Blustery Day

We left Charleston at 7:30 this morning, wearing our jeans for the first time! The ICW north from here to Georgetown, SC, is very straight, and we had protection from the NW winds. We arrived at the Boat Shed Marina, fuelled up at $3.99/gal. for diesel and walked into town. The homes are magnificent, and the streets are lined with live oak trees. The historic homes have plaques that tell the year of construction. Many of the houses here are from the 1700's and 1800's, built when Rice was King!

The following info is from the National Parks Service.  


These rice fields in Georgetown County, South Carolina lie abandoned now, covered over with wild grasses that provide feasts for thousands of birds and, near the shoreline, a haven for a few remaining river alligators. The rice fields were carved out of tidal swamps along coastal rivers by slaves brought to South Carolina from the West Indies and West Africa. With primitive tools, the slaves cleared the low-lying land of huge cypress and gum trees, and built canals, dikes, and trunks (small floodgates) that allowed the flooding and draining of fields with the high and low tides. From the 18th century to the Civil War, slaves planted, tended, and harvested the crops that made plantation owners wealthy and Georgetown County, South Carolina, the second largest rice producer in the world.

We see our first forest...and the water is now brown!

This one is for sale!

This live oak is over 550 years old.

Lovely trees down all the streets

Benne wafers....a Charleston favourite!!! Sesame seeds and oil were brought over from W. Africa by the slaves, and this wafer developed! The first three ingredients are sugar, butter, and then flour....They are so rich, we only eat one at a time