I have always wanted to go to Charleston, Savannah too, but the opportunity has never arisen. With our recent score of a Southwest companion pass, we have decided that we need to check out some more of the USA and since we can now do it at a 2 for 1 price for the next two years, we have taken the first of many trips to familiarize ourselves with more of the land in this wonderful nation of ours.
Friday, March 10, 2017
You Blessed Me…
We arrived around 7:30 Thursday night and after unsuccessfully trying to secure an uber ride, we ended up taking a taxi that cost three times the cost the we would have paid had we been able to get an uber.
After a quick check in to our hotel we headed out for dinner a few blocks away at Coast. Passing by, I took notice of a plaque on the fence of a beautiful antebellum structure, the Joseph Manigault House, now owned and operated by the Charleston Museum. I had remembered reading about this home and it’s history. Manigault was the descendant of French Huguenots and owned some of the largest rice plantations in the area, along with being one of the largest slave owners, he was, at the time, one of the wealthiest of Charleston’s residents.
The restaurant was tucked in an alley, one of the first such style “streets” we will walk along while in Charleston. The restaurant was housed in what seemed to be an old warehouse with exposed brick walls, high ceilings, industrial lighting and tables made from reclaimed wood.
Our waitress was knowledgeable and fantastic, our food was a strong “good” but the ambience was what made the night for us. We certainly enjoyed this introduction to Charleston!
After dinner, we made the quick stroll back to our hotel, with some short stops for some evening photos, of course. Back in the room, we laughed ourselves to bed…though I am not even too sure what we were all laughing about!
Friday morning the alarms started at 6:30 so we could get a good breakfast in our bellies to start our day. We began our morning at Virginia’s on King having a hearty breakfast-fried steak and eggs for Billy, scrambled eggs and sausage for Jenny and yoghurt with honey, fruit and granola for me-all delicious served up in another restaurant with awesome atmosphere.
We made a brief stop in Walgreens for some forgotten toiletries and another quick stop at the hotel before embarking on our trip for the day.
As we headed out of the hotel, in the opposite direction then where we had gone last night and this morning, we had not gotten but to the end of the hotel’s driveway when I stopped suddenly by the shock of what stood across the street. I recognized the name of the building immediately and the actual building to somewhat of a lesser degree. It was the Emmanuel AME Church, the site of the horrible racially motivated shooting that took place two years ago. How eerie and heartbreaking to be standing there looking at it-a place where an unfathomable act of absolute senselessness, born out of racial hatred, occurred. As I stared more intently at the building, I could see flowers that had been left in remembrance of the nine that died, or perhaps as a token for the bit of humanity that was senselessly stripped from so many that day.
I could also see the words left by the church on their public message board, it read, “Thank you for the kindness you have shown us.”
Wow! Speechless….
We continued our walk along the very quiet streets and reached our destination a few minutes later-Liberty Park in the Fort Sumter National Monument. We made a beeline for the ticket booth to secure our transport on the ferry to the island that Fort Sumter stands on. Once on board, we enjoyed the recorded narration on the history of Charleston and Fort Sumter as well as their rolls in the Civil War. We also enjoyed seeing the USS Yorktown docked across the harbor, two super ships that are used for transporting new cars, the Ravenel Bridge (an enormous cable-stayed suspension bridge) and a bunch of dolphins surfacing and jumping alongside the boat.
Once at Fort Sumter, it gave one pause walking along the very ground where the first shots of the civil war began. We watched the flag raising ceremony and marveled at the size of the canons that were located along one side of the Fort. While you are only given an hour to self guide here, it was sufficient and we all enjoyed the time spent there and appreciated the history that had taken shape there.
Of course, by the time we arrived back we were all hungry.
I had made a lunch reservation weeks before at one of the top restaurants in Charleston so we made our way there. By this time, the clouds and scattered raindrops we had had for our boat ride over and back had cleared and the sun was beginning to come out. We enjoyed the walk to SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) and welcomed the chance to sit and relax. We had a great conversation about the flag of South Carolina and wondered about the symbols atkin of the crescent moon on the flag. This in turn led to the discussion of the presence of the crescent moon on international flags such as Turkey and Algeria, which led to our friend Google to explore this topic more in depth and while we didn’t find the answer, did you know that Mozambique has an assault rifle on its banner?
