On a previous trip to NOLA, Chad and I went on tours of two plantations and found them fascinating, so we wanted to take the kids to one as well on our road trip. We decided on Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina and were impressed by the grounds and surviving structures and history.

The grounds were beautiful, especially the “oak alley” with trees they were over 275 years old. They house isn’t the original structure built in the 1600s, but had a lot of the original materials incorporated into the newest house that was built around the 1930s.

The slave quarters were really interesting and have withstood time remarkably well because of the brick construction. We were told that these were for the “house slaves” and there would have been other, less durable quarters behind the house. The slaves made the bricks themselves from the clay and deposits found there. The mortar was so cool, if you look closely you can see shells mixed in that would have been in the nearby riverbed. Two-three families would live in each of those homes.

A few movies have been filmed here, North and South and the Notebook being a couple of more famous ones. Some well known scenes boat scenes from the Notebook were filmed around this dock.

There were a lot of tiny crabs crawling around the dock. Joey caught one and it almost became his snack.

There was a lot to see and explore and we were impressed at how the current owners have opened it up to educate visitors and the community.