April 6 - 10, at Buck Hall Rec. Area, near Charleston, SC

After Huntington Beach, we moved to 38 miles north of Charleston, to a  great national forest campground that was actually on the inter-coastal canal.  We used it as a base of operations to see things in the area.

Hampton Plantation State Historic Park :  One of the numerous rice plantations that we visited.  It was really interesting, and we had a great guide.  Plus, the grounds were gorgeous, with azaleas, wisteria, and camellias blooming.  
For more information on the site:  Hampton Plantation State Historic Park

We hiked several interesting trails, but the I'on Swamp was most fascinating.  Like so many of the places we hiked, it was a former rice plantation, with a honeycomb of dikes that were hand dug by slaves.  The former rice fields are now swamp.  The dikes are now trails through the swamps.  It was eerie to go through these places, thinking of the suffering that was experienced by thousands of slaves.  The techniques adopted by the slave owners were actually learned from their slaves, who had grown rice in Africa.  

This is an interesting link about it:  Origins of Rice Techniques used in South Carolina

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We had a wonderful full-day excursion to Bulls Island, which is in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.  There were supposed to be lots of birds, but we didn't see many.  What we did see is alligators, lots of alligators.  The island had between 500 - 600 of them.  Because it was a former rice plantation, also, you had to deal with the alligators sunning themselves on the dikes, with no way to get around them because there was swamp on either side.  Sometime when you see us in person, ask about how Alan dealt with one large one who didn't want to move.  It is too long a story for this blog.

Baby alligators

Alan wanted his picture taken with alligators next to the trail, but I didn't get them in the shot. 

We loved the Atlantic beach on the island--miles of beautiful shore, with no development.  Lots of people go to the island just for the beach, and for the great shelling.  Lots of sand dollars.

This area was called the Boneyard, because of all the dead trees in the ocean.

Balloons that had washed up on the beach

We actually got to experience spring twice:  first in SC, then again when we got home.

This is what we came home to--our neighbor's calico sunning itself next to our dogwood tree.