All of our lunches were excellent-Jenny especially was thrilled as they had Wagyu beef carpaccio on the menu! We topped our meals off with my favorite dessert, banana cream pie, only it was a version I had never experienced. It looked like a slice of cheesecake, but was light and airy reminding us of Bru’s pumpkin chiffon pie-and while the purist in me was a bit disappointed… it was Heavenly nonetheless!
Following lunch we headed out on a self designed walking tour towards a few places I had read about, meandering through much of the French Quarter. Our first stop was Philadelphia Alley. It was not much really except a beautiful little walkway that ran alongside some lovely homes. This should have taken all of five minutes but somehow it managed to take us thirty plus with all the time spent shooting pictures and gawking at flower boxes, etc.
From there we headed towards the church steeple we could see and the bells we could hear. Saint Philips, a national historic landmark as it turned out, was a magnificent church on the outside but was unfortunately, closed while we were there. We did however, enjoy walking around the graveyard and commenting on all the beautiful flowering trees and bushes that were exploding with color and enjoyed knowing we were walking amongst the graves of one of the signers of the US Constitution as well as of the Declaration of Independence.
We enjoyed a quick walk past the Huguenot Church, a different yet equally magnificent looking church, this one being pink and black, and were sorry that this one too was closed. Jenny and I always go into one of the churches in whatever city we are visiting and light a candle for my dad but so far we had struck out, much to my disappointment, but we feel confident we will find one open before we leave-Charleston is the “Holy City” after all!
As we made our way towards another POI I had read about, I saw across the street the Historic Charleston Foundation Shop and sitting out front was an African American lady weaving baskets made from local grasses. Charleston is famous for these baskets, much the same way Nantucket is for their Lightship baskets. I grabbed the crew and we quickly changed directions headed for the wonderful opportunity that I knew was there waiting.
There was a table about ten feet long, laid out with various baskets in all sizes and designs, some with handles a la Easter basket style, some with handles on either side, most without any handles and there was a basket containing hand woven roses. I asked the colorfully dressed woman, wearing the large floppy hat how she was doing. The conversation and exchanges that followed suit would turn out to be some of the most memorable people to people interactions of any of our trips to date.
The largest basket she had, priced at $600, was exquisite and Billy asked her how long it had taken her to make it, “Three weeks and four days,” was her reply. She had just finished it this morning. While we watched her for a while weaving, I asked the rhetorical question of where she learned the trade. “From my grammy,” she said, “she raised me.” When I responded that Jenny and my mother were very close she responded, “Oh yeah, what’s your grammy taught you?”
“A good sense of humor,” Jenny responded with Billy adding, “And an appreciation for the world.” To which the lady responded, “That’s good honey child cause you’s gonna need it!”
She told us to make her an offer as it was nearing the end of the day but apparently I was the only one that heard that. As it turned out, Jenny had already taken a fancy to a small traditional styled basket (i.e. no handles) that was one-tenth the price of the large basket which solved the answer to the next rhetorical question I had asked-if I could videotape her hands at work. The lady was very happy that a young girl was interested in her work and she told Jenny she was going to sign the bottom of the basket. She then pulled out a pamphlet describing the history of the baskets, the four different materials that are used to weave the basket (sweet grass, bulrush, long leaf pine needles, palmetto leaves), and a brief description of her, the artist, Betty Manigault. When I said to her that I had seen that name before in this area and that it was an old name she replied, “I come from a long line of very hard working people.” An incredibly gracious response, that gave me pause as I later explained to Jenny that it had been customary for slaves to take the last name of their owners and it would only stand to reason that she descended from slaves once owned by Joseph Manigault (the owner of the house we had seen the previous night).
When Betty was done signing her name, and letting me videotape her doing it, she said to us, “Now I’m gonna bless you cause you all have blessed me today. That was the only basket I have sold all day. I want you to choose three roses-one for each of you-one for the father, the son and the holy ghost.”
What a remarkable woman Betty was and what a gift it was to have spent time with her!
As we continued up King Drive, still talking about Betty Manigault and how we would love to go back and buy her big basket, we came across a shop with all the products locally made. They had a large selection of baskets, made by a now famous weaver, selling for at least five times what we had just paid. We certainly felt victorious in not only our purchase but with our encounter as well!
