Touring Charleston

Last week some friends came to Charleston for the Presidents' Day week-end and we had a great visit with them.  Jack and I are enjoying our road trip but we sure miss spending time with our family and friends!  It was a real treat for us.  Of course, we took lots of pictures of where we went and what we did.      

Whenever we visit a new city, Jack and I like to get an overview of that city by taking a double-decker red bus trip at the beginning of our visit.  In Charleston, things move at a slower pace and carriage tours take the place of giant busses.  Our friends were up for a carriage ride too, so we headed over to Market Street where the carriage companies begin their tours.  If you take a carriage ride make sure to call ahead and reserve a time - we got a $2 discount on each ticket just by calling ahead a few minutes.  The routes are randomly assigned by the City of Charleston each time a carriage goes out  in order to limit congestion and we were lucky to get a tour that took us through the South of Broad neighborhood and along the Battery, which is a street with gorgeous mansions facing the harbor.  Price tags on the homes in this area are in the millions of dollars and there are quite a few for sale.  Our tour guide said that many were purchased as second homes and with the downturn in the economy, people are now trying to offload these properties.  Imagine what the mortgage payments and taxes must be!

Later we walked and walked and walked some more around the city.  Many of the homes have beautiful gardens and it's fun to peek into them as you stroll around.  We noticed that large numbers of homes have wrought iron fences around them and that some homes still have the scary looking spikes that were put in place hundreds of years ago to protect the wealthy white homeowners' in the event of a slave uprising.

On another day, we toured two historic Charleston homes which was fascinating, even if you're not a history buff like Jack and me.  Similar to the New York City Tenement Museum, the Aiken-Rhett house has been left in it's natural state with peeling wall paper dating from the 17th century on the walls of some rooms along with layers of paper and paint from subsequent years. Visitors get a chance to walk through the sparsely furnished antebellum home and learn how the homeowners and their slaves lived by viewing the main house, the stables and the slave quarters. Photos are not allowed inside of the home but visitors can take pictures of the stables and the exterior of the home. 

While it looks like a giant home from the street, the rooms seemed surprisingly small to me.  Of course, this was the owners' city home, the family also had a plantation in North Carolina.  After visiting the Aiken-Rhett home we headed over to the Nathanial Russell House which was completed in 1808 for a wealthy merchant and his family.  The home has been almost completely restored and is just gorgeous with beautiful rooms and furniture. 

We especially loved the elliptical floating staircase that extends three stories.

When we needed a break from all of the history we decided to take a boat trip around the harbor to look at the City from the water and cruise by Fort Sumter.  It was a relaxing way to spend a few hours.  If only those annoying sorority girls behind us would have stopped talking for just a FEW minutes it would have been perfect!   

On the last night of our friends' visit we crossed over the Cooper River to Mt. Pleasant which seems to be a sort of suburb of Charleston.  Yards are bigger, homes are more typically suburban and they have a Whole Food and a Trader Joe's.  A friend had recommended that we head over to the Shem's Creek area for some fresh seafood and a front row seat to watch the sun set over the water.  It was a great way to end their visit and we all enjoyed relaxing at the outdoor bar watching the sun set over the water.  Aaah!



Our Place in Charleston

Jack and I have been here in Charleston, South Carolina for almost two weeks and it's about time that I post some pictures of the place we're staying in.  We are renting a small frame house which is located behind a larger, three-story home which is also used as short term rental property. When we first saw the house I was not impressed.  I thought that the set-up was pretty odd.  Later, when we walked around the area I realized that lots of homes are set up in the same way.  Probably because space in Charleston is so limited (it's on a peninsula) most homes do not have yard space and many properties have homes in what would be their back yards.    

We have a small living room which is also where Jack works. 

 

When I need a little space, I sit in a chair in front of the window in our bedroom and read or surf the web. 

 

Our kitchen is compact but, unlike our rental unit in New York City, it has an oven and a dishwasher.  

 

I love the granite countertops and the white cabinets. 

Jack and I really like Charleston and the area where we're staying.  I could see living here.  (Of course it's February and 60 degrees outside.  The real test of liveability is in August when it's 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity! ) There are five restaurants within four blocks of our rental, one of which is Fuel, 



which will be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives tonight.  There is also a yoga studio, a barbershop and a hair salon within the same four blocks. We are within walking distance of the downtown area and two blocks from the free trolley shuttle.  There is a hospital so close that I could walk to the emergency room and the harbor is a fifteen minute walk away. 

