My Summer Vacation Day 6

Finally posting about Day 6! I've been uploading pics for the last day and a half and I finally got them all uploaded! :D I hope you enjoy! :D

                         Since it was our last day on the beach, my Mom, Sister, brother, and I went out to watch the sunrise, take pictures, collect more shells, and wade in the ocean surf.

                                    Another jellyfish! :D

                                         This beach makes me think of Owl City songs, especially "Hello Seattle"

                                     My sister, brother, and I in the early morning.

                     
                                   The Sun!!! :D

                                                         My name written in the sand

                                       A Sand castle someone had built the day before. They did a very good job.

                     After going back inside and getting ready, we had breakfast(my usual along with juice) and finished packing everything into the car. We stopped by Target to get bug spray for my brother as well as a few other things. I got a thermal Star Wars: The Clone Wars cup with Obi-Wan on it which I am so happy about getting :).
                     When we got back into the car, we thought the money my siblings and I had brought had been stolen. It was an awful experience and let's just say I was very, very angry. We rushed back to the hotel and I went in with my Mom(who was going to politely complain) when suddenly I remembered my Mom having given me something to put in a safe place. So I rushed out to the car and found the packet of money where I'd put it. I was so thankful it hadn't been stolen.
                After that, we began our drive.

            On our way to Magnolia Plantation, we stopped by Fort Moultrie to see the famous Fort Sumter across the ocean(that's it in the above picture). Fort Sumter was where the Civil War began; the South had fired on it since it was a Northern base in their newly succeeded territory and this attack thrust the war into action.

                                 
                                   Me on a rock outcropping. The ocean was just below me.

                                  A little crab we saw on our way back to our car. I usually don't say this, but it's really cute :)

                      Once we reached Magnolia Plantation(named that because of the Magnolia trees in the area) we signed up for the different tours you could go on and got our tickets. After that, we went to the food stall to get lunch and I ordered a hamburger (I was getting tired of not getting buns on my food, I can tell you that :p).
               While we were in line, we saw an old lady fall to the ground. Thinking she had passed out because of the heat, we rushed over to her and my Dad and I helped her sit up. It turns out she had stepped on a low spot on the cobbles and was more embarrassed than anything. After getting our food, we went over to a shaded pavilion to eat our lunches. The peacock you see above was one of the few walking around the eating area.
           

                               With lunch done, we went to the waiting station and looked at some of the gardens(one being the "Biblical Garden which was rather interesting; apparently many plants mentioned in the Bible have been identified, such as that the locusts John the Baptist ate in the wilderness weren't actually bugs) before boarding our train.

                                                                     Biblical Garden

                  Our first tour, which was at 1:00 P.M., was the "Nature Tour" and was led by an old gentlemen. As we drove, he told us the about the different types of trees, birds, plants, and places(I'm not interested that much in nature, even though I do want to save and preserve it, but I actually found the tour interesting). There was a huge tree(pictured above) which was around 700 years old; there was another that was 1400/1500 years old. There was a non-parasite, air-in-taking plant on many of the trees called "Spanish Moss" which the American Indians named after the Spaniards' long beards.

                          We also saw wildlife like the Great White Egret, ducks, this one bird I can't remember the name of, as well as an alligator snout poking up out of the Duck-Weed covered water and another swimming by.

                                           A Great White Egret, I believe.

                                            See the Alligator?

                       When our tour was over, we got onto the next tram which took us on our next tour called "From Slavery to Freedom."

                     The tram took us to the few Slave Cabins still standing(which we'd passed on our previous tour) and went to a tent. Our tour guide, a younger guy than our first one, talked about some of the history of rice growing in South Carolina and some stuff about the Drayton family(we'd gotten some history during the Nature tour too), while showing us pictures. There were four cabins for us to look at. The first was a Pre-Civil War cabin/duplex which two to three families might share at a time. The fourth was a Reconstruction era cabin, the second was a 1920s/60s cabin, and the third was a more recent one(1960s-on-wards) which had been owned by an African American man and his family until they bought a better home on the Plantation's land(this man is 89 and still works there; we saw him mowing the lawn).

                                        There's that 89 year old I was talking about. He seems to get around very well still.

                             
                             Inside the first cabin: the fireplace.

                                       Spanish Moss

                     When we had finished, we went to our next tour which was the "Boat Tour". An old guy lead it; he had on a really cool feather hat. Before we our tour started, he talked to us and I told him about CVI and some things about our vacation thus far. He also thought my sister and I were twins(Not again!! XD).

                    We rode down through the water way in the marshland as he talked about the history of the plantation, the plants and animals, and how rice was grown. We saw a Great Blue Heron, a Snowy White Egret, that one bird I forgot the name of, and an Alligator which poked its snout above the water.
              Our tour guide was quite funny(Alligator's have to come up to the surface otherwise it would lie there and ROT) and when we got off, he told me to have fun at my Star Wars convention :).

                                  We walked up to the Mansion(small) for our last guided tour. The person who gave us a tour of the Main House's interior was a younger man who gave a well versed presentation(we were the only people on this tour). We looked at rooms with desks, tables, beds, paintings, and chests while we learned about the Drayton family. The house was actually the third on the estate and was put in place after the Civil War. We also saw a large quilt on a bed which our tour guide had probably taken thirty years to make; thus it was someone's life's work. We weren't aloud to take pictures of the inside of the house since they want to keep it preserved so that's why I don't have any pictures of the interior.

This is actually the back door to the house. The front always faced the river since that's where everyone came from when they were traveling. 

                                            "The Big House"

                                                             Doric Columns

                                        Here's the front of the house.

                              After the last of our tours, we walked around Magnolia's gardens and looked at the many types of planets that were growing.

                                                  Painting of one of the earlier houses(the second one, I believe)

                                  We got into our car and drove a little ways to the swamp on the plantation. We walked around on wooden walkways and beaten paths, having to go through a gate which to be given a code before it would open. We saw Duckweed-infested stretches of water, birds, and an Alligator sunbathing on a ramp.

                                       Music of the Swamp(reminds me of the Princess and the Frog film made by Disney for some reason).

                              Here's that Alligator sunbathing. I was the one who spotted him/her. :D

                             We drove to to Savannah, Georgia and had dinner at Zaxby's Chicken(I got a grilled chicken sandwich with fries) before checking into the hotel "Days Inn"(which had a wide sink counter!).
I surfed the internet on my Kindle Fire before and after my shower before falling asleep.