The Animal Park in The Charles Towne Landing State Park in Charleston, SC

While in South Carolina visiting family, one of the great places we got to see was Charles Towne Landing. There were animals, remains and re-creations of old buildings from the first SC settlement, a great old boat, and a ton of nature to enjoy! 

Fair warning now, I suppose: I do enjoy taking photos of insects and insect-like creatures, so there is one picture below of a very small, very harmless spider. No other insects or arachnids, however, just lots of animals we found in the animal park part of this state park.

Enjoy!

The Aviary Enclosure

Bear with me, folks!

This big guy was right up front near the fence, working the same place over and over with his teeth and paws. He's probably brighter than the average bear and is slowly but surely weakening the structure of the fence so that he can be free. You can't see the rather large enclosure behind him but I assure you that he has a very big place to call his own.

Really, with him only a couple of feet outside of arm's reach, I wanted to pet him. He just looked like a really large, lovable, pet-able puppy dog.

Thankfully, I know better.

Total size, including legs, smaller than the nail of my thumb.

There were a bunch of these little guys dotting the sides of the paths but nothing large and you could easily stay clear of them as long as you didn't wander off the path itself. It was obvious that the staff takes really good care of the grounds, allowing wildlife and wild plants to flourish directly off the walk paths without encroaching on the guests.

As we left, he said "It was good seeing you. Bison!" I didn't even know he was my dad!

It's amazing to think that these huge, alien-looking creatures once roamed this area freely. They simply do not look as though they belong here but would rather be at home in the west somewhere, on a prairie. Instead, they were once indigenous to South Carolina, a state not very well known for its prairie-like climate.

Who you callin' "chicken?"'  ...you thought I was going to go for the easy pun, didn't? Oh no, I'm better than that...

Did you know that the turkey was once put up as an idea to be the national bird of the United States? It's true! Look at the wattles here and you'll see why: You have red, white, AND blue! Apparently they change colors/intensity when excited, which I think means the turkey in front really wanted to be in my friend.

You wanna go, punk?

Does it seem like a bad idea to anybody else that they had the turkeys in the same enclosure that they had the turkey vulture in?

I do understand that the name 'turkey vulture' is because of its coloring and not because turkey is its primary meal but has anybody explained that to the vulture?

Hey, hey, hey!

If you click to make this picture bigger (something you can do on any of the photos in this blog, by the way) you'll see Fiddler Crabs, and in the bottom right there's a bunch of oysters all bunched together!

These were actually over near the boat, nowhere near the animal park part of the park, but I figured they belong here anyway, with the other animals.

I've never actually seen Fiddler Crabs, OR oysters, so this was pretty cool!

The whole trip was a lot of fun and there's a part that we missed so I'm sure we'll have to come back next time we're in the area! I'm told there are often alligators here and I look forward to seeing some; for some reason I'm a bit obsessed with seeing alligators in the wild.

Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina

Take a gander at this!

The Awesome family went on vacation in South Carolina this weekend to visit family and see the area! We've visited several amazing local sites and we just got back from Middleton Place, a great site to visit with some amazing formal gardens, informal gardens, animals, and old buildings like stables and mill houses. There were also a few people there to show us what life would have been like back when this plantation was fully functional.

I even got to milk a cow for the first time in years! This time, successfully!

We ended up coming later in the day with about an hour and a half until they closed up for the day; this meant that we had to rush a bit more than we should have but even with rushing we saw some absolutely amazing things. 65 acres of garden, rice fields, and history, all rolled together!

Walk with us through the garden:

Liminal doorway into and out of the garden

I thought the entryway almost added a fae touch to the beautiful garden. Standing as its own structure it simply nicely delineates that you are entering a place straight out of history.

Wizened Crepe Myrtle Trees

Truly, I thought these trees were dead but I'm told I was wrong. I find it amazing that they seem to be bark-less trees (The Basenji of the tree world?), beautiful, old, and almost magical.

A beautiful, unobstructed view...unfortunately.

The great house used to stand here, and guests would enter from the water-side. In the war that is known around here as "The War of Northern Aggression," a rogue troop from the Northern military came through and destroyed the home that stood so grandly.

A Live Oak in front of the stables, amazing, huge, and so very old.

This is a Southern Live Oak, one of many growing on the plantation lands. To give some kind of perspective to this picture, that stable is roughly 18 feet tall at its peak. These trees grow very slowly but it's almost impossible to gauge their age due to the trees being susceptible to heart rot but suffice it to say that they've been around longer than many generations of families. They're simply amazing, and awe-inspiring.

Don't mind me, I'm just strutting my stuff.

I was taking long-distance shots of this peacock (one of several peafowl on the premises) when it seemed to notice I was taking its picture and came to say hello.

In one of those cages back there a peahen is protecting six baby chicks. I couldn't take photos because my camera couldn't focus past the tight-knit fencing but you'll have to trust me when I say that they were absolutely adorable.

Annabelle!

This is the cow I milked! I successfully got a few squeezes of milk from her and left happy.

She only hit me in the face with her tail seven or eight times!

Magnolia tree flower over a life-filled marsh.

This was a garden, not just a home for animals; there were many beautiful magnolia trees, as well as other flora.

Not everything was blooming but that just means that we'll have to come back again some time in the future to see it in a new light.

What are you looking at?

There are two water buffalo in the back area. I wonder what the story is with this big guy's broken horn.

As we walked by he made an unhappy noise. The flimsy fencing made me hope that his unhappiness was just because we didn't stop to pet him, not because he was planning on using his remaining horn on us.

A bit of prettiness on the side of the path.

Beautiful pink gladiolas dotted the paths of the formal garden. Fully in bloom they added an appreciated brightness and beauty to the gardens.

The sunken garden, a beautiful place.

This is a shot of the sunken garden, surrounded on three sides by rolling hills and water on the fourth side.

If we had had a little more time, I would love to have a picnic under that tree in the background, overlooking the waters, watching the birds, turtles, and gators.

Pretty little white flowers.

On our way out, the path was walled by bamboo and some bushes that were bearing these pretty little white flowers.

Each flower is roughly the size of my pinky nail.

Stepping back to the real world.

Goodbye, Middleton Place! It was an amazing two hours! I am absolutely certain that the Awesome family will come back to see you again!