Just walking around town we see things like the French Huguenot Church which was built in 1844    



and the Curiosity Shop, which is a cute little antique and collectible shop down the side of a building that is set in sideways to the street and nearby.

This week-end we plan on getting out and doing some more exploring.  I'm excited to try some new restaurants and maybe take a haunted graveyard tour.  

History Is All Around in Charleston

Geek Alert!  I love history and I love reading about it.  I'm not talking about the rote memorization of dates or the chronology of royalty.  That's way too dry for me.  I'm fascinated by the stories of people and how they went about their daily lives.  What did they eat?  What did they wear?  Why did they do the things they did?  How did they do the things they did?  Maybe that's why I chose social service as a career?  My favorite type of book is historical fiction.  Not the bodice ripper type of historical fiction, although I've read my share of those throughout the years, but books that take you to a time or place like March by Geraldine Brooks or Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

So, it makes sense that I would like Charleston.  History is all around you here and I can't wait to take one of the guided tours to learn about Charleston's past!  The only problem is deciding which tour to take.  There are so many options:  garden walks, night time ghost tours (hopefully with graveyards included), pirate tours (Arrrgh!) which could be dorky but fun, 

plus boat trips and plantation tours.  I need to do a little more research on Trip Advisor and Yelp and then just pick one.  The pirate tour where the guide brings his parrot seems like a good time to me (I can feel my kids rolling their eyes when they read this, "Of course it does").  The prices here seem pretty inexpensive after New York City so we will probably take more than one tour. Jack and I definitely intend on taking a trip to one of the plantations in the area later on in our stay but we plan to wait until it is a little warmer so that maybe we can catch the gardens in bloom. 

For now, the two of us are walking around on our own and snapping pictures along the way.  The black and white marble walkway of this home caught our eye

  

along with the manicured backyard complete with statue of another home along the way.  

 

There are many large houses here in Charleston that have outdoor porches running along the side on three stories and Jack and I love the look of them.  Due to the heat and humidity in the South I would imagine that people spent a lot of time outside on those shaded porches trying to catch the hint of a breeze before air conditioning was invented.  I can just see myself sitting on a porch swing sipping a mint julep (actually lemonade for me, I hate mint juleps) and watching the world go by.  Of course, I'm conveniently forgetting about how I much I hate to sweat and how uncomfortable it must have been for women sweltering in layers and layers of clothes. Wearing stockings.  In August.  As my sister often says, "There's the fantasy, here's the reality."  Jack and I haven't been able to get a good unobstructed picture of a home with porches yet but we'll keep trying.

 

Heading South of the Mason-Dixon Line

We left New York City last week and headed down to Charleston, S.C. We knew that we were getting close to our destination when we stopped seeing road signs for places like Nathan's Diner and Jimmy's Sub Shop and started seeing the black and yellow signs for Waffle House.  Restaurants offerings were no longer ribbon pasta with a mushroom marsala sauce. 

Instead, restaurants were now boasting "Breakfast All Day Long" and offering dishes like homemade meatloaf with mashed potatoes and omlettes with crispy hash browns and of course,meat, meat and more meat.



I stopped eating meat a few years ago but I'm always able to find something I want to eat at a restaurant and occasionally, it's even healthy.  I have a feeling that it's going to be a little more challenging for me here in the South.  It seems that almost everything has meat in the recipe, is fried, and is served in super-sized portions. Look at the heaping amount of those hash browns!  The picture just doesn't convey the crispy, greasy deliciousness of them and despite my best intentions I ate every bite!  

Jack and I have have been in Charleston for several days and on our exploration hikes through town we've seen at least 10 restaurants we'd like to try out. (If we can only find them again!) I'm happy that there are so many non-chain restaurants to choose from but, since Jack and I hope to be able to extend our road trip for 6 -12 months we are really trying to stick to a strict budget and not let ourselves get crazy going out for dinner like we're on an extended vacation.  Well o.k., I'm on a vacation since I'm on a work hiatus but we're really trying to live like a local wherever we end up on our road trip.  Our goal is to stick to eating out once a week but we'll see how that goes. 

Yesterday, we decided to enjoy the terrific weather here in Charleston by going out to breakfast at Hominy Grill which is two blocks away from the place we're staying and has outdoor seating.  The hostess was very apologetic about a 35 minute wait which, for a Sunday morning, seemed short to us.  We stood outside in the courtyard at a high-boy table and shared a celebratory cocktail from the walk-up outdoor bar. 

