Charleston in a Day-April 12, 2019

With Linda P behind the wheel, and me navigating with my phone’s GPS, we were off to Charleston. It was a two hour drive from our condo.

Our first adventure was to take a carriage ride through the town. Our driver was David and his horse was named Gibbs, who came from an Amish farm in Lancaster County, PA. A ping pong ball decides which tour you will get out of four different tours. This is how they regulate that the carriages don’t all take the same route.

I am standing with our driver. I am blocking a view of Gibbs.

Carriages were everywhere. It is most definitely the way to see Charleston.

Charleston’s history goes back to 1670 when the first English settlers came. Fort Moultie was the site of a successful 9-hour battle over the British during the Revolutionary War. Fort Sumter on an island just off the waterfront is the site of the first shot of the Civil War in 1861.

The town has had it’s share of disasters. In 1888 there was a great earthquake that cracked, damaged or leveled many of the buildings. Then in 1989, Hurricane Hugo damaged most of the historical homes. Thanks to government aid, most of those buildings have been restored. Today, Charleston ranks second in the world only to Rome for having the most preserved historical buildings.

Instead of high rises, Charleston Is filled with a multitude of steeples. It’s nicknamed the “Holy City”.

St. John the Baptist Church. The gold cross was added in 1998 after they discovered that it was in place in the original plans.

This circular church was a United Church of Christ. It was built in a circle because “the devil does his work in the corners”.

There were side porches on many of the old homes called piazzas. It the early days there was no indoor plumbing and the people emptied their waste into the street. Since that didn’t make for very great smelling streets, the residents would wear seven layers of clothing. They would remove the filthy layers and leave them on the porch but would use fragrant flowers to mask the smells. All important rooms were on the second floor. Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it.

A house with the side porch or piazza. Many also had ornate gates.

Rainbow Row on East Bay Street. The restored houses are in pastels. I think there were 17 of them. I am in the center of tall the picture with my backpack and hat.

During the tour, David shared an interesting fact about carriage houses. They were originally built to house the slaves. There were a lot of fires in Charleston. They suspected they were started by the slaves, so they needed to be moved behind the house in a carriage house. We know know that the fires were caused by creosote in the chimneys, not by the slaves.

We ate lunch at 82 Queen. It is a restored late 1600’s house; we ate right inside beside the garden courtyard.

Here Janet and I are enjoying a Charleston favorite – She Crab Soup. It was delicious. Supposedly they use to use crab eggs in the soup. I didn’t notice any.

I tried fried green tomatoes. The green tomatoes were good but they were served over grits. I think you have to be a Southerner to really relish grits.

We window shopped in the Charleston City Market. It has been in existence since the early 1800’s. There were several stands with baskets made by descendants of Gullah who were antebellum freed slaves. They are unique and beautifully crafted from local sweetgrass. They were very expensive so we just admired them from afar.

The Pineapple Fountain in the Waterfront Park on the Charleston Harbor. The pineapple became a symbol of welcome when ship captains would bring pineapples to their wives when they returned from a voyage. The wives would share them with their neighbors and friends.

We entered the regatta that was held that afternoon in the harbor. As you can see, we didn’t do very well. There’s always something…

From Waterfront Park we could see the flag flying over Ft. Sumter. Would have loved to take a boat to tour the fort. Maybe next time.

A courtyard we passed on our way back to get our rental car.

This was the front of the Charleston City Market. The market is on the bottom with open air stalls.

Another gate we passed on our way back from the harbor to our car.

We had a fun day. The carriage ride helped me envision the “classic elegance” that symbolized the southern way of life. I was glad we had taken the time to explore Charleston. Too bad about that schooner. Maybe next time we’ll win that regatta!

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