A cruise before Christmas

10-17 Dec 2017

We decided to take a relaxing cruise before the hectic and fun days of Christmas.  Our ship was the Regal Princess out of Fort Lauderdale for seven days of Caribbean sun and ocean views.  This ship is one of the first to implement the Medallion Class which provides some connected services thru your personal electronic device, in our case a phone. A great deal of information about the ship and events is available to you all the times.  You also can use WhatsApp and Facebook for free, a real bonus for Anneke. The ship is in great condition.  We had a great view from the balcony of our deck 15 aft stateroom.  We spent quite some time there just watching the ocean.

There is plenty to do onboard, whatever your preferences. We had a cooking demonstration from the head chef and a tour of the kitchen where all the food is prepared for the main dining rooms.

There is no question what the main focus onboard is:

Watching the sunset from you own balcony is still one of our favorite things to do.

Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation

Around 1806 Williams Braisford purchased land along the Altamaha River in Georgia.  He started one of many rice plantations on the coastal plain.   Eventually it would grow to 7300 acres.  Before the Civil War, the plantation prospered from the rice crop being tended by 357 slaves. 

After the Civil war, the crop became unprofitable from a combination of loss of low cost labor and competition from other crop growers in the US and overseas.  Much of the land was sold after the war to pay property taxes imposed by the state.  Despite these setbacks, the property would remain in the family for five generations.

The plantation house that remains was built in the early 1850’s and was used by the family until the last family member, Ophelia Dent, died in 1973.  She was the last of two sisters that operated a dairy farm that allowed them to keep the property and donate it to the state debt free.

A guided tour of the house explains the history of the plantation and the lives of those who lived and worked here.  For me, it was a surprise to learn of the many rice plantations that operated on the river before the Civil War.  There are walking trails among the many trees and visiting the river bottom areas where the rice was grown.

This stop proved to be our last stop on our Georgia trip.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we were returning to the motorhome after visiting the interpretive center at the entrance and Anneke slipped on a hickory nut and fell.   After a visit to an urgent care, we decided to head for home.