too much stuff for one blog

We had a very very busy day, beginning with the lunar eclipse.  We got up a few times between 2:30 and 5:00 am to view the lunar eclipse.  no pictures as I was sure they would not turn out. It was a clear night so we were able to see the eclipse and lots of stars.  the only thing that could have been better is if we had a meteor shower!

Sunset...

 Sunrise..

We visited Fort Moultrie, then lunch at a Gullah restaurant, on to Boone Hall Plantation and finally to the Charles Pickney Historical Site. I am going to blog about Fort Moultrie and Boone Hall on separate pages.

The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. "Gullah" is a term that was generally used by outsiders but that has become a way for speakers to formally identify themselves and their language.
The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African-American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Barbadian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, cuisine, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures. African farmers from the "Rice Coast" brought the skills for cultivation and tidal irrigation that made rice one of the most successful industries in early America. The food is basically the same food we ate at the Holiday Party, rice, beans, greens, sweet potatoes etc.

Our main road (Hwy 17) is also called SweetGrass Hwy on the section between us and Mt Pleasant. The baskets are sold here and also in Charleston.

• Gullah "sweetgrass baskets" are coil straw baskets made by the descendants of slaves in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Sweetgrass basket sewing is viewed as a gift from God. The craft, handed down from generation to generation is usually learned from childhood. Baskets require a great deal of patience and creativity, as there are no set patterns. Each piece is unique, and each artist develops his or her own style. Basketmakers pledge to continue their traditional craft as long as there are raw materials available.

The Charles Pinckney home...

Charles Pinckney, who represented South Carolina at the Constitutional Convention, was an ardent apostle of the rights of man. He dedicated his considerable political and legal talents to the establishment of a strong national government so that, as he put it to his fellow South Carolinians, "the effects of the Revolution may never cease to operate," but continue to serve as an example to others "until they have unshackled all the nations that have firmness to resist the fetters of despotism."

The home and grounds are beautiful and well kept. The original farm was 715 acres.  He invited George Washington to visit him here although he had a beautiful home in Charleston. Most planters did not visit or stay at the plantation homes because of  malaria and yellow fever. Fearing disease, many white planters left the Lowcountry during the rainy spring and summer months when fever ran rampant. Others lived mostly in cities such as Charleston.  Because of having built some immunity in their homeland, Africans were more resistant to tropical fevers than the Europeans