Lynn WiezyckiWe decided to take a trip Christmas week and then we had to decide where. Several southern cities came up but we finally hit on Charleston, SC. Our biggest challenge was…
to find a place to stay since we made the decision so late! Finding a reasonable place in Charleston was impossible so we decided on a condo on Isle of Palms which ended up being perfect!
We had a few must-see places and one of those, Magnolia Plantation, was on our first-day list!
Magnolia Plantation is known for its lush gardens and its White Bridge. I caught a first glance of the bridge over to the left of the plantation house. But we decided to take the garden path to the right and behind the house.
The garden was a bit subdued but was still colorful for the time of year! Spring is when it is in its full glory with all the azaleas blooming. In December it was the camellia blooming time!
There were some other flowers as well.
We came upon a white bridge but not the ” famous” one!
We kept following one of the many paths through the gardens and found the White Bridge.
Using the wide-angle lens I looked for some more landscape-type images.
As usual, I had to get out the iPhone and do some multiple exposures!
I found a few things to make close-up images of.
As we came back toward the plantation house I saw this gazebo across the lawn.
As we finished up our time at Magnolia Plantation, we discussed definitely making a trip back here in the spring.
From the plantation, we drove to downtown Charleston for our first visit in the city.
We wandered on the busy streets and were glad we had made reservations for dinner already!
There were horse-drawn carriages everywhere!
Christmas decorations made the downtown area even more festive.
We walked through the famous Charleston City Market.
We found a wonderful cookie store!
We walked along the river and got our first look at the full Ravenal Bridge!
Along the river walk, we found the famous Pineapple Fountain! Why pineapples you ask? Pineapples were a sign of wealth and power since they were so hard to come by! So Charleston adopted the pineapple as its symbol!
We wandered down some of the side streets and I found a few more interesting things to shoot!
At this point, we were getting hungry so we called the restaurant to see if we could move up our reservation. We drove to the area where the restaurant was located, finally found a place to park, and then walked to Bistronomy by Nico. It just so happened that Nico was at the front door when we walked in! It was great to meet him as he has 2 other restaurants in the Charleston area.
We were seated and I immediately had to get some images of the place!
The menu had so many great choices so I opted for more of a tasting of some smaller dishes and OH! were they good!
We decided to get a couple of desserts and share!
The food was all so delicious and the service was top-notch! This was truly one of the best eating experiences we have had! And the one thing that we are almost as passionate about as travel and photography is great food!
I very much recommend a visit to Bistronomy by Nico!
After this great meal, we decided to head back to the condo on Isle of Palms.
I highly recommend a visit to Magnolia Plantation and wandering the streets of Charleston!
For more details on Magnolia Plantation, please visit their website.
Please click on any image for a larger version or check out my galleries for these and many additional images: Isle of Palms, Charleston Gallery, and Magnolia Plantation
My next post will be Day 2 of our Charleston trip. We visited six locations in one day!
That is all for now!
Lynn
Mary Presson Roberts