabited by share croppers in the 20th century. The main house which was completed in 1936 was commissioned by Thomas Stone and is a 2 1/2 story building which incorporates materials from the plantation itself. The house is about 10,000 square feet. The floors are teak parquet, mantels are mahogany and walls are cypress paneling. You don’t want to miss this!

We were treated to a presentation by a decedent of the Gullah people telling stories about her grandmother. She told us stories about a typical day in the life of the Gullah.

Our next stop was a cruise around Charleston Harbor. After a morning of walking the plantation we enjoyed the afternoon cruising the river.

After a full day we made our way back to the Amtrak station to travel back to our home away from home in Savannah. At that station we found some antique phone booths!