18 - Middleton Place (Charleston, SC)

00:00
We're back and I have my girls with me. That's cringing. And I have my girls with me and we're going to talk about one of our very favorite places that we visited while we were in the Charleston area. And that's called Middleton place. And Middleton is 125 acres.

00:25
It was built in 1741. It's a house, it's a plantation, a rice plantation. House, gardens, and all the things. So, we want to talk about the staff, first of all, because when you go places, you, I mean, you want to be able to expect the staff there to be helpful and nice and excited to talk to you, and.

00:54
hospitable but that really doesn't happen a whole lot and I've talked about that a lot on this podcast that there are many many places that I go with that expectation in mind and it doesn't happen but I can very thankfully say that at Middleton everyone that we came in contact with was very kind right like very helpful what I mean do you have anything to say about that

01:23
or anybody in particular that you thought was very nice. Was that lady's name Phyllis? Yeah, I think so. Phyllis, and then what was the lady that did the tour? She had an older name too. Okay. But there were a lot of older, retired age, retiree age people that worked there. And then there were some younger people too. I saw...

01:52
there was so we're gonna get into the animals and stuff but the sheep just fascinated me like they were so cute and they just run free and I just thought that was fascinating because I'm like I mean I was telling Adam about it and Adam is a shepherd so he like knows more about the stuff than I do and he was just like well she pretty much like say insane like he was not fascinated by that fact he was just like you know but he was like did they have fruit?

02:19
Surely they couldn't just free-range over the gardens and stuff and I was like, oh no, they had like these iron gates that say Please keep gate closed and then like when we were in the restaurant later There was a sheep that was wandering down the path past the please keep the gate closed gate and there was a lady that came with some feed to get that sheep back, but It's just funny. I was just it was just like like a movie

02:47
to me like one of these little like barnyard movies you know Charlotte's Web or like all the animals just look very like you know they were very used to people they were very friendly and like they could just talk to you anytime. Can they just like? Yeah not skittish at all. Okay so let's talk about the animals. I love the sheep. I was very taken with the sheep. They were wool sheep. Very fat.

03:17
Very cute. There was one black one. One black one, yep. Named Wednesday. That's right. I forgot about that. What else? Tell us about the animals girls. The girls actually went on an animal tour, like a meet the breed tour. So y'all tell us about what you learned or. There was two baby water buffalo. Were those your favorite? They were really cute. And they had blankets on.

03:47
yeah it was a little bit chilly that day that we were there. The cows what were their names? Iris and Lily. Yeah it was Lily. And those are milk cows right? Yeah. Okay what else? Horses. Draft horses. Okay they did work on the farm right? Is that what? Yeah they're

04:16
That was like their retirement home. Yeah. But they still worked pulling small carriages and stuff every once in a while. And all these breeds that were there were like original to the farm. They were there to just show you what animals they would have had when the farm was a working rice plantation. You know, kind of that kind of thing, right? What else?

04:46
rabbits, chickens, guineas that they didn't know what they were. Yeah, I said I used to eat guineas. But... Keep going. But, yeah, we were the only ones there that knew what guineas were. Yeah. They're all like, it's some kind of chicken. I think it's a chicken. What else? Do we talk about all the animals? Goats, pig.

05:15
Yeah, the goats. Oh, one big fat guinea hog. Yep. What was his name? Uh, I don't know. I don't know what the... It was a huge guinea hog. I don't think we've ever had a guinea hog that big. But what about...

05:35
Maybe not. Yeah, I don't think our biggest one was ever that big. But, um...

05:42
Anyways, they just... oh and all those little pigeons or whatever they were in there. Remember? Uh huh. Like a lot of them. Yeah. And then there was a... a Henny. A what? A Henny. It's a horse and a donkey. Like, it's... so like, you... I think it's... Remember that one that we thought was a... Oh yeah. Because I think it's... isn't it a female donkey?

06:11
and a male horse, or is that a mule?

06:16
I don't know, you're asking the wrong person. Okay, and so, past the animals. We had to go to the animals first, because everyone wanted to see the animals, but there are also some semi wild animals, right? There. What were the wild animals that y'all wanted to be brave and get close to? Alligators. They have alligators living in the ponds there. Squans.

06:43
swans that were looking pretty aggressive as well. Turtles. Turtles. Sydney loved the turtles. I picked one up. Well Stella loved the turtles too but she didn't pick one up like Sydney did. I was like is that not a snapping turtle? Sydney's like I don't know. I was like oh gosh. I was like I didn't want to

07:12
So the gardens... I said it because you wanted to catch it too. The gardens were my favorite part of Middleton. I posted on my Instagram that if you always wanted to pretend you were like Lady Mary from Downton or like Scarlett O'Hara or something...

