byLeslie Carbone
Magnolia Plantation in South Carolina boasts the last intact large-scale romantic gardens in the United States. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, click here. But Magnolia’s history and her gardens go back a century before there was a United States, when Ann and Thomas Drayton established the rice plantation in 1676 along the Ashley…
byLeslie Carbone
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon is a quirky museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and a backdrop to some of the defining events in American history. It ranks near Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall among the most significant still-standing buildings from the Revolutionary era. Finished in 1771, the two-storey, Palladian-style, stone Exchange and…
byLeslie Carbone
Charleston’s Battery and Rainbow Row faded from view as my travel companion and I sailed aboard the ferry toward Fort Sumter, perched on a small island in Charleston Harbor, site of the first battle in America’s bloodiest war. The five-sided Fort was planned during the 1820s, in the wake of the War of 1812, designed…
byLeslie Carbone
Boone Hall is one of the oldest working plantations in America. Since its founding in 1681, it has produced a range of goods from cotton to pecans and been owned by a cast of colorful characters from an early English settler to a Georgian prince. The plantation is named for its first owners Elizabeth Patey…
byLeslie Carbone
“8004” The gentleman quietly ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon. He then requested six glasses and two chairs for the corner half-booth behind him. Nestled next to the floor-to-ceiling greige fireplace, the booth’s light beige banquettes blended into the slatted wainscoting. The gentleman too fit the setting, his round creased face warm and smiling above…
byLeslie Carbone
With a CD of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” playing, drill instructors award each recruit they’ve trained the Marine emblem of eagle, globe, and anchor. They may now call themselves United States Marines. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, click here. Leslie CarboneLeslie Carbone is a former Cabinet speechwriter who’s having much more…
byLeslie Carbone
The recruits in this video, and the two to follow, have nearly reached the end of USMC boot camp’s Phase Three, which emphasizes teamwork. They are undergoing “the Crucible,” a sort of “final exam” in the form of a 54-hour combat simulation exercise. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, click here. The sound effects…
byLeslie Carbone
Phase Two of boot camp features combat water survival. Many recruits arrive on Parris Island unable to swim; some actually fear the water, according to Captain Peter Marks. Instructors work one-on-one with the camouflage-clad, barefoot recruits at the shallow end of the pool until they’re ready for rigorous training in the deep end. In five…