2021 - South Carolina - Day 06 - Charleston City Tour

 Today was the day of seeing as much of Charleston as possible in about 8 hours.  Fortunately yesterday we had booked a horse drawn carriage ride and a Charleston Harbor boat tour.  They were both really fun, really informative and quite tiring.  Tiring because we did a bit of walking and the temperature was a bit higher and the air a bit muggier.  

We grabbed our brown bag ‘to go’ breakfast bags for breakfast.  Yum.  We didn’t even meet up with Kim and Ilene to do that.  They are always kind of interesting what you get in those bags.  But it did feel the ‘hole’ for a few hours.  At about 9:30 AM, we drove back into the same ‘Market Street’ area.  The first item was finding a garage where we would not be gouged too bad.  We found a public garage that charged a $1 every half hour with a max of $18. We ended up spending #17,  So we were there for 8.5 hours touring the city.  Last night, when we were in this area, the open air market was closed already.  But this morning, wide open with lots of people walking through and looking at all the goods.  We had some time to kill until our horse and carriage ride, so we too walked through the market.  It is never anything I enjoy doing.  But Ilene and Denise both purchased some fans knowing the day was going to be a bit sunny and warm...which it was.

At 11 AM, we boarded a carriage and set out to tour the downtown area of the city and its historical sites.  Our guide was a gal who was really well informed, kind and had a great singing voice.  At one point, she shared a black spiritual song...wish I could remember the name.  But my golly, she had such a nice voice.  We really enjoyed that.  We saw lots of really old buildings....1600’s, 1700’s and 1800’s.   We went down to the battery where cannons are still shown.  We went to Rainbow Row where the multi story homes are painted in many colors.  I guess this was an abandoned area a few hundred years ago...but then purchased and turned into brothels for a bit.  They had an interesting past.  The funny part was in front of the famous row of colorfully painted were two city, large, dumpsters.  They really added to all the pictures that people wanted to take.  For this reason, later in the afternoon, we walked all the way back there to see if we could get better pictures.  Not sure we did though.  The carriage ride was awesome.  It is something that Denise and I had never done before through the city streets of a historical city like Charleston.

Once the carriage ride was over, we have about 1.5 hours to get to the Charleston Maritime Center to get on the boat for the harbor tour.  It took us about 15 minutes to get there.  Once we arrived, we realized we had 45 minutes before we start boarding and all were growing hungry so we set out to go find some food.  We ended up walking another 15 minutes to  East Bay Street Deli.  We stopped a gal on the street and asked about food and she pointed us to this.  It turned out to be a pretty good place for fresh sandwiches and salads.  Once we got our food and inhaled it down, we quickly headed back to the Maritime Center just in time to get in line and immediately board the boat.  The harbor cruise was about 1.5 hours long with the captain giving great details about the going on in the harbor over time and currently.  I’m always amazed at the homes that sit on the shores of the islands and the mainland.  I guess it is a fantasy that most can only have to have such a place to come to.  They look so beautiful, appealing and fun looking.  One thing of interest is that yesterday, they opened up a new shipping yard.  This yard can accommodate the largest shipping vessels, ones that can carry 12,000 shipping containers.  12,000!!!  That is crazy.  How those boats stay afloat.

After the boat ride, we decide to walk back to the Rainbow Row of houses to try and get better pictures.  It was about a mile walk...not too bad.  We tried to get better pictures....not sure that we did.  While there, Travis began his defense of his Master Degree paper.  Denise tuned in to listen to Travis speak in statistical gibberish.  Fortunately, his advisors and professors approved his work.  So he his now a full accredited Master Degree recipient.  Proud of him.  Lots of hard work.  I hope it helps his career over the years to come.  This defense took a while.  So about half way through, we began walking to the restaurant that we wanted to eat at for dinner.  It is called Hyman’s Seafood and appears to be one of the favorites in the downtown area.  The food turned out to be very good.  But the portions were smaller than what we’ve been having with the prices being up there a bit due to being downtown.  All and all, a great experience.  One note...looking at our waitress...I thought we were at Hooters.  She was pretty scantily dressed with a low cut tank top and really short shorts.  We just scratched our heads and wondered why she got away with this.

Since dinner did not fill us like we thought it would, we knew the Ice Cream shop to fix that.  So off we went to the same Ice Cream shop we went to yesterday.  It was just as good as last night.

