It looked like a stormy day so we wanted to get on the road in good time. We have experience driving through torrential rain and it is not fun!
To keep it simple we went to the motel buffet for breakfast. They have fruit, cereal, juice, sweet bread, toast and a really easy waffle maker. I made Dan and I waffles. The coffee was good and that is a perfectly fine start to the day. Soon we were packed up, checked out and on the road again.
It was really simple, south on SR-77, east on SR-26 and straight into Meeting Street, Charleston. Turn left on South Market Street, a quick right onto Church Street and we have arrived at the Church Street Inn. This was a find through my timeshare connection. It is a lovely old building of hotel suites. We have the Fraser room. It is a two bedroom, two bath suite overlooking the courtyard. Each couple has a king sized bed and private bath so no one had to draw straws for the better room! Abe and Frances take the room on the lower level so they do not have to carry everything upstairs. We are upstairs off of the living area. Wow! It is very nice if somewhat over decorated. We moved some of the kick knacks so we can use the tables and settle down to relax and plan our day.
The valet has taken the car and we have no need of it. We are right by the Market and in the very heart of the French Quarter. We can walk anywhere we want to go. We start out by strolling up Market Street looking for lunch.
After lunch we stroll down Church Street. We can see St Phillip’s Episcopal sticking out into the center of the road two blocks away. There is a graveyard surrounding the church and a cemetery across the street. Apparently a “graveyard” is by the church whereas a “cemetery” is separated from the church. At one time, this was all a graveyard but the street and even the sidewalk was built over the graves. As we were to hear a number of times touring the town - “They are dead - they don’t care.” When building the town, it was a case of “needs must” and many graves are below current structures.
Abe and Frances headed back to the hotel. Dan and I continue down the street to the French Huguenot Church and over a block to Meeting Street. The rain catches up with us and we shelter under the Portico of the First Scots Presbyterian Church c. 1814. It was quite comfortable sitting on the doorstep watching the storm pass by. Once a break appeared, we continued around the block and back to the Church Street Inn.
It is the kind of day to enjoy our hotel and an afternoon snooze. I am a born tourist. I can’t bear to be in a new town and not investigating. I went out quietly, got directions to the nearest grocery store and borrowed an umbrella from the concierge. I walked the length of the market - all items for the tourist trade not the farmer’s market it used to be. Market hall was originally built over the space where butchers slaughtered their animals for fresh meat. Now it is all merchant stalls while the Hall holds the museum of the Daughters of Confederation. The market ends at East Bay Street and the waterfront. Not far up East Bay Street is a very modern Harris Teeter Grocery store. I wandered up and down the aisles picking up things for “happy hours” and breakfasts. I can spend a lot of time in new grocery stores but I have to have the young lady’s umbrella back before she goes home so I try to keep on track.
Back at the hotel everyone is in the living room visiting. I spread out the first of the snacky foods and we enjoy the leisure of “staying in”. We decide to order pizza and watch the “Dancing with the Stars” finale. Tomorrow we should have better weather and a full day to examine the city.
A good way to get to know a new place is to take a tour. It gives you an overview of the area and fills in some interesting facts. The concierge has recommended Palmetto Carriage Tours. It is just down Market Street two blocks in a large red barn. We purchase our tickets and wait for our turn to climb aboard. Our guide is Jackie. The wagon is pulled by two mules, DVG and Battery. Assault is taking time off! If you look through the slide show, you will see Jackie with DVG and Battery. DVG stops, legs apart and urinates copiously onto the street. Jackie is forced to halt, throw down a marker with an orange flag and call dispatch to alert them a street cleaner is required. Street cleaners patrol with pressures hoses shooting cleansing foam to clean up any call of nature that may occur. We saw the street cleaner when we first entered the city and wondered what that was all about!
There are so many carriage tours in the city, each one is given a route number as they start off. Spread out in different areas, they cause less congestion to the traffic in any given spot. We are on Route 3. Jackie turns our carriage down Church Street past our hotel and on to St. Phillip’s pointing out the tilt in the spire from an early earthquake. We enjoy the stories she tells and make note of as much of the information as we can remember.
Charleston has been through wars, fire and earthquakes. Many of the older houses have had their foundations shaken and their walls have become unstable. The solution, run steel rods along the joists between the floors. Add bolts to the rods outside the walls. When necessary, tighten the bolts to straighten the walls and hold them in place. It is recommended not to tighten the bolts more than required, pulling the walls inward!
