Cypress Gardens
Cypress Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. We went and the truck broke down, a part that was on national back order. Go figure. Our hotel bill ended up being way more than our mortgage for only two weeks. But, we had to fill that time up with things to do.
One place we went was Cypress Gardens. The water appears to be pitch black, like tar but it's not. They have these sight seeing boats and while we were seated in it waiting for it to fill up, my husband and I could see this view off in the distance.
"Look, over there! How old do you think that is?" We debated this structure. I was in complete awe that anything clearly that old could still have even parts of it standing. Keep in mind I had no idea how old it was. The stone of this structure looked as if the weather had taken it's toll, I could imagine running my fingers over it and feeling the places that had been smoothed over from wind and rain.
FINALLY!! The tour guide person climbed aboard and started to talk. All of the guides we had down there didn't just spit history they told tales. It was enriching, enlightening.. it was utterly entertaining. You learned a lot without realizing it.
He started out explaining the water, I have since forgotten. I remember the aligators, the flowers, the cypress knees.. the odd tree roots but mostly I remember that structure there, a church? But it seemed to be in the middle of the water. Maybe it had been a home before water got rerouted?
The visions of my imagination were historically romantic. The guide finally got to the topic of this crumbling looking building, and asked if anyone had seen The Patriot. Well no I hadn't. This, he explained could be seen in the movie. Something about Mel Gibson and special permission and I was squeezing my husband's knee..you know that, "we must rent that movie and see this historical sight." It'll give a visual of what it originally was.
Romantic history went out the window. This structure is made of plywood and concrete. Now, that's just curious.. did they have those things back then? "Then" was still undetermined to me but it was a very long time ago..right? No, that building never was a whole building. It was just what you see and made for the movie. It was left as it does look like it belongs there and is rather cool.. but not nearly as cool as all those different possible buildings with some great historic story behind it that I'd imagined.
