Wednesday, June 24, 2015
After just over two hours of driving from Hilton Head, we arrived at the outskirts of Charleston SC. Uncle Bill, Aunt Carol and cousin Sally said to not miss the tree, and to be sure to visit the Tea Plantation.
We thought, hmmm -- how exciting could visiting a tree be? Before getting into downtown Charleston I noticed these two attractions on the map and we visited them both before getting into town.
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| This one was well worth the visit. |
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| Almost the whole tree -- it is way too big to fit it all into the photo |
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| A different angle |
Obviously we found this tree visit to be much more interesting than we thought it would be. Had they not told us of it, I know we would have passed it by.
Next stop would be the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only one in America.
For some reason I thought tea was grown on trees. And in fact have learned that all tea comes from one kind of tree. The differences in teas is determined by when the leaves are harvested, the process they go through, how long they are dried, etc..
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| Tea here is grow on bushes |
Hundreds of thousands of tea plants are in the fields at this tea plantation.
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| This one of a kind tea harvester collects the tiny leaves that pop up on the bushes all summer long |
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| The next closest tea plantations are quite far away |
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| Of course there is a gift shop! This one has a complimentary, all-you-can-taste Tea Bar |
We bought our share of goods here at the tea shop -- doing what my friend Kathy R says is supporting the local ecnonomy. We both so very much enjoyed this visit -- both visits really -- and were glad to use our time wisely by visiting them on this day which was basically going to be a driving day.
Once in town we found our hotel, checked in and started scouting for a place for dinner. We came upon a booth selling the tickets for the "Trot and Walk" tour (carriage and walking) that we will do tomorrow. Further on we went into the information center and have gotten ourselves signed up for "something". Hopefully we won't be sorry that we have agreed to attend an hour presentation of a travel company!! Agreeing to doing it, we get four tours for free. Here's hoping it is not too akin to time-share pressure! I will let you know tomorrow. As well, I will upate what tours we will be doing!
That's all for today -- except to say --- it is HOT.
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Thank you Nancy for stopping at those two places. The ancient tree is magnificent and you photographed it real well.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how tea leaves were grown. Am I to understand that all tea originated from one tree?
It was nice to see all the tea bushes growing there in Charleston.
When you were at the store did you buy any teas that were grown there?
Yes, I learned from a tea tasting at my local tea shop that all tea comes from the one type of tree. The resulting tea is from how it is processed, length of time it is on the tree, etc. That was a big surprise to me as well. I had no idea.
DeleteWe did buy their green tea and a black tea. The is OK, but I have become a little bit of a tea snob and like some others bette.
Glad yo like the ancient tree photo ;'-) Thanks