Traveling the Low Country

I bet you have seen the ads for American Cruise line, the ships that cruise the inland waterways and rivers in America. I know they advertise on PBS and in the AARP magazine This cruise line goes up and down the Mississippi and various rivers in the northeast.  They also have a trip on the Snake and Columbia Rivers in the northwest.  We decided it was time we took a little trip, and the Intracoastal Waterway and the south was calling our name.  We were  intrigued  by the ports of call on a trip from Amelia Island to Charleston.  So we made reservations with a lot of other old folks and took to the waterways. The best part was we got to take a river cruise and we didn’t have to fly to Europe.   OK it wasn’t exactly the same thing but you know. . .

We fell in love with the south on our first trip through there in 2002.  That is when we drove from Tucson all the way to the Florida Keys.  That was such an awesome trip, the first time we’d seen swamps with cypress knees, boardwalks over swamp land with alligators and water moccasins, and warm springs with manatees.  I got a crick, (southern term) in my neck looking up at all the trees.  It was almost  green overload, everything was so different from the desert.

This trip wasn’t like that first thrill but we did enjoy the experience.  I like the south, love listening to folks  who have that sweet southern drawl, love the huge hundred year old trees with Spanish moss and the swamp land, not so much the humidity and the no-see-ums.  If you are not familiar with these tiny vicious critters consider yourself lucky.  No-see-ums,  also known as biting midges or sand gnats, are tiny, barely visible flying insects that cause painful bites. They are smaller than mosquitoes and can often be felt before they are seen. Thus the  name.  They are more than a nuisance,  and cause folks to wave their hands around like clowns.  It is all to no avail, no-see-ums are everywhere and love nothing better than setting up camp in your hair and biting your scalp. The itchy bites were enough to drive us almost out of our minds. OK, so I love the south but not the buggy part.

This trip started at Amelia Island, off the coast of  Jacksonville, Florida.  The island is two miles wide and thirteen miles long.  We met  people who grew up on the island and still call it home.  Others left when they grew up but returned.  It is a delightful

Patio garden where we had lunch

place, we loved the town of Fernandina.  We took a tour on what looked like a coach the Queen would have been happy riding in.  The guide was knowledgeable about the history, architecture and the local gossip.

The oldest hotel in town, the Florida house, built in the 1700’s has eight flags in front representing the people who have occupied the island. French, Spanish, English, Spanish again, Patriots, Green Cross of Florida, Mexican Rebel, Confederate and the United States Flag. There appeared to be a lot of murder and mayhem in the early years. Not only were countries fighting to take over the land but the Catholics and Protestants were in a constant battle to civilize the Native Americans who were first on the island.

A bit of gossip, one of the officers in the Spanish army fell in love with a young girl and asked her parents permission to marry.  They refused since the girl was 16 and the soldier was 50.  The couple ran off to Cuba and married, the officer built a beautiful 12,000 square foot home for his bride.  He also bought her a one of a kind,  grandfather clock. She was so taken with the clock that she wanted to be buried in the clock.  Unfortunately by the time she passed she had gained a bit of weight and try as he might, the undertaker couldn’t get her into the clock.  The solution was to dig a bigger grave and put the clock in there with her.  Who says you can’t take it with you?

These river cruises have a lot of stops along the journey up the river or in our case Intracoastal Waterway referred to as the ICW There are several choices of complimentary excursions plus some premium excursions. We took advantage of everything we could fit into the schedule, which often meant both morning and afternoon tours.   Picking a favorite is difficult but we really enjoyed the gator tour, love the quiet slow moving boat through the swamps on the lookout for the gators.  We saw a 10 foot guy visiting the various islands to check on his girls, lots of baby alligators so I guess the big guy has been busy.  Took a boat ride out in the bay to watch the dolphin dance. Went to an incredible estuary where giant wood storks and beautiful egrets were nesting.

Rum barrels aging

We learned about making rum at the local distillery in the  historic town of Brunswick, Georgia.   It was interesting to learn that some distilleries have a barrel trading program where they trade barrels to give their rum a slightly different flavor. So you might detect a hint of Jack Daniels in your rum.   We saw how the rum was made, bottled, sealed, and packed. We tasted rum from several agings and had a Pina Colada to sweeten the taste buds.  This particular rum was pricey ranging from $59 to $99 a bottle.

