2/26/2011 Saturday. I couldn’t pass up on the $160 roundtrip airfare offer, and I had always wanted to see Charleston and her antebellum architecture; so, here we are.
Ellie and Kuau came by a little after noon to take us to Newark. Flight 3118 was quite full, no doubt due to cancellation’s of prior day’s flights to Charleston due to weather. But we got in just a few minutes late. Rental car is a Hyundai Electra from Budget, so far so good; it seems the quality of Korean cars has improved a lot. Visited the wrong Visitor Center (where people were more interested in selling time shares), then drove to the Waterfront Park and walked around for 45 or so minutes. Many large and old houses (antebellum, no doubt) along East Bay Street. There is something to this Southern charm. Traffic on the harbor is quite busy, we saw three large container ships go by the Cooper River. Restaurants were doing good business (it’s Saturday, after all) and had 30 to 45 minute waits. We ate at Noisy Oyster which turned out to be pretty good. Oyster Samplers to share, Anne had the Shrimp and Grits, I had Shrimp Okra Gumbo. Only blemish was this couple who refused to have the window closed even though it was a bit cold. I couldn’t help remarking to them when we left that I hoped they enjoyed the breeze while others were freezing.
Water Fountain by the Waterfront.
Charleston has many churches. It is nicknamed "The Holy City." Horse-drawn carriage is a popular way to see the city.
With old churches come old cemeteries. One graveyard is the resting place of several Constitution signers.
There are many alleys in the city. They are mostly well-maintained.
Hotel via Hotwire turned out to be Best Western. We could have booked through Hotels.com for a few dollars more. The hotel is just so-so, and I am not sure the towels are clean. Hotwire has proven to be disappointments when it comes to hotel bookings.
2/27/2011 Sunday. Stopped by Dixie Supply Company and bought a piece of tomato pie and chess pie. The chess pie is written up in a recent issue of National Geographic Traveler as the best in America. It’s okay, but not great. Magnolia Plantation was next on our itinerary. This place is now run by the 13th generation of the original owner. We visited the main house, took a nature ride on a tram, and walked around the gardens with many magnolias and camellias. On our way out we stopped by for more than an hour at the Audubon Swamp. There we saw an alligator in the process of killing an otter (the otter still appeared to be alive when we left), many egrets, turtles and alligators. Quite an interesting place; we spent about 6 hours there. Dinner at Hyman’s Seafood. I had the grouper stuffed with crabcake special, Anne had the crabcakes on fried grits, and we shared buffalo oysters and fried green tomatoes as appetizers. The fish was a bit overdone.
Dixie Supply Bakery & Cafe. The "Best Chess Pie" is just okay.
Drive to the Magnolia Plantation.
The surprising modest main house of the Magnolia Plantation.
Live Oaks covered with Spanish Mosses.
Slave cabins on the Plantation.
Anne taking a picture of a crocodile enjoying the afternoon sun.
An oft-photographed picture on the Plantation. Our obligatory shot.
Crocodile trying to kill an otter (so we are told.) The crocodile would thrash around every now and then, otter managed to stay alive when we last saw it.
Cormorants.
Blue Herons.
Snowy Egrets that just had a romantic encounter.
Crab cakes on Fried Grits served at Hyman's. One can gain a lot of weight on southern food.
2/28/2011 Monday. Took the 11 am boat tour to Fort Sumter. This was the place where the first shot of the civil war was fired. We could see the damage the thousands of cannon balls, totaling about 7 million pounds, did to the place. About 100 people were killed during the 22 month bombardment. Lunch at Fleet Landing, pretty good fare. We had soup (She Crab for me, Shrimp Gumbo for Anne), crab dip (Anne) and shrimp and grits (me). Drove around in the afternoon: Sullivan Island, Isle of Palm, Fort Moultrie, and Patriot Point (didn’t go on the Yorktown, though.) Dinner at Arby’s; we both felt we have eaten way too much on this trip.
Big cargo ship on the Ashley (or is it the Cooper?). The dot in front is a dolphin.
Seagull following our ferry to Fort Sumter. Nothing special about the bird, just it took me many tries to get this one.
Damage to the Fort.
In front of the Ferry.
Fort Moultrie as seen from Ferry.
3/1/2011 Tuesday. Our flight wasn’t until 4:30 pm, so we thought we could do a few things before we leave. Didn’t leave the hotel until about 10 am though. Our first stop was town again, walked around a bit, visited the four corners (church, city hall, court house, and post office). The church cemetery is where two (at least) U.S. Constitution signatories were buried (Rutledge and Pickney). Interestingly, it is St. Michael’s Lutheran (I expected Quaker or Puritan). Lunch at Charleston Crab House, Anne had the She Crab soup and salad, I had fried oysters. After lunch we drove to Kiawah Island and found out visitors probably needed to announce themselves, so we didn’t go on it. We then drove to Caw Caw Nature Reserve but it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. So we gave up and went to the airport and found out our flight was delayed for an hour. Flight was 60 to 70% full, and uneventful. Ellie picked us up.
Black skimmers.
Four corners (from left: Church, Post Office, Courthouse and City Hall.)
To our great dismay, eating Southern food for three days gained both Anne and I several pounds. Now we need to work to get (at least some of) it off. Did learn a few things about U.S. history, though.
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