Another feature of a Charleston home is the “piazza”. When you look at the houses, a porch will be at the front of the house by the main door, a verandah will wrap all the way around the house on the main level and the piazza will run along the side of a home front to back and often one on each level. Abe told us a story of a boy coming to the door of his grandmother’s boarding house in Tampa at the beginning of the depression. He was looking for odd jobs so she set him to work cleaning the piazza. She passed by the window while he was scrubbing and she could hear him saying in a disgusted tone, “Piazza, piazza, that am the ugliest word I ever did hear!”
We saw many examples of the Charleston Single House. It is only one room wide so the façade on the street is narrow and the length is front to back. With the piazzas down the length of the building the air flows into every room keeping them cool.
As we travel the streets we see houses of all types and styles. When I could, I liked to get a peak at the gardens as well. You will see them scattered in among the pictures I took. This is the area “slightly north of Broad” . Back in the day, home owners living in this area had one goal - to move or marry south of Broad Street, changing their location from “SNOB” to “SOB”. As a play on that, there is a very nice restaurant called “SNOB’s” or “Slightly North of Broad” on East Bay Street. Charleston is a gastronomic heaven with all manner of very good restaurants.
Once the tour is over we go in search of one that has been recommended to us - Blossom. It is one of the group including Magnolia, Blossom and Cypress restaurants. Abe and Frances have been to Magnolia before and enjoyed it. Blossom is less formal. We walk over to East Bay street and past many more interesting places, find Magnolias and next door, Blossom. It is lovely and ideal for a leisurely lunch.
Next on the agenda, I am looking for a Sweetgrass basket to use as a bun basket at home. I have been looking for something special and the traditional Gullah basket from Charleston would make a good keepsake. Weaving baskets here is a tradition brought over from Africa and the Mount Pleasant area of Charleston has long been famous for its basket weavers. Dan and I saw many of them in the market. More interesting are the weavers set up in front of the Gibbs Art Gallery. The four of us walked over to Meeting Street and I looked at the baskets each lady had on display. They are a beautiful combination of pine needles, sweet grass and palmetto. Each person has their own style though the baskets are very similar. Prices are flexible as well. I choose the one I want from Laurie Bonneau. She marks the bottom of my basket with her name and the date. I took her picture with one of her baskets and a sheaf of grass she was carrying. Shopping done, Abe and Frances take a pedi-cab back to the hotel. Dan and I continue the walk back to meet them there.
Frances has walked enough and decided to stay around the hotel for the remainder of the afternoon. She has seen the Battery before. Abe, Dan and I start out again this time down South Market Street to the harbour and along the Waterfront park to Battery Park. The first building we see on the waterfront is the very imposing United States Custom House. Building began before the Civil War but did not continue until the war was over. In front of the Customs House is a very modern walking pier giving a wonderful view of the harbour and back over the city. There is a lovely fountain at the start of the walk where small children were cooling off by running in and out of the water. Parents relaxed around the perimeter watching.
Turning south, we walked along the water side taking pictures of the marvelous homes across the street. One huge new building looks very out of place. The City Gallery is beautiful but it is the only modern structure on the street. One feature of a number of houses is the rope trim around the entrance door. It is supposed to be narrow and unobtrusive, apparently an ancient symbol of good luck. The house we pass has very noticeable rope trim. It was built by William Roper, a ship’s chandler so it was a play on his name and profession as well as the usual good luck sign.
East Bay Street ends in Battery Park. There are statues, cannons and a gazebo - the usual park things. But the most interesting to me was a pair of Yellow crowned night herons and their nest. I spent my time trying to get a good photograph of them. From the park we walked back down Meeting Street. Two Meeting Street Inn is right on the corner and would be a wonderful place to stay. It was one of the most elegant mansions of the area in the 1800’s as it still is today.
Soon we were back at the hotel and joined Frances for Happy Hour in our lovely living room.
After giving our tired feet a rest, we went out looking for “She Crab soup” for dinner. A cross between a bisque and a chowder, made with the famous blue crab meat of the area. This soup/bisque/chowder is considered the city's signature dish. Abe found one version but it did not measure up to his memories of the Francis Marion Hotel restaurant. I was not brave enough to try it, I ordered crab cakes and Caesar salad once more.
Tomorrow we are taking the car for a tour of Patriot’s Point and Sullivan Island.
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