Ft Sumter, Tea Plantation & Distillery

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Busy day today but at least we were not walking for miles and miles. However, our brain is on overload with the things we learned and did...
Nancy and I walked up to the Early Bird Diner for breakfast while Jane ate at the hotel - she isn't a big breakfast person. The Diner was on Diner's, Drive in's & Dives. Some of their specialties are fried chicken & waffles (served together) and shrimp & grits.
Then we drove downtown and caught the ferry out to Ft Sumter (right). A dolphin swam right in front of the boat for aways as we were leaving the dock. The boat did a short tour of the harbor before heading out to the fort which is totally surrounded by water.  This is where the first shot of the Civil War was fired when the Confederates attacked the Union which owned the fort. Quite interesting and now we all want to read a refresher about Ft Sumter when we get home.
On our way out into the countryside, we stopped at the Crab House for lunch.  The restaurant is right on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway so we could watch boats go by including a good size yacht. Jane and I had a hamburger but Nancy had seafood. 8-)

When planning the trip, I ran across a reference of the Charleston Tea Plantaion. We checked it out and added it to our schedule and what a find it was. This is the only Tea Plantation in North America. We had no idea how tea grows or is harvested. At right is a picture of the tea plants. They grow 8 different kinds of tea at the plantation and make black, green and oolong tea which is what you get in a typical chinese restaurant. It was really interestering!
Nest stop was the Firefly Distillery  which makes flavored vodka, spiced rum and some liquors. They are best knownm for their Sweet Tea Vodka and that is pretty good stuff....  Bottom pic is Jane and Nancy getting educated on vodka.  Since I was the drive, I only got a small amount of the Sweet Tea. Tomorrow we are going to Magnolia Plantation for a tour plus some other misc places before we leave here on Firday and head on down to Savannah.