We visited a few interesting spots in Charleston today.

First was Drayton Hall Plantation, which is an incredibly preserved 18th century plantation, which is now owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Kathy is a member of the National Trust, so we got in free instead of paying $28 for 2 of us. The house was built in the 1740s and is today much like it was at that time with all original woodwork and wood carvings, floors, walls and one incredible ceiling. The house was never electrified or plumbed for modern habitation due to a number of reasons, but it does have a few changes made during the 19th century, including the now fading blue paint on all of the walls. The liveoak tree in this picture was standing tall here in 1738 when John Drayton purchased the property and is now around 300 years old.

The rear of the house and this garden path was the main entry from the Ashley river, which was used for most transportation in the 18th century. The pathway to the house from the river is the original path and view also.

Inside the plantation house, the dining room had a carved plaster ceiling that was original to the house when it was completed in the 1740s. To make this, the ceiling was covered in plaster and after it hardened, a master carver carved the hard plaster into the detail you see here. The carvings are in relief, so the rest of the ceiling had to be carved away, leaving this carved detail. This is the largest and most complete carved plaster ceiling in the country. One other ceiling had molded plaster ornamental work which was applied to a flat ceiling, much like today. The other rooms had flat plaster ceilings put in by the National Trust in the 1970s because the all but 2 ceilings were destroyed by water damage after the family gave the roof's lead gutters and valley trim to the Confederate Army to melt down into bullets.

The plantation raised rice using slave labor and shipped it and other crops down the Ashley River. There were no slave quarters left, but there was a very small spiral staircase hidden in between the rooms and walls where the house servant slaves could go up and down without being in the owner's parts of the house. The basement was the main working area and secondary kitchen and the slaves mostly worked in the basement. I can only imagine how hot it was down there in Charleston in the summers, and very likely buggy too. There were no screens at that time and all windows and doors were open to the various bugs in the area, including sand gnats which were biting all of us today. All of the interior walls are paneled in cypress wood, which is so bitter that the bugs and termites won't eat it.

Of course, it also got cold here in the winters and every room had a fireplace. John Drayton installed a "new" design of fireplace in 1760 and liked it so much he had them all redone with that design, including those in the slave quarters. Still, I can only imagine the hardships the slaves endured during those times......a sad testament to man's inhumanity to man.

There was a 2nd floor ballroom and 4 bedrooms. Can you imagine the people from Charleston coming out here by boat up the river and walking up the long garden walk through the bugs in their finery for a ball? Drayton would have had to plan his party evenings for a day when the tides were moving upriver at the hours when his guests would be coming and send them home downriver on an outgoing tide. Kathy says maybe they brought their fancy clothes with them and changed after they arrived, and a few of them could have lived within a few miles and arrived by carriage (through the mud and bugs).

Then we visited the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. It is an extremely well done aquarium with many displays of fish and aquatic wildlife. This one is a "small" saltwater aquarium at the main entrance, just to put you in the mood. It's fascinating because it is a 12 foot tall free standing oval tank, so you can walk all around it and see in really well.

I won't bore you with a bunch of fish pictures, but they went through aquatic environments by type in different rooms. Above is a freshwater stream environment with fish about 3 inches long.

They also had a huge tank with a 30 foot tall glass wall with the pelagic (open ocean) fish. The jacks in this picture are all about 2 1/2 ft. long.

And there are sheepshead fish in the tank even though I didn't see any live oysters for them to eat. After catching a big sheepshead in Sarasota and letting it go, I recently bought one at a local seafood market and sauteed it. Quite nice and firm with very sweet meat. The only problem was that it was $3.95 per lb. as a whole fresh fish...(sounds fine right?)....but when that was filleted it came out to be over $15 per lb. for the filets. Oh well, live and learn! Next time, I'll catch my own again and eat it. The fishing guide books say they're the best eating game fish, owing to their pure shellfish diet.

On the deck at the Aquarium, you can see the Charleston bridge, reminiscent of the Alton Illinois bridge.

You can also see the naval ship display across the river. This is an aircraft carrier and destroyer. There is a submarine behind them. All ships are available for public tours.