Day 15: “Nobody knows, the trouble I seen…”

Today we toured an honest-to-goodness plantation. Not many of the original plantations have survived, and even this one didn’t completely survive the American Civil War, but the grounds and many of the original buildings are still intact.

The plantation belonged to the Middleton family, one of North Carolina’s leading families, including a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Or the Constitution. Or a Christmas card. I forget.

The buildings are nothing like you might expect if your knowledge of Southern plantations was based on “Gone with the Wind”, as mine was. It was much more like a traditional English building: dark, cramped and kind of miserable. Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses wouldn’t have fitted down the hallway. It was more “tenement” than “Tara”.

The grounds, however were spectacular. We fell in love with the gardens.

In addition to the sheep, chickens and goats was a swan, as well as a few alligators. The swan was just upriver from an alligator heading in its direction. I asked our tour guide if we could wait a few more minutes to see what happened.

Actually the alligators are quite small, and the swan probably could have swallowed the ‘gator whole. Which would have been equally entertaining to watch.

Of course there were squirrels, which all disappeared the instant I reached for my camera. It’s a conspiracy.

Lunch was buffet of southern cooking, with fried chicken (KFC is only a sad imitation), corn pie, chicken salad, corn bread, greens, and more. The traditional Southern cooking was accompanied by traditional Southern segregation. Note the only two black men were seated on their own behind our table:

The alternative explanation is that they were sitting alone because they were our bus driver. Although probably true, it’s not as controversial a reason, and hence less appealing.

After lunch we drove through the old city, which has some superb architecture. This style hs been retained even in later periods, such as in the magnificent mansions built along the foreshore in the early part of the 20^th century.

Back on the ship I looked out the window and saw nothing. Emma looked out and saw dolphins.

This time I was in luck, and they hung around for perhaps forty-five minutes. They put on quite a show.

Speaking of shows, this was the night of the first production show, “Standing Room Only”, a collection of songs from various Broadway musicals. It was outstanding, and I don’t like musicals overly much. The costumes, choreography and singing were top-notch.

But I still don’t like Andrew Lloyd Webber. I have to draw a line somewhere.