South Carolina [Part 3]

This is the final installment of Heather went to South Carolina.

I’m not a travel writer, I’m hardly even a traveler. I’ll go back to posting cooking misadventures soon enough. So bear with me for now.

Brookgreen Gardens [Murrells Inlet, SC]

I’m already regretting putting this in here, but I can’t only post about the good. This place was definitely 100% not worth the money. If you have free tickets, are over the age of 75, or just love being bored – head on over to Brookgreen Gardens. I couldn’t even tell you much about it, because we sped walk through looking for the Labrynth that was on the map. And guess what? The mazes I used to draw in the driveway with chalk were more serious than this thing.

There were maybe two flowering bushes in the whole garden, and while the area itself could be pretty, it reminded me of the landscaping you would see if a fancy outdoor mall. Does that make me sound like a jerk? Well if not, the next part will; the sculptures were pretty bad. As in, I’m no expert, but a museum wouldn’t be fighting to get their hands on any of these.

Save your money and walk through a public park, or a housing subdivision. Or an airport terrace.

This picture was clearly taken before the disappointment set in.

 

Russell’s [Murrells Inlet, SC]

This place is so good it doesn’t have a website. This is the second post in a row where I mention a restaurant in relation to its website having status. When a place is thriving and has no website, it is good. That is a fact when we live in an era where people like to look up menus, food pictures, and hours of business before driving down the street.  Or is that just me? Wow I have been asking that a lot lately. Perhaps I really do live in an odd bubble of obsessive restaurant website research.

Anyway, Russell’s is perfection. My father-in-law treated us to dinner here as a gift of nostalgia to my husband on his birthday. My husband used to come here with his brothers when they were younger, and I could tell it brought back happy memories of summer vacations and seafood dinners. With the wood paneling and walls covered with framed photos, some of that warm fuzzy memory feeling even rubbed off on me.

 This cozy place is located on the opposite side of the road from the Marshwalk restaurants, and just a little bit further down, but is definitely worth a visit for a seafood dinner. Seeing my husband enjoy his dinner with his parents made me so excited to share this special place with the next generation. It also made me feel so blessed to have in-laws that I can spend a week with and still enjoy. I know not everyone is always so lucky, [and I’m pretty sure they don’t read this so I’m getting no brownie points], but I married in to some pretty great folks.  I mean, they treated me to grits, seafood, and golf cart trips to the beach all in one vacation.

Boone Hall [Mt. Pleasant, SC]

This was the exact opposite on that spectrum of restoration/preservation I mentioned about Drayton Hall. I wanted to squeeze in a visit to a plantation that would have more atmosphere, and more of a feel for what life was actually like. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite hit the mark but was interesting to visit. The weird thing about this place, is that in addition to being highly commercialized [“the most photographed plantation” insert eye roll], its also currently inhabited. That’s right, a family still lives here.

 

Wait. What?

That’s right, you’re not allowed to take any photographs inside, and the second floor is off limits to tours. Well honestly I think that first part has nothing to do with the family’s privacy and everything to do with the fact that there is nothing original on display, and if people photographed the three rooms you’re allowed to tour, then no one would pay for the tour itself. Just blew the lid wide open on that one. You’re welcome.

Its not the original plantation running family or their descendants that live there; in fact, according to the tour, the home changed owners several times throughout history and foreign families set up camp here in relatively recent history. They do interpret the social and cultural history of slavery here, as well as offer a few other attractions; so the ticket price can be worth it.

 

But their garden is worth it. It was a gorgeous garden just in font of the house to the left and right of the walkway. Look at those poppies. There were flowers and vegetables mixed together in lush harmony.  This only made me madder about that Brookgreen gardens disaster. I was willing to let them off the hook thinking it was the off season, but if Boone Hall can do it, a place with GARDEN in the name should be able to pull off some flora.

South Carolina Getaway [Part 1]

Mister and I made it back from South Carolina just as the latest snow storm was hitting New York. It wasn’t the welcome back we were looking forward to, but after 8 days of traveling around it felt good to be snuggled up with our dogs on a cozy snow day.

This was part vacation, part family visit, and part Mister’s birthday present; we went to visit his parents [who split their time between Binghamton, NY and Surfside Beach, SC], with an added stop in Charleston to visit a friend while taking advantage of the cheaper flights through their versus Myrtle Beach.

We ended up in downtown Charleston pretty late on Wednesday, and I was excited to see everything but also hungry and tired – add that to the fact that it was way colder than we were anticipating and I was getting a little bit cranky.

Mister spotted Poogan’s Smokehouse and it was exactly what we I needed.

Local IPA’s, live music, smokey pork belly, and a pile of BBQ. Two sticky thumbs up.

The next morning I made a quick trip to a local supermarket for yogurt, fruit, and muffins that made an easy breakfast. My biggest budget travel tip for anyone is don’t go to a restaurant for every meal – buy like you would at home. Bananas were a cheap snack that we could take with us, and smaller things like a box of granola bars and bringing reusable water bottles meant the snack/water break costs didn’t add up as fast.

On our way from Charleston to Surfside Beach, we stopped at Drayton Hall. I’ve always had a love for visiting historic sites – particularly homes. Coming from New York, plantation houses have always been sort of a fascinating existence within the realm of history and Hollywood. While they are always associated with the dark history of human enslavement, they are also landmarks of a way of life, an era of American history, and a display of a culture I havn’t really gotten to “touch” in person before.

Drayton Hall is incredible in the sense that it is entirely preserved rather than restored. The building hasn’t been turned into a Disneyland approximation of how grand southern life was; its a house that holds so much history that even the vacant rooms breathe whispers of the lives that have passed through.

The preservation versus restoration issue was something that Mister didn’t quite understand; and coming from a History/Public History background, I wasn’t sure if it was something that didn’t really make sense to everyone else as well.

Preserve: They do the minimal amount necessary to maintain the house exactly as it was when it became a historic site. They interpret the paint colors as they were found, instead of repainting the house the original color from the first moment of construction. They point out where the outbuildings once stood, instead of rebuilding them for an easier tour.

Restoration: Bringing the building back to the way it looked when first built, or back to a specific time period. This includes furnishings being brought in or custom made, sometimes costumed interpreters, and often times erasing the changes that were made over time.

Whenever visiting a historic site of this magnitude, I relish the opportunity to consider who built this house. Why? How? Where did the wood come from? Who made the bricks? Why was the house built in this exact place?

Imagine the first owners crossing the threshold. The last family to run down the stairs. The first tourists to open the door.

After a few hours spent taking the formal tour and walking the grounds, we had to switch cars and found ourselves looking for food outside of town, in a highly commercialized area. It wasn’t looking promising.

I pulled up Yelp and did some serious reading before finding Boxcar Betty’s. Perfection. Small menu, specializing in chicken; fast, cheap, good.