Friday, June 29, 2007

Charleston SC - Day 2

OK, Day 2 was a full day! We ate breakfast at the hotel, then began walking again. This turtle is located at the entrace to the Slave's Market, so called NOT because slaves were traded there, but because they shopped there. This is Bill examining a freshly made straw basket. The price tag said $600 or something like that. Huh?!?
More baskets.
The interior of one of the buildings. It's a very long continuous flea market, basically. I bought Mike a wallet here.
Then we went on a tour in a carriage pulled by horses. This is our guide. I forgot his name, but he was extremely knowledgable.
I just liked these turtles...
I took many, many pictures of homes and churches. I'll not bore you with all of them, but here is a sampling.

The homes all have porches and are beautifully restored.
These, according to our guide, are the largest Crape Myrles in the US!
This fence many appear to be black, but it is not. It is "Charleston Green" so called because after the Civil War Charlestonians were too proud to use the Yankee Black paint sent for restoration, so they created their own color, which is 2 parts yellow to 8 parts black.

Heading our towards the battery.
A very cool breeze blows here. There are oleander bushes all down the center of the street.
Oleander is poisonous, and practically untraceable. It causes a heart attack in the victims.
This color of paint on the ceiling of this porch is typical. It is supposed to repel ghosts.
This is the old prison. It was spooky! The tree is the hanging tree.
Another view of the prison.
Another view of the hanging tree.
This is another turtle. He was downtown somewhere.
Bill bought Mike a digeridoo - a very large (as you can see) wind instrument. He insisted on sitting like this. :)
Next we went to the room to cool off. HOT, I tell you, HOT! And steamy. And we were walking and walking. After a short rest, we hit up the little bistro next door for a cold drink. (Did I mention Bill bought a hat?)
OK, yeah, I pretty much looked like this for the whole trip. Makeup was fruitless, as I sweated it off right away. Fixing my hair? Forget about it! Heat, sweat, and humidity forced me to wear a polytail the whole time....
A view of said bistro.
Millenium Music. A very large music store. We shopped in it for a while, found a cool poster, but left the buying of the poster till the next day so we wouldn't have to tote it around.
This mall was blessedly cool, but unfortunately fancy. Bill and I, sweaty and dressed-down as we were, left quickly.
Turtle. I got a kick out of all the turtles (obviously...)
Walking around town we saw some very cool cobblestone streets.
Walked out to the battery area.
Park at the battery area.

Next, we hit up a roof top restaurant and bar for refreshment. The food was ho-hum. We had a crab and shrimp quesadilla. Yawn.
Next, we stood in line for over an hour to eat at this place, which was even more ho-hum than the roof top one. Boring steamed scallops, boring steamed shrimp, exceedingly bony flounder. Even the sides tasted like cafeteria food. Overpriced.
Then we stumbled back to the hotel, got in our bathing suits and went swimming in the hotel pool. By the time we did that, it was after 10 and we were exhausted from the heat and all the walking and we fell into bed.












Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Charleston, SC - Day 1

We spent Sunday afternoon exploring on our own. We saw many turtles, which were mysteries to us. They were all painted in different patterns. We walked MILES. MILES, I tell you..... Then ended up at the battery area, where, Thank God, we came upon Fleet Landing. They had the best food ever!! We had appetizers. One dish was Fried Green Tomatoes, layered with crab salad, dressed beautifully and drizzled with a remoulade sauce. The other was Old Bay Seasoned Boiled Shrimp. Delicious. If you go to Charleston, you must eat at Fleet Landing. Above is some random turtle. This blue turtle - if you click on him, you can enlarge it - has the dates of birth (and death, if applicable) of famous Charlestonians.
This wall of life vests was in the Fleet Landing.
Interior of Fleet Landing.
Our food. Did I mention how great it was??
Some house I decided to take a picture of. I came home with pictures of many various homes.
Battery area.
A fountain at the Battery. Children were frolicking in this fountain.
The turtle outside The Fleet Landing.
The Fleet Landing.

A graveyard outside a very old church (St. Peter's???)
Graveyard.
I thought the way they put plants right on the graves was interesting and unusual. We found out later this is part of an entire belief system.
Graveyard. Old. Cool.
Yeah, I told Bill to bear the cross for just a minute.... What?!? It was just sitting there....

Friday, June 22, 2007

More Work People

Donna
Patty Danny
Jerre
David
Jim