Ok folks, this is going to be a long one. The last stop on our 2nd Anniversary Road Trip was Charleston, South Carolina. Our first visit was to the Boone Hall Plantation. It’s actually America’s oldest still-working plantation, functioning non-stop for over 320 years. Of course, it’s not a true plantation without the Avenue of the Oaks:

We took the house tour and then wandered the grounds.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful, even this late in the year. I bet they’re amazing in the spring!

We also had some amazing food while in South Carolina. The first night we had dinner at Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ… it was amazing. I’m not a huge BBQ or rib fan, but these were delicious. And their sides were to die for… I had mashed potatoes and mac & cheese with mine. We ate two meals at Jestine’s Kitchen – their famous fried chicken was awesome but I loved their meatloaf even more. I also introduced Mike to Cracker Barrel and Zaxby’s (hellooooo sweet tea)!

The highlight of my trip was a visit to the Magnolia Plantation Swamp Gardens. While they’re more well known for their plantation house and regular gardens, we skipped all of that and headed over to the swamp in hopes of seeing an alligator.

They had these great little walkways that traversed a pretty big swamp area. We wandered for a while before we saw this little fella

After we spotted him, we noticed them everywhere… in the water, on the platforms, on the shore. It was so cool. We also learned that the green stuff that covers the top of water isn’t algae… it’s called duck weed and are the smallest flowering plant on the planet. We saw all sorts of cool critters – head over to my Facebook page to see the rest. Ok, ok, one more of this really cute baby turtle:

Finally, we got to spend some time with my cousin, Jared. He joined the Navy a couple of years ago (just after our wedding) and it’s been a while since we’ve seen him. It was so great to give him a great big hug and to have dinner with him (twice!). See Facebook/Instagram for pics.

Just like that, the trip was over. By this point I was sick as heck and definitely did not enjoy the flight home, but we made it.