Gateway Walk, the other POI, I was looking for was really very cool. We only walked a small section of it in the graveyard of Saint John’s Lutheran Church, which was all overgrown but made for a very captivating environment with the ivy growing up and Spanish Moss Dangling down from flowering trees.
It was getting close to 4:30 and we were all a bit tired. We made a stop in Starbucks for Jenny and a quick walk through Charleston City Market which did nothing for us. We then made our way to the rooftop bar at Henry’s for a cold beer for us before heading back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner.
Dinner was at Hank’s Seafood. A very popular place that had the feeling of an old style restaurant-think big booths and waiters in jackets. Our dinners were delicious-flounder for me, grouper for Billy and Southern fried chicken for Jenny (served with absolutely delicious collard greens)! Of course since we had already walked over six miles we decided that the peanut butter pie topped with chocolate ganache was in order and boy was it good!
Charleston thus far has been a fun trip. Everyone we have encountered has been so nice and friendly, the scenery is beautiful with the various styles of architecture, the cobble stoned streets, horse driven carriages, and flowering landscapes, only add to its charm. Of course, it helped the weather turned out to be beautiful and once again, we are out exploring as a family, taking it all in and enjoying our time and experiences together!
Saturday, March 11, 2017
A Pint For Washington
I always try to find some fun foodie finds in places we travel to, and this morning was no exception. We started our morning off at Glazed, a local doughnut shop. Needless to say, they were off the charts delicious-light and airy with just the right amount of sweet topping to compliment the delicate dough! A real treat for us as donuts are never on the morning menu at our house!
Following our breakfast, we made a quick stop at the visitor center to locate a better map than the one our hotel had given us. As I was standing in line, I noticed an enclosed case that contained a large grass basket. When I finished at the desk, I walked over to the case to read the plaque displayed under it and imagine my surprise when I read about a, “Miss Mary Jane Manigault, a National Heritage Fellow and elder at “Manigault Corner” where basket making is a habitual daily activity.” Not Betty but one must assume a relative!
From there we made our way to the Aiken-Rhett house, a property, owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation. This property’s has been kept in a preserved state, meaning nothing has been restored since they received it in the 1970s, though it seems as though it has not been touched since the early 1900s. It is a Charleston double house with a large piazza and the most intact slave quarters of almost any property in the Charleston area. We enjoyed the 45 minute audio tour and found the house eerily beautiful with its peeling wallpaper, falling apart upholstered furniture and crumbling walls and ceilings. It gave us an incredible view into the lives of both the privileged wealthy people and the slaves that served them as well as what happened to them and how their lives changed, following the war. This was a really great stop!
Upon exiting, we stopped to check our map for the best route to our next destination when a gentleman approached us and asked if he could help us-Charlestonians are really so nice!
We enjoyed the leisurely stroll down towards the peninsula and all the while Billy and Jenny were having a ball poking fun at me, making a story up about me that followed along the lines of the children’s book, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie,” but instead saying, “If you give mommy a camera…” Very funny they are! No. Really they are and I actually enjoyed my roasting-laughing right along with them!
The day, about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday but with bright blue skies, made for the perfect walking weather. We passed many more of the houses that seemed to be original to this area-three story, single homes built with piazzas off the first and second floors, lined up one after the other all facing the direction of the street. We had openly pondered the architectural style over the last few days and had made our own hypotheses and drawn our own conclusions as to why the houses were designed the way they were. We ended up reading an informational sign that finally explained it to us and basically we were all right in our thinking.
We decided to walk down through Waterfront Park along the Cooper River to take in the views and the sunshine. We loved the fact the fountains all have signs that welcome people to frolic in them but for them to just beware there are no lifeguards on duty. We imagined the fun the children must have in the height of the brutally humid summers, splashing around and cooling off in such a lovely setting.
We continued through Waterfront Park until it dead-ended on East Bay street where we enjoyed seeing the homes of “Rainbow Row,” a small section of contiguous homes from the mid 1700s, each painted their own brightly colored hue, decorated with equally colorful window boxes. Billy remarked that they reminded him of the houses built along the canals in Amsterdam
Rainbow Row
Charleston actually started off as a walled fortification, one of only a few in the US. The walls had long been forgotten about until some recent excavations brought them back to light as well as their history. We passed sections of the walls now exposed and displayed.
