Alrighty then......having a great time down here!!

Wednesday September 17th

Thanks to the major down pour we had last night, got up this morning and it was so much cooler it was great. It was also not as humid and overcast........perfect weather as far as I am concerned. It also stayed under 30 oC, can it get any better. Now granted the native South Carolinians would no doubt find today's weather chilly but not me, I felt downright perky.

Anyhow on today's agenda was a trip to the Charleston Tea Plantation Now I have to say this is one of the most interesting things we have seen so far. Its the only tea plantation in the States, and can only be grown in hot and humid conditions.



Now you got to take a tour of the factory, and learned about the process of making tea, which was all free. We then took the bus tour ($10 each) that went around the plantation and that was very informative.

Here is a field of tea bushes:



Unlike in other countries, the tea is not hand picked they use a custom designed vehicle that they call "The Green Giant."



Thanks to having this machine they only employ three full time people to cut the tea, maintain the fields and make the tea. The biggest tea drinkers in the world are the Irish, closely followed by the English. In the Southern States I think he said 99% of the tea is drank cold, as in sweetened or unsweetened tea.......which is just plain icky!!!! I now know to ask for hot tea when ordering.......we British wouldn't dream of drinking cold tea!!

Here is some information about the place (just click on photo's to enlarge them):









If you are in the area its well worth a visit. I have more photos, but will post them another time.

Now after we left there we were going to go to a vineyard down the road, only to discover it was closed on Wednesdays. Its the Irvin House Vineyard.

Now also up the road from the tea plantation is the Angel Oak. This is one of those things that you should make an effort to see when down in Charleston, as its an amazing tree. I took a few photos, but will only include a couple.



I am five feet five inches and am standing in front of the tree, it was massive.



Now remember how I was telling you how attractive I am looking with my bright red face and lily white legs......well when we were at the Angel Oak, we got attacked by a million bugs, so my lily white legs are now covered in these awful red blotches from all the bites............can I get any more attractive????

So we ended up having a late lunch at I-Hop which is a place I love. We are eating out at lunch time and only having a light meal at night in the condo, as otherwise it kills us eating out twice in one day.

After that we went to Lowes to see if they had any cheap snowblowers....LOL We found that funny, and then I called in at a couple of other stores to pick up some things, can't say what as certain people (dd and future dil) read this blog!!!!;0)

By this time it was 3:30pm, so we had a cup of tea and then walked up to the pro shop to see how much it is for a round of golf...$140 :0( Anyhow a bucket of balls to hit on the driving range is only $5 and the windows on all the houses surrounding the golf course will be so much safer if me and dh aren't hitting balls on the course.

We took our lawn chairs and sat on the beach for a while watching the sea, the beach was practically empty. Haven't been swimming today though.

I bought post cards today, so I am going to write those tonight, never know why I send them, as we are always home faster than the cards!!!! Must say we had an enjoyable day today.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I think we're going to the Aquarium.