We were lucky to be seated at a table next to the french doors that opened onto the patio so we could enjoy the breeze and the excellent people watching.  The family at the table next to us placed an order for several of the Big Nasty Biscuits which featured a crispy fried chicken breast on a giant biscuit with cheddar cheese and gravy.  It looked really decadent and tasty even to a non-meat eater like me.  Kind of like a KFC mashed potato bowl (oh, how I miss them).  I stuck with the granola, fruit and yogurt and Jack ordered cinnamon french toast with apple-maple syrup and a side order of grits. We topped it off with a shared order of pumpkin-ginger bread and lots of coffee.

After breakfast we picked up our dog Coco and hopped in the car to explore a little bit further afield.  The town of Charleston is located at the end of a peninsula bordered on one side by the Ashley River and on the other side by the Cooper River with the Charleston Harbor at the tip.  We hadn't ventured off the peninsula since we arrived.  We crossed over the Ashley River which was marshy and fairly narrow and found ourselves on James Island heading to Folly Beach.  Folly Beach is one of the barrier islands near Charleston and has a public beach unlike Kiawah Island which is a private island which doesn't allow visitors unless you are visiting a specific person.  (A fact we learned after a 14 mile drive on a two-lane road)  Dogs are not allowed on Folly Beach from May - September but since it was February we were able to walk Coco on a leash.  It was Coco's first time on a beach and she struggled a little walking on the dry sand since her legs are so short.  She wanted NOTHING to do with the water when we walked on the hard packed sand.  The three of us enjoyed a long walk before we headed home to watch the Super Bowl.  

Before going out to the beach yesterday I wondered if we had made the right decision by choosing to stay in town rather than renting a place on or near the water but I think that we've done the right thing.  Now that we've left New York City, Jack and I are really alone without having our kids or friends around.  With Jack working all day I will need to find things to do and have easily accessible places to go to get out of the house or we'll drive each other crazy.  By renting in town I'll have lots of options.  Luckily, people are friendly here so who knows?  Maybe I'll make a new friend.       

 

 

It seems like forever since I sat down to write about the first leg of our cross country road trip. I could say that I was just too busy experiencing New York City to sit down and write about it but, I think the truth is that I've just gotten lazy (let's say less disciplined) since I've not been working.   

We had a lot of fun in January trying to fit in all sorts of touristy activities that we had put off in the hustle and bustle of Emily's illness and the holidays. I came to really enjoy the energy of the city and felt comfortable finding my way around outside of the tourist center.  I could live in New York but it is a LOT of work just going about your daily life.  You just don't think about the logistics of walking home in the rain while juggling an umbrella and a couple of bags of groceries, and a purse until you HAVE to do it.  I can't even imagine getting small kids on the subway in a stroller or out the door to daycare on foot.  I know millions of people do it every day but it would kick your butt before you ever walked in the door to work!

Jack and I saw two Broadway shows while we were in New York and both of them were great.  I have wanted to see a theatrical production of The Lion King since it first came out about 10 years ago and it really lived up to the hype.  The costumes were truly amazing and beautiful and the singing was terrific.  Circle of Life always gets me choked up (except when Elton John sings it) and it was really powerful performed live. The audience spontaneously leaped to its' feet cheering at the end of the production.  I haven't seen that happen since I saw Rocky at the theater.  





We saw How to Succeed in Business with our friends Mardi and Cheri who were visiting and enjoyed that too.  It's a fun story set in the '60's about a young guy who wants to make it in the business world and the girl who loves him.  Again, I found myself noticing the costumes: men in starched white shirts, ties and suits and women in pastel colored dresses, nylons and some awesome heels in matching pastel colors.  Cheri, Mardi and I agreed that it's a polished, professional look but exhausting to maintain. 

 

Jack and I enjoyed several trips to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side courtesy of our membership which was a Christmas gift from Amanda and Scott.

We visited the Museum of Natural History and the Cloisters with Kate and Ben and took several long walks throughout the city with them.



We had several terrific brunches in Brooklyn with Emily and Grant and a wonderful birthday brunch celebration with all of the kids at Schiller's. 

For us, the best thing about staying in New York City was getting the opportunity to spend lots of time with our children.  Getting together for dinner (on a work night!) with Kate and Ben



or going for a walk together are some of the simple things that we don't get to enjoy very often with any of our kids.  Jack and I were really sad about leaving them and at least one of us was teary (I'm sure you can figure out who THAT was). 

This time together with our girls and guys was a wonderful gift and worth the hassle of selling our home and living out of plastic bins.  We're looking forward to heading into warm weather for a few months and working our way West to see the rest of our kids.  Next stop, Charleston, S.C.!