07:37
someone like that and just walk the gardens all day then Middleton is the place you could you know bring those dreams to reality because that was just the kind of atmosphere that was that it was. Of course things were just starting to bloom when we were there I'd love to go back and like May or June see what it looks like then when everything's bloomed because they have thousands and thousands and thousands of

08:03
camellias and azaleas and they actually hold the like title I guess you would say for the oldest camellia in America is there and because I love to propagate things I was completely stalking this one camellia bush, the oldest camellia bush in America and it's a little bit hidden

08:32
It's a beautiful pink with some white splashes on it and it was in bloom, but it's a little bit hidden away. It's got some other bushes in front of it and behind it and so it's a little bit hard. Like you could not reach up and touch it. It's a little hard to get close to it. But the gardeners have been out there like pruning all of the camellias and I had actually found some like...

09:00
clippings on the ground that I was like, hey, I'm gonna take this home and try it. But I couldn't find any around the oldest camellia and I was just like, you know what, I wonder if I could ask somebody if I could just have a clipping from this thing. I mean, like, how cool would that be to be growing a clipping from the oldest camellia in America? The first camellia ever to be in America on American soil. We'll get more next year. It's okay.

09:28
So in 1786, French botanist Andre Michaux, I guess is how you say it, or Michee, came and brought four different camellias to the Middletons to plant here, and only one of them is still alive. The rest of them were killed by disease or hurricane or something. So anyways, I was completely stalked in that bush.

09:55
I was just kind of like, I walked by it probably 50 times, just trying to see if there was any way that I would be able to get a clipping from it. I wasn't gonna steal a clipping, but I was really considering asking for one, and I was certainly gonna grab one off the ground if it was already cut, so. So, another cool part, the girls didn't go there, they were off doing something else, but they have like a little spring house there.

10:24
And then on top of the spring house was a little like plantation church for The slaves that were working on the plantation and it was a beautiful little little chapel Mm-hmm. They had lots of information in there We had lunch at the restaurant that was our plan for the day. We could have brought a picnic lunch. I Assume I guess you could have brought your own lunch there

10:51
but they have a restaurant there on site and for any visitors there to the Middleton Place, you can go and eat at the restaurant. I don't think they allow people just to come eat at the restaurant. It has to be a person that is attending, or not attending, what's the right word? Visiting the Middleton Place. Paying to come. Paying visitors, yes. But I do believe in the evenings they take reservations.

11:21
for the restaurant and I believe when you make reservations for the restaurant then your visit to Middleton is included. I'm pretty sure but I'm not 100% on that. So you can check out the Middleton Place website if you want more information on that. But what did y'all think about lunch? It was delicious.

11:46
That was probably my favorite thing I ate on this trip was was my shrimp and grits I had there at Middleton. It was really really good What did y'all get? The buffet they got the buffet it was a lunch buffet and um what did y'all have on it chicken fried chicken bacon cheese

12:11
Salad. Mm-hmm. Peking pie. Was there some kind of rice with beans? What was it called? Oh, I cannot remember. Something. It had someone's name. John. Yeah. John something.

12:29
Hoppin' John? I think so. Hoppin' John. The biscuits. I think it was it. Okay. What was your favorite thing you ate? Mac and cheese. No, the Piquant pie. Biscuit. And children.

12:49
The buffet is pretty expensive, but for what you get, I think it's well worth the price for adults. But children, I was actually, I didn't know this because this was not advertised on their website, but our waiter told us that they were half price for a children's buffet. And we think his name is Tim, our waiter, and he was super duper nice, like really nice. Yeah, we liked him a lot. All right.

13:19
Okay, so there's something called the Middleton Oak there on the property and I would say it probably rivals the age of the infamous Angel Oak tree. They're estimating that it's around a thousand years old. So it was really large. You could tell that it has had some damage. Some of the limbs, just like the Angel Oak, are being staked up.

13:48
or held up by cables. But this actually had had like, part of the trunk was gone, right? You remember that? Like the whole front half of the trunk was gone and I don't know if that happened in a storm or if they had to prune it for some reason. But anyways, it is not as grand looking as the angel oak tree, but they do believe it is as old as the angel oak tree. So.

14:18
Even the bathrooms are beautiful. I just want to make a note of that. I didn't even go in and dump it. You didn't use the bathroom? No. Maybe. Well, the girls found out on this trip if they didn't know already that their mama uses the bathroom all the time. I am constantly, I have the smallest bladder, I don't know what my problem is, but I don't even, I don't drink.

