Magnolia Plantation

Day two of our South Carolina trip took us to one of the oldest plantations in South Carolina, Magnolia Plantation http://www.magnolia plantation.com/

It was gorgeous...and hot...very hot...but very pretty. We spend the first bit of time walking around the vast gardens. I've read in books about the gardens on southern plantations and estates but I've never witnessed any and to say that it was a big garden is an understatement. It took us at least and hour and a half to walk through and we didn't even start at the beginning. It was neat to see the tags on the different sections, one in particular that read "circa 1685" and wonder about the people that wandered these gardens back then.

Black Eyed Susan's, Maryland never leaves us.  :)

A White Ibis, they were all over the plantation

These nasty things were everywhere.  Golden Silk spiders, or Banana spiders as they are more commonly called had giant webs spun all over the place.  They are called Golden Silk Spiders because their webs are actually a yellow/golden color.  The ones we saw had bodies that were anywhere from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long.  Huge...gross..and everywhere.

Golden Silk Spider (a.k.a. Banana Spider)

From there we went on a swamp walk, also on plantation grounds.  Saw a couple alligators, more spiders, some turtles...typical swamp stuff I guess.

A few more pics from today:

Red Faced David, did I mention it was hot?

Pot Bellied Tree, Pot Bellied Brandon

Breanne found an owl feather at the little animal section they had.  They called it a petting zoo but there wasn't anything that you can actually pet.  She said to me, "There are lots of people who like to wear owl feathers in their hair, I'm one of them, I've just never had an owl feather before."