So today I was torn between spending more time wandering around town and then maybe going to a movie OR paying some big bucks and going on a plantation tour.
BUT as luck woudl have it two Kiwi's, Chris and Richard and an American girl Kim arrived last night and as I spoke to them at breakfast this morning I discovered that they were going to Magnolia plantation and bless their little cotton socks they only went and offered to take me with them - Aaah
So off we went and boy do these people know how to make money. basically it costs $15 just to get across the threshold and have a walk around the garden, the house costs more, the slave cabins cost more, the swamp tour costs more and the nature tour costs more. So after some discussion we just decided to have the general admission and the swamp garden self guided walk. The house, which we could look at from the outside, wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be but the garedns were quite pretty, apparently the oldest formal garden in all of America. The swamp garden was part on road, part through the forest and part on raised boardwalks. We only saw a couple of small baby alligators but we saw lots of birds, some turtles, many many large spiders and one or two other bugs. There was also an old cemetery whereit looked like most of the old family slaves had been buried. All in all quite interesting and great to have some company to go with.
We then drove back into the historic downtown area and went for some food. I had Shrimp and scallop based lobster bisque at a very famous restaurant called Hyman's - apparently loads of stars have eaten there and there were many signed photos all over the place to prove it. We also had a taste of gator sausage which was quite spicy and garlicy and a little bit chewy (but apparently gator is very chewy - funny I don't remember that from when I have had it previously)
I then left Chris, Richard and Kim to their own devices (they hadn't had a look around yet) so i could go back and get my washing etc. done in preparation for departure tomorrow and the long train journey up to Washington.
