Brookgreen Gardens

We arrived at Brookgreen Gardens only planning to spend a few hours but ended up staying the whole day and STILL not seeing everything. The background of Brookgreen is similar to Hobcaw Barony: Wealthy individuals, Archer and Anna Huntington, bought and combined multiple former rice plantations for recreational use. However, the management and use of Brookgreen is quite different. Much of the property is highly manicured and serves as the setting for the largest collection of figurative statuary in the country. 

We took a pontoon boat tour of the canals on the property that were originally built when it was a rice plantation. This provided a chance to sit down while cruising on a beautiful day and hear some history about the plantation. The most interesting part was seeing several alligators along the way like the photo on the right. They were along the shoreline sunning themselves. Alligators go into a form of hibernation in the winter when they stop eating. Woe to the shorebird that miscalculates and walks by on the first day they start eating again.

There is also a small zoo on the property with local animals. We spent quite a bit of time in the marshland aviary watching the birds play as they were quite active. Perhaps a bit too much time as Mrs. Snootypurse caught a bird bomb from above on her left shoulder. I wonder if it's good luck like it is in Italy? The zoo includes a river otter exhibit where you can watch the frolicking above and below water. And frolick they did!