Magnolia Plantation

I have found a new favorite plantation - Magnolia. It is stunningly beautiful. The gardens are breathtaking, like something out of a movie or novel. It's also less expensive than some others. It was $15 for an adult entrance and the kids were free. For that price, we had full access to the grounds, gardens and petting zoo. Plus you can use your receipt to go back to the plantation for free anytime in the following seven days. For an additional charge you can tour the mansion, take a train through the gardens, go on a river tour or tour the swamp. We didn't do any of the extras. (For more information on the plantation, GO HERE.)

The kids got up close and personal with deer in the petting zoo.

We took a family picture (could I look any squattier??).

We did not pet the baby alligator.

We got lost in the horticultural maze.

We walked down the lanes of Spanish moss-laden trees.

Everywhere we looked, it was beautiful.

We played in the little playground. 

We walked over one of the cool bridges.

 

We pretended to be princesses in a fairy castle.

We hung out on the massive deck of the mansion.

We checked out the time on this cool clock outside the Peacock Cafe.

It was a beautiful day. Most of the flowers were past their blooming period, so we will definitely go back in the spring to see the plantation in full bloom. I can't even imagine how beautiful it must be then.

Slave cabin - it was a swealtering, humid day. As usual, I contemplated on what it must have been like to work the fields in that kind of weather.

Swamp.

We actually went to Charleston in order to attend a wedding reception for a bride that had been in Young Women when I was a counselor in Houston. It's so gratifying to see her happily married to a kind (and handsome) man. The kids thought the party was all for them.

 

We live in such a beautiful part of this country!