I am now writing this in our room.  We had decided that our best stand by hope to get home tomorrow was the flight at 7 AM.  We had asked Kim if he would get up to take us to the airport around 5:30 AM.  He said he would.  But that caused Kim and Ilene to wonder if they could switch their 4 PM flight to that one.  Well, they never had time to pursue it.  But while we were walking around, they got a text from United saying that their flight was really full and if they wanted to switch to another flight.  So they did!  So we are all going to be on the same flight headed home early tomorrow.  And, thank you Kim, for agreeing to take us even though that is now not needed.  We will be going together...yay!

Trip is almost over.  It will be a memorable one.  We covered the South Carolina coast and history pretty good.  It is a great place to visit.  Our beautiful earth has so many great places to see and visit and some are right here in our own backyard in the USA!

Some pictures:

I can’t remember the name of this iconic bridge, but it is a beautiful bridge.  We went under it and sounded the horn and it echoed for a good 5 seconds after the horn quit.  Pretty cool.

Houses on the Rainbow Row of houses....

A US aircraft carrier docked in the harbor.  There actually was an old submarine and a battleship moored here too.  I think you can go out to Patriot Island and tour them.

One of the projects in the harbor going on is to dredge it down to 50+ feet.  I think it is currently 45 feet deep.  But they intend to make it be the deepest harbor in the USA.

Happy boaters...

Horse mates....we all loved our ride from this nice horse.

Waterside....waiting for our harbor cruise.

Fort Sumter...where the civil war began.

Denise and our carriage driver.  She was so good.  We used the Palmetto Carriage Company.

At dinner, all the tables had names of famous people whom had dined at the given table.  We sat where Billy Joel, and a few others had dined.

One of the beautiful churches in Charleston....

Taking a break between our walks swinging in a nice swing near a park.

More pictures of some of the Rainbow Row houses....

The outdoor markets on Market Street in downtown Charleston.  Part of it is enclosed.  Other parts are indeed open air.  All kinds of things are sold except produce and food.

Wind blown ladies....Ilene and Denise.

Loved the names of their streets and signs....

Travis defending his master thesis to his advisors.  He dis really well.  I could tell they really liked ‘Trav’...as they called him.  Proud of you Travis!

Carriage mates.  Pretty tight quarters.  I think Ilene and Denise were almost wedged outside of the cart.  It was pretty tight.

Cruising the harbor....

They have some of the best trees in South Carolina.  Old oak trees.  This place, they decided to try and build around the tree as you can see by the picture.

Denise walking and listening to Travis defend his paper.  But Charleston is full of streets like this...cobble stone, narrow and quaint.

More of the market on Market Street....

This is the break room for the horses that pulled the carriages.  The horses are treated really well by their employers.

The cool part of most of these homes is the patios that are built off of them.  The story goes that in the summer, everyone slept outside on them because of the sea breezes that would come each evening and during the day.  The looked pretty neat on these extremely large homes.

Fantastic trip....now we head back to our castles in Utah.  

2021 - South Carolina - Day 05 - Myrtle Beach to Charleston (Boone Hall Plantation)

 We got up to another breezy cool morning in Myrtle Beach.  The weather has been pretty wonderful.  Temperature has been perfect.  The wind...a bit too strong.  But hey...all good.  We used our breakfast package to once again get breakfast at the Hotel.  This time, however, we were smarter and figured out how to share plates in a way that we did not have as much food. The food was pretty good.

After checking out, we got in the car and headed south to Charleston.  As we drove, we started to figure out what we were going to do the next 48 hours in Charleston.  We opted to purchase a tri-package where we would take a harbor tour, a downtown carriage tour and visit the Boone Hall Plantation.  We purchased it over the phone and then changed our destination from the next hotel to the plantation.  

