Luke and I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in South Carolina with our parents. It was so nice to have both sides of the family there to celebrate. After two days of my mom’s amazing home cooking, we all piled into the car and drove east to the coast.
I’ve wanted to visit Cypress Gardens ever since reading this blog post. The Gardens were everything I was hoping for and more! Beautiful weather, no crowds (thank you, Black Friday), and an abundance of flora and fauna.
First stop, the Butterfly House. Their winter butterflies were small and striped, and were largely attracted to these two varieties of fun flowers:
Back outside, a nice walking trail follows along rows and rows of Cypress trees. I was delighted to learn that these trees grow “knees” that stick out above their roots.
The highlight of the Gardens is definitely the free boat rentals. Luke, Paul, Tom and I cruised through the swamps on the lookout for alligators (none, phew!) and other swampy wildlife. It was magical to traverse through the tree mazes in complete silence except for an occasional oar in the water.
The main blooming flower for this time of year is the Camellia. While several of the trees were just starting to bud, we found a few that had already come alive.
More to come on our adventures in Charleston!
Stephanie,
Love your smile! Sounds like ya’ll had fun!! Glad you missed the gators. If you like gardens, check out Dumbarton Oaks next time you’re in DC in the spring. I loved to go there as a kid. The garden was designed by Beatrix Farrand. It is fabulous! We had a beautiful sunny day here in ND, got up to 14 whole degrees.
Love to you both,
Suz