"Deep" South

The USA is not only the East Coast and the West Coast, but also the South. Before the hot and humid summer, it is the right time to head to South Carolina and Georgia. First stop, Charleston.

 

It was at one stage the fourth largest town in the USA, counting the slaves. It was the hub for the South as well as a booming agricultural town, producing deer-skin, rice, indigo and eventually cotton. The wealth of the town is everywhere to be seen, with many nice houses in various architectural styles. It's pleasant to walk around, and the palm trees add to the relaxed feel.

In the South, it is also a must to visit a plantation. We chose the Boone Hall plantation. It was first built in 1790, and was actually very small. Most plantation owners had their nice house in the town of Charleston. In the countryside, main houses were still in wood, and there were often many small cabins where the slaves would stay.

The most famous element of the plantation is its "Avenue of Oaks". The ads for the plantation claim that it is the most photographed tree avenue in the world. Ok, it is very nice, but still to get a title for this... These are live oaks, meaning that they always carry leaves, even in winter. Growing on it, is the "Spanish moss", which all our guides were explaining that it was neither Spanish nor a moss.

 

Next stop was Savannah, Georgia. I must admit that I likes this town. It has lots of well preserved houses, with many original features. It is spatially organized around many green squares, as planned by its founder James Oglethorpe. It has a rich history, including with the Indian Americans. It has now a completely modernized Riverfront, where it is nice to eat and drink. And at night, several of its houses are haunted...

Yet, the most well known "Savannah moment" is undoubtedly drawn from the movie "Forrest Gump", when Tom Hanks sits on a bench, a box of chocolate on its knees and says "Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get". Well, below is a picture of the park where the bench was. The bench itself had to be transferred to the local museum, as visitors were too eager to carve out a part of the bench to keep as a souvenir. 

Both Charleston and Savannah have huge new bridges.