14:42
a lot of water on purpose on trips like this because I don't want to be using the bathroom the whole time and I still had to use the bathroom all the time. Like every five minutes. Yes. I know, they were so tired of me saying I gotta go to the bathroom. But the bathroom was kind of like hidden and they called it the outhouse and I was like oh gosh what am I getting myself into? Like I thought it was going to be like a port-a-john or something of that nature but it was like

15:09
Beautiful and it was cold that day. So inside they had heaters going and They had window boxes outside of the outhouse with beautiful flowers planted It it was I was just like, of course, of course, even the bathrooms here are beautiful, you know One thing I didn't realize until we went to the gift store Get the gift shop

15:35
when I was looking at a book about Middleton, which I'd love to buy but it was so expensive. But I saw that there have been movies that have been filmed there. In fact, there was one scene from The Patriot, which is a really well-known older movie, that was filmed there of like a party on the lawn. And so I got to see that and that was that was kind of neat because I remember The Patriot from a long time ago. One very cool unique thing.

16:04
that we discovered when we first got to Middleton was that they have a plant nursery there on site at the parking area. So when you get done with your visit, you come and they actually have lots of plants that were actually propagated there at Middleton and then beyond, you know, they have just regular plants that you could buy other places, but I was really looking for some things that were.

16:30
propagated there that I could take home, but I talked myself out of the one that I was looking at. Just cause it was very strange looking. Do you remember the paper flower plant? Yeah. It was very strange looking and I probably looking back should have gotten it just because it was so unique, but I didn't. They were pretty, they were pretty pricey. All the plants, they were pretty pricey.

16:53
I didn't get any. No. Oh, you want me to get some seeds? No. Well, you do. You can get seeds. You need to. I need to get some seeds. Okay. The thing is with those plants, they were like, they're big. They branch out and they look like there's hardly any flower on them. You know what I mean? They just look like sticks. They were unique, but I don't know if I want them in my garden. Anyways.

17:23
Did you buy, you bought something? Yeah. And Stella bought something. So both of them bought something from that nursery and then they have a gift store as well. So it was a really good day. How long do you think we stayed there? Five or six hours? Probably six. Yeah, we stayed there a long time that day and we were completely exhausted when we got done, but it was such a good day. It was beautiful. I was so thankful this entire trip.

17:52
It didn't rain. The last time Adam and I were in Charleston it rained like the entire trip. So I was so thankful that this time we had good weather. It was cool but you know it kind of warmed up some with the sun during the day. And yeah, it was great. The girls and I agreed that like if we had Middleton Place nearby we would probably get like a family

18:22
membership so that we could just go like we could go to school there. If we needed to just get out of the house we could go run around and look at the flowers and sit by the water and you know check out the alligators and show the boys and everything. And so I would love to I don't know if we have anything like that near where we live but if we do then we're gonna have to we're gonna have to find it. But yeah we

18:51
I think the girls would love to like work at Middleton if we lived close by they'd be like yes that's where I want to work with those animals and stuff but anything else y'all want to say about it? Don't leave out anything. No? Okay. Y'all met your limit for talking or nodding your head or whatever.

19:15
Oh wait, we saw people riding horses. That's right, there was people riding horses. So Middleton is not just the plantation and the restaurant. They have an adjoining inn, which I would love to check the inn out. It doesn't look like it fits. That's one thing we talked about. The inn looks very modern, and Middleton is obviously very old and historic.

19:45
but the inn is like the complete opposite. But we walked by the inn, they have like a swimming pool there, they have canoes you can rent and stuff for people staying there. And then they have like an equestrian center right there beside the inn. So we took a little detour and walked through the woods where we probably weren't supposed to. We saw people on the trail and we saw people jumping. Mm-hmm.

20:09
Yeah, the girls wanted to see, because when we drove by to go to Middleton, we drove by the Equestrian Center and the girls really wanted to find it and see what they were doing, and watch the horses and stuff. But we kind of felt like we were trespassing, so we ended up going back the other way. I think we were. Yeah. It was fun. All right, y'all got anything else to say about the Charleston trip before we wrap it up here?

20:35
Alright, well thank you for joining us and thank you girls for sitting with me for two episodes and Talking about our trip I will be doing another episode on the Juliet That will be coming out next you do not want to miss that because the Juliet was What would y'all say? Well, it's one word to describe the Juliet magical magical

21:06
You got a word?

21:09
Magical. We'll go with magical. That's pretty good. I do believe it was magical. I loved staying there. I was so excited that we got to do a partnership with the Juliet because I feel like a lot of people would love to stay there. I don't know. They're just now getting their Instagram account going, their Facebook account going, and it's actually a pretty new...

21:37
rental. They just started renting it in 2022 I believe. It's fairly new so we want to get the word out for them so that other people can have a magical experience like we did. Alright we will talk to you guys on the next episode. Thanks for joining us. You want to say goodbye? Bye!