James Island, SC



James Island, South Carolina



We are spending this week (Jan 1-8) at the Campground at James Island County Park.   This park is HUGE.....with many offerings including the 125 site campground, several dozen guest cottages for rent, a large water park, a very large dog park with lake, fresh and salt water fishing and many hiking trails.  Every Nov thru Dec the park hosts the Holiday Festival of Lights.....of course, with our Jan 1 arrival we JUST MISSED IT (UGH)!!!  The light festival this year involved 2 million lights and hundreds of scenes, to include the owl (below left), which is near the campground entrance and is still on (thankfully).   The light festival is a 3 mile long drive through the park, and each light display has a corporate or church or non profit sponsor.  It is said to be spectacular.

Ali has already been "tuckered out" at the dog park....altho surprisingly she shied away from the water.  There are many nice places for us to walk with her and we have found a couple of places where she can walk and explore off leash.  We will continue to explore all the park has to offer during the next 5 days of our stay.  This campground and park has proven to be a great find!

This afternoon we left Ali in the motorhome while we drove over to Wadmalaw Island to visit the ONLY tea plantation in the continental US.   The drive over to Wadmalaw was pretty (despite the light rain) and the road took us through many tree canopies......here is an example from a narrow lane we drove today....





The Charleston Tea Plantation grows some 125 acres of tea for the label American Classic Tea.  Jointly owned by the (very large) Bigelow Tea Group and third generation tea taster William Hall, the tea plantation grew from an experiment conducted in the 1960's by the Lipton Tea Co. to determine if tea could be grown the the United States.   The experiment concluded indeed it could grow if given the right climate and soil conditions:  hot and humid weather for several months, with lots of rainfall, and sandy soil with an acidic PH.   James Island provided the lesson that tea could be harvested in many coastal regions in the South East as well as the Southern Coastal Plains of California.   One of the reasons we do not see more tea plantations across the country is it is not considered an ideal "cash crop".   It takes 5 pounds of tea leaves to make 1 pound of tea.....so it is much like the returns of the maple syrup industry (which is 40 to 1).   The plantation grows all three types of tea: black, oolong and green......black tea is fermented for several hours....oolong for half that time and green tea is not fermented at all.   All other tea types are variants of these three.   Only the young tea leaves growing at the very top of the tea bushes are used for tea here at the plantation....and the tea is harvested annually from early May into October.   For the rest of the months the plants are dormant.   It is a very interesting enterprise........here you see photos of the tea bushes (up close):

PS......the official name of the tea plant is Camilla Sinensis....from the Chinese 'Tea Flower'.

 

On our drive back from the Tea Plantation, we were advised to make a stop at the Angel Oak Tree....purported to be upwards of 1500 years old.....we stopped for a 'look see'.....





The Angel Oak Tree (1500 years old??)





St John's Sanctuary

St John's Anglican Church

Pam & the Angel Oak
(Pam is NOT 1500 years old!!)

Nearby to the Angel Oak we discovered the St John's Anglican Church....said to be built in 1734.  A beautiful building whose sanctuary accomodates some 200 people.   With over 600 members, the church holds services three times each Sunday to accomodate all who attend.

 

A great day of exploring paid many dividends!   Stay tuned as tomorrow and the next day we are off to see Charleston's downtown historic areas.....and Ali has a 'playday' at the groomers.

James Island Saying......"Start your day slowly and slow down from there".