We stopped at our first plantation in Brunswick called the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation.  It was different from other plantations we have seen but it had a nice museum and a lady dressed in period dress explaining about the two sisters who stayed on this land until 1973.  They never married because they didn’t want the land to be given to their husbands.  It was not the typical plantation house you’d expect.  The house was small by plantation standards and a bit run down now.  The grounds were very nice and they even had the old car the ladies drove, a 1968 Oldsmobile.

We took a trolly tour of Savannah and thoroughly enjoyed it.   Everything in the Historic District of Savannah is laid out in squares. We walked along the river front district, where window shopped at some high end stores and admires small cafes. Each square block has a small grass park in the center with lovely flowers. Usually with a statue and benches for relaxing.

These are Live Oaks some over 100 years old. Many of the streets are cobblestone, and the architecture is beautiful, one of the most unique features is the iron work around the windows and balconies. The tour guide was eager to point out the distinctive dolphins and gargoyle down spouts in the front of many of the houses. Most of the streets in the Historic District are covered by a canopy of trees.

We stopped at the Prohibition Museum and enjoyed a cocktail in the speakeasy after the tour.  The museum was well done and told a story of women led by Carrie Nation fighting the demon rum.  There were a lot of pictures of liquor being poured in the

One of the many exhibits here, loved the car

street etc.  Some people bought up all the liquor they could find and then opened speakeasies  during prohibition.    There were surprising statistics about Elliot Ness and the men in charge of keeping liquor out of the hands of the people.  People were still drinking, in fact tailors asked a man if they wanted pockets in their suit for a pint or a quart.

Prohibition lasted almost fourteen years, during that time, it was estimated there were 29,000 speakeasies in New York. I didn’t realize it was during this time that Income Tax was established.  Before prohibition 40% of the taxes paid to the government were from liquour sales  The government no longer had taxes to collect from  liquor, so they created income tax.  When the Great Depression started, taxing the citizens income wasn’t going to generate enough money for the government.  So, in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt campaigned on  ending probation. The government needed the revenue from alcohol sales.  So once again it’s all about money folks.

Hilton Head Island was the next stop on the journey north.  It was a very appealing port stop with little gift shops and an old plantation style restaurant with an inviting veranda.  The veranda was shady and the beer was cold, a great combination. This was our only stop where the ship  anchored out in the bay and we took a tender into port.

Hilton Head was where we met Big Al the ten foot alligator  and his girl friends. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip through the

Meet Big Al

swamp land.  The boat was so quiet and the cypress trees hung over the water with Spanish Moss dripping  from the branches. It is a special kind of solitude to just float along looking for wildlife.

The guide was excellent, she didn’t entice the gators to come to the boat, we were just on the lookout for them.  The first thing we saw was a slide, that’s an area that has been rubbed clean of vegetation and the spot a gator uses to slide from the land into the water.  There was a small gator laying on the berm there.

Then we saw Al’s morning lady friend who selected a small island to occupy.  It wasn’t the best place to set up housekeeping but she calls it home and keeps the other females away from her island.  She had several baby gators about  eighteen inches long hanging out with her in the sun.We found Big Al on another island canoodling with his afternoon girlfriend. He turned his head and smiled at us while we drifted by. He had a real set of choppers, yikes.

We also went out in the bay  to watch the dolphins dance.  It was a balmy day with a nice breeze and warm sunshine.  It was a pleasure to be out on the boat and the dolphins were active, turning over to show us their bellies, jumping and literally dancing for us. (disclaimer, these dolphins in the picture aren’t the dolphins from the bay).  We decided to forget pictures and just enjoy the dolphins. These

Dolphins from marine museum

dolphins are from a marine museum where we stopped)

Next stop was Beaufort, South Carolina. We enjoyed a horse drawn carriage ride here in Beaufort. Link was our trusty  steed who pulled our carriage without complaint.  Kelsey, our driver/guide, loved that horse and talked and encouraged him the

Kelsey and Llink

whole trip.  At one stop she comforted Link that the bird wasn’t there.  Apparently Link and a blue heron that occupies the small pond don’t get along.  It was sweet how she assured Link the bird wasn’t there today.  Kelsey grew up in Beaufort and greeted people on the street by name as we passed. She offered little tidbits about the houses and people we were seeing.