We arrived at the plantation just after noon.  The plantation was pretty cool.  It has been used for such movies as The Notebook, North and South and Alex Haley’s final roots chapter called ‘Queen’.  The plantation is used for many things.  They have various ‘harvest days’ where they celebrate the beginning of a given crop harvest.  They have acres of land where they grow a ton of different crops from Pecan trees to strawberries with many other things as well.   We saw blueberries, corn, grapes, etc..  Quite a long list of things grown here.  The mansion on the premise was redone.  As a matter of fact, the owners of the plantation sometimes live in the place in rooms upstairs.  Along the property are preserved living areas where the slaves once lived.  The bricks and everything that were used to build them came from the property as it used to have 3 brick kilns that produced over a million bricks a year.  The bricks were actually used to build Fort Sumter.  We walked through all the buildings, down the amazing entry road that was lined with 86 live oak trees.   There used to be 88 but a hurricane took out one of them and a lightening strike another.  We also jumped on a trailer pulled by a tractor that took us around the property for about a 45 minutes or so.  It was narrated by guy who was very ‘dramatic’.  Kind of funny to watch as much as listen.  We also listened to a couple of lectures.  One lady described the situations of the slaves.  Another lady actually acted out some things, singing songs, talking in the dialect spoken back then.  Funny, as we came up to the area to sit to listen to this black lady, she started banging a big stick on the ground to the side of the little stage.  It turns out she was killing a copperhead rattlesnake that was slithering along the foundation of the little house there.  She had not problem killing it and picking it up with the big stick.  The whole audience was amazed as they watched her do that.  From that point on, everyone was monitoring the ground under their feet!   All in all, I think we stayed a couple of hours there.  We even grabbed a hot dog, some salad and a small Bundt cake to share for a quick lunch.

After the plantation visit, we headed to our Country Inn and Suites hotel.  It is North Charleston...a bit away from the downtown.  I think it is about 12 miles or so away.  We’ll see.  We will do the harbor tour and the carriage ride tomorrow in the afternoon.  It is supposed to be a warm day here...around 88 degrees.  That will definitely be the hottest day while here.  We will see.  I will end this post later tonight and post pictures after we have eaten dinner.

Wow....dinner was amazing tonight.  We went to Lewis BBQ in Charleston.  The BBQ was purchased by the pound.  At first glance, the prices seemed a bit high.  But once you buy portions and sides, it turned out to be reasonable for BBQ.  But man...was it so darn good.  Brisket, pulled pork, green Chile corn bread, Mac-n-cheese and potato salad.  We have enough for a meal tomorrow or when we travel on Saturday.

After dinner, we drove downtown looking for the Savannah Candy Company.  We found it.  But parking is so expensive down here.  We also found the carriage company that we will use tomorrow.  So we now kind of know how to get to where we need to go.  Anyway, the candy company had some nice chocolates....gophers, pralines, etc..  But that was not enough, so we went to get some ice cream.  We are going to be in a food coma when we get home at this pace.  But the food was great.  Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the sites.  But tonight....it is all food.

Lastly, we played 5 crowns before going to bed and I set an all time ‘high’ record.  Pretty sad.  Should have never stepped up to the card table.   Until tomorrow....

Pictures:

Just some pictures around the plantation....

This lady is now named the ‘snake killer’.  She was a one lady show in so many ways singing, acting and killing snakes (which was not part of her act!).  She was really good describing the culture and languages of the enslaved people.  Apparently most came from West Africa (Angola) and brought rice and other things with them.

The pretty, long, driveway up to the mansion on the plantation.  Everything here has been restored and preserved.

These were the quarters of the slaves.  But these were the ‘skilled’ slaves that were most loved and used in close ways by the owners.  They are pretty sure the other slaves did not live so well.  But in some cases, two families, up to 16 people, lived in one of these little huts.  Pretty sad how humanity chose to treat humanity.

This is the back of the mansion...a nice little courtyard.

Road leading up to the mansion lined with live oak trees.

First time I’ve seen a cotton field with cotton on it.  Pretty cool to see.

Another picture of our snake lady telling us about the history of the plantation.

Along side the property there was a large waterway flowing quickly by.  It was a pretty place where they had a reception house.  Pretty nice location for a wedding reception.

This is the ‘gin’ house.  It is short for engine.  It provided support for all things motorized and generating energy.

The mansion....

If you look on the log, you’ll see a number of turtles sunning themselves.   Out in the middle of this pond, there were a bunch of turtles too.  Still no sighting of an alligator!

Happy back seat drivers.....

Happy vacationers.....

Can you say BBQ YUM!!!!  Lewis’ BBQ....gotta go there when in Charleston, SC.

The entire group.  Having a grand time seeing the south!

Our snake lady shared how they used a broom in their marