In Honor Of The Soldiers Wife/Mother......

We started yesterday morning at 7 for breakfast.  We knew it was going to be a full day with a drive to Charleston, about  a 1.4 hour drive.  It was a beautiful day, blue skies, in the upper 50's to the 60's.   Our first stop was Patriot Point.  There is a wonderful memorial there to all of our service men that have fought to create and maintain our country.  The Statue is of a mother/wife, whose loved one perished in the defense of our country.  The first extra is the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier that rode the high seas in WW2.  It's namesake is at the bottom of the Japanese Ocean.
     After our riverside side stop, we went to the Avian Birds of Prey Rescue Center.  This group of people do tremendous work protecting raptors, healing them in their bird hospital, keeping birds alive and cared for that can't survive in wild either from injury, imprinting, or other type of accident. The demonstration there included a Vulture, a pair of Harris Hawks and a Swallowtail Hawk.  Extra #2 is a pair of Harris Hawks that are mantling....  that is after they have gotten a kill (in this case a rolled up piece of rug, called a bunny) the birds hold their wings out and over the kill to cover it.  Hawks never know when there is a bigger raptor out there, looking down on the catch and diving for them and their kill.  At the aviary, a bunny used and then the birds have been trained to release the bunny and a trade....  a piece of beef, chicken, or something delicious.
      We stopped at Boone Plantation for lunch before we tackled our next destination.  Mary and I remembered the great food and fabulous strawberry shortcakes that were served here.  
    Our next stop was the Magnolia plantation.  I chose a boat zooming up the Ashley River which is brackish.  We walked along the berm and boarded a pontoon boat that took us out into the rice fields, loaded with alligators, birds and cane.  The slaves would stand at the berm where there were gates.  When the tide came in the salt water would settle lower in the Ashley, (heavier density), and the fresh water from up river would stay on the top..  when the upper gates were open, the fresh water would flow into the fields, keeping about 2 ft of fresh water that the rice needed to grow.  The slaves would stand at the gate with a spoon to taste the water.  As soon as they detected any salt, the gates would close.  Rice can't grow in salt, the fields would have been ruined for several years until the salt left the soil, which meant the slaves job was a really important one.
   Our last stop was at the Audubon Wetlands Swamp on the the plantation.  There was a rookery, alligators, Cypress trees, green algae, turtles, Great Heron's and much more.  Unfortunately the sun was going down, it was close to 7 o'clock and many of my pictures in the shadows didn't come out well.
     We got back to hotel a little after 8, a shower, a piece of pizza and to bed for me!     It was a fabulous day!!!