Our tree tour continued today with one of the oldest living things east of the Mississippi, Angel Oak. Facts first: it is over 400 years old, 65 feet tall and shades 17,000 square feet. You won’t be able to give it a bear hug, its circumference is 28 feet. And don’t think you’ll be able to do any arty selfies like sitting on a branch in a ballgown, there are many restrictions which limit to how much interaction you can have with the tree.

With 400,000 visitors a year the city is making every effort to keep people from loving it to death. To give you a sense of the amount of love this tree receives – 400,000 is the annual visitation to Big Bend National Park, or the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Angel Oak City Parks, hosts the same amount of people on less than half an acre with no parking lot.

Walking around the tree is not a simple matter. You weave your way in and out of the many large branches that are so heavy they rest on the ground.

To complete our Angel Oak experience- we had lunch at the Angel Oak restaurant. This will forever be known as the place where I discovered pimento cheese… AND rediscovered love of fried chicken. I don’t really remember having fried chicken other than KFC, maybe that’s why I stopped eating it.

For the record, I did order a Greek salad – but Peter gave me some of his chicken sandwich which turned into a whole half. If you’re worried that he didn’t get enough to eat – we had a side of French fries…..and Mac n cheese. Did I mentioned I ordered a salad? Oh – we skipped dessert …but…that was because we had a homemade chocolate chunk cookie before lunch. Yep – we’ve had an amazing food day and it’s only 3:00.

You may be wondering about the cookie- we got that at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. It transitioned from a privately owned plantation in 1870 to a public garden, making it one of the oldest public gardens in the country. You could explore the historic house, the gardens, and a swamp. I can imagine everything is stunning during the azalea and camilla bloom. It reminded me a bit of the Huntington Gardens in L.A. – but southern style.

We arrived at 11:00 to a full parking lot, when we left at 2:00 it was empty. Lesson learned, get there early before it gets hot and the bugs start looking for brunch.