Many of the homes in the old district were from the 1700’s, wood houses held together by pegs instead of nails, most painted white.  All the porches look inviting with wicker chairs and a ceiling fan to keep the mosquitoes at bay.  One of the things I love about the south is the landscape.  Every home has a lawn, various kinds of bushes, flowers and of course old trees.   In one yard was a blue bottle tree.  We learned it was to keep the evil spirits away.(pictures at the end of this article)

One of our favorite parts of Beaufort was the Cypress Wetland.  This place is like a park in the center of town, but it isn’t really a park,  but a swampy kind of wet land with hundreds of birds.  A raised boardwalk allowed us to really get up close and personal

Nesting egrets

with the wildlife.  The Wood Storks, Snowy Egrets are so white against the vibrant  green of the trees.  Monty said it  looked like someone TP’d the park.  There were also blue herons and other birds we didn’t recognize along with a few small alligators, and lots of turtles. Some of the turtles were about the size of a silver dollar and others were the size of dinner plates.

We were disappointed in the tour of Charleston that didn’t happen. It was supposed to be a city tour before we headed  out to another plantation .  It was a weekend and the streets of the city were crowded with a huge street fair and lots of traffic.  Our guide, who turned out to be more of a chaperon than a guide, decided we should just head to the plantation.  We toured Charleston on our previous trip and know there are beautiful homes and a section called the Battery built behind a defense wall built by the British before the Civil War. If you remember your history, the Civil War began in 1861 when Confederate artillery opened fire on Ft. Sumter in the Charleston Harbor. Ft. Sumter surrendered 34 hours after the fight began and Union forces tried for nearly four years to take it back. You can see Ft. Sumter out in the bay from the Battery.  We toured Ft. Sumter last time we were here.

The plantation was another history lesson about  plantation life.  There were eight small out buildings still standing that housed the enslaved people. Originally there were more than twenty buildings.  Bricks were made on this plantation and many of the out buildings were made of brick. The more skilled workers lived here, the field workers lived in wood houses closer to the fields.

The Gullah/Greechee  people are descendants of enslaved Africans who worked on rice, cotton, and indigo plantations in the Low country, and their isolation from mainland society allowed them to maintain many of their African traditions and practices. They are a unique African American ethnic group with a distinct culture, language and history that developed in the region.  A woman gave an interesting presentation of the Gullah people from one of these out buildings.

There was also a dynamic lady that came on the ship to give us a history lesson.  She had a presence that could not be denied,  she went to college on a basketball scholarship so you know she was a big gal.  Here she was dressed in clothes that might have been worn by a slave in the house.  She was so dynamic, that Monty told her she was awesome after her talk.  She grabbed him in a big bear hug and thanked him.  Monty and I recently finished reading  James, about the black man who traveled with Huckleberry Finn down the Mississippi.  Good read. Interesting fact: the folks in the North were fighting to end slavery, the Southern states were fighting for states rights.

The accommodations on the ship were very nice, our room was spacious, the dining  room was elegant and the food was good. We were busy all the time  and met nice folks from all over the country.  There was musical entertainment on the ship every evening, and enrichment lectures each day.

We were pleased that we could do it all.  There was some airport excitement when we had to wait 6 hours for our flight out of Charleston. The Charleston airport is small so it was just a cozy day of reading and people watching.  Our connection in Dallas gave us about 40 minutes to get from Gate C 38 to B 5, we were picking ‘em up and putting ’em down through the airport, climbing up the escalator and jogging the moving sidewalk.  We found our way to the high speed train taking us from terminal C to B  and arrived at our gate just as the plane was boarding.

This was a fun trip, we’re getting the hang of this cruising thing.