From there we picked up the walk along the shore where it becomes an area known as the Battery. The street here is lined by the old, ridiculously ornate mansions of the rice plantation owners, merchants and traders.
Each one we passed was bigger and more showy than the previous one. They were all done in various architectural styles from Victorian with Medieval European influences to Greek Revival and Italianate style, many boasting huge piazzas some with enormous columns. The one house that stood out to us as looking more like the architecture we see back home (Georgian), turned out to be pre-revolutionary and had been the former home of one of Washington’s cousins. Amazing they are still standing after all Charleston has been through-revolution, massive earthquake, great fires, civil war, and numerous hurricanes over the years!
The walk along the battery was beautiful and once we reached the southern point of the city, we turned into to walk through White Point Garden, so called due to the mounds of white oyster shells that were found here. This park was filled with live oak trees whose branches were draped with Spanish Moss, Palm Trees and Palmettos, Azaleas abloom in all shades of pinks and purples, blooming flowers of every color as well as monuments, fountains and gazebos-a lovely site. We took a few minutes sitting to enjoy it all!
We next turned up back into the residential neighborhood to continue on to our next destination-the Nathaniel Russell House
Battery Park Home
As is always the case, traveling with us always takes more time than planned. It was getting past time for a late lunch and I was getting especially hungry so we walked on to find some food before starting the tour. We pretty much went with the first place we found, the Blind Tiger Pub. I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical at first but the food turned out to be delicious, they had great music playing and the waitress couldn’t have been better!
With full bellies again, we headed back to take our tour. The Nathaniel Russell House is the sister house, if you will, to the Aiken-Rhett House-both owned by the Historical Charleston Foundation. In contrast to the A-R house, the Russell house has not been preserved but has been restored. They compliment each other nicely.
We lingered in the meticulously manicured gardens a while enjoying learning the names of some of the trees and bushes we had passed along the miles of streets we had been walking. Outside the back door Jenny had a go at using a joggling board, a very long pliable board that is held up on either end which sort of bounces and rocks side to side as you sit on it. It was popular in the early 1800s and is, again, unique to the Charleston area.
Our tour guide was clearly a native of the area as she spoke with that southern drawl that reminded me of a character from Gone with the Wind.
Nathaniel Russel House
She said the house had been kept in excellent condition all the years before the Museum acquired it and it was still the original footprint. They had recently had a paint conservationist come from Boston to analyze the walls and help them choose the correct colors to use for the time frame when the Russell family would have been living there. The house was decorated with period pieces, mostly from Charleston and a few from New England/New York as no original furniture remained upon their acquisition. The highlight was the cantilevered “floating” staircase that rises three stories. We had seen one similar to that once before, only on a smaller scale, and when asked Jenny if she remembered where she responded without hesitation, “The church in New Mexico.” I was surprised she remembered that as it was quite a few years ago. Supposedly the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe and the Russell House are the only two staircases like it having being built by unknown architects. It really was a lovely home but interesting that Jenny said she enjoyed the Aiken-Rhett more.
From there we left to walk some of the smaller, quainter “Alleys” that are scattered through Charleston. This was very enjoyable getting a glimpse into the gardens and backyards of so many of Charleston’s beautiful old homes. We came across one whose front door was about three feet off the ground. Jenny and I were in the midst of discussing why it was so high and there were no steps, just a large squared off stone that had been placed in front of it, when the homeowners pulled into their driveway. After they got out of their car, I asked them if they minded if I asked them a question. They were happy to oblige and explained that at one time the carriages would pull right up along side the door because the house had belonged to a cooper and he would roll his finished barrels straight out the door, onto the carriage to be taken to the wharf across the street-pretty cool!
Floating Staircase
Church after church we passed today and can you believe not one was open. There are over 400 churches in Charleston, literally seems like there is at least one on every block-sometimes there are three, and we have yet to find one open!
As we were slowly making our way north towards our hotel, we came across a sign for McCrady’s Tavern. I told Billy I had read about this place and he suggested we stop for a beer since it was now after 5:00. McCrady’s had been established in 1778 and had actually hosted Washington on his tour through the states, and since we love history and Washington especially, we went in and raised a pint to him and to the fun day we had had exploring the beautiful city of Charleston!
Sunday, March 12, 2017
“We Flew American to Charlotte”
Since our donuts yesterday were so good, we decided to go back for some more and ended up stuffing ourselves with the delicious creations-lemon poppy seed, apricot filled, raspberry glazed, dark chocolate filled powdered- you get the picture!
We felt we had done a good job covering much of the historic district over the previous two days-we had walked over thirteen miles between Friday and Saturday crisscrossing the area, always trying to go up, down and across streets not previously traveled-so we wanted to do something different today.
Our original thought was to take Uber out to Middleton Place Plantation but since the time change had caused Billy and Jenny to sleep in until 9:00, we were getting a later start then planned. We also woke up to cloudy skies and drizzle with the threat of rain and temperatures steadily dropping, so a day outside strolling the grounds was not sounding too pleasant.
The Hunley
The back up plan was to go to the Charleston Museum, the oldest Museum in America, but that fell through when we walked the two blocks to it to find that it didn’t open until noon. We did, however, get to see a full scale replica of the Hunley submarine which was displayed outside of the museum. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy’s ship, in this case a Union vessel that was blockading Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. However, after accomplishing her goal, she mysteriously sunk and was not to be found until 1995 and raised until 2000. They have since started a foundation dedicated to preserving and sharing its history.
Since it was only 10:30, waiting for the museum to open was not an option. Yesterday, we had passed a house that caught Jenny’s eye and I told her what I knew about it from having read about it. She had wanted to go but we had run short on time. I decided to look it up and see what time it opened this morning-11:00 AM-perfect! We got an Uber and arrived 10 minutes before the first tour left.
The Calhoun Mansion is a 24,000 square foot Italianate manor house and is the largest privately owned residence in Charleston. It also happens to be open to the public for tours of its main and second floors. The house has an interesting history having been in private hands for many years then used by the navy as temporary barracks followed by a brief stint as a hippie commune where it eventually fell into such disrepair it was condemned and headed for demolition before being saved by a local man who spent 25 years and $5,000,000 restoring it.
Calhoun Mansion
He sold it in 2004 to its current owner. a Washington DC based attorney who is a great collector of…well…everything!
The Calhoun Mansion was like walking into a museum of the world gone wild. There were items everywhere-on every inch of wall space, atop every table and side board as well as on every bit of floor space leaving only enough room to maneuver around. It contained a vast assortment of items that can best be described as gaudy, eccentric, classical, significant, ridiculous, and disturbing. Every genre of art was covered, every culture and probably every country was represented, with every material known to man on display. The home itself, minus its “decor” was beautiful with intricately carved plasterwork and wood moulding, hand painted ceilings and amazing woodwork and craftsmanship, some having been done by Tiffany himself. It was an incredible edifice displaying the wealth that was to be had in the area before the war. We had never seen anything quite like it-truly fascinating in every sense of the word and we all thoroughly enjoyed the tour, even if we could only understand a quarter of what our guide was saying.
Once back outside, the weather had turned even nastier and colder. It was down to 43 degrees with a fairly strong wind blowing. We passed churches that were finally open but mass was just letting out so I was unable to enter. When we finally found one I could get into, the historic Circular Congregational Church, there were no candles in it. We made one final attempt back over at Saint Philips but they were closed again when we got there. With so many houses of worship it’s hard to believe we struck out but It certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying!
We decided to suck up the cold and walk back to the hotel to get our things and head to the airport. We also figured we could use some help working off our morning gluttony!
Gardens Calhoun Mansion
A quick and cheap Uber ride to the airport and we were heading back home!
We all agreed we really enjoyed Charleston. It is a city rich in history, loaded with charm, teeming with nice people, and it has a profusion of excellent restaurants to boot. It was a great introduction to the South and has us looking forward to a future trip to Savannah and Beaufort to visit some good friends!
As the first of our “get to see more of America” getaways, this trip was a great success. Once again, the three of us had fun together-exploring, learning, chowing down and of course laughing. I love that we can tease each other and that all three of us have no problem being self-deprecating. Billy kept saying he was enjoying Charlotte. He told the Uber driver that we were flying American (we flew SWA), so as much as I was made fun of with my picture taking, we have decided that when someone asks Billy where he had gone, he’s going to respond, “I flew American to Charlotte!”
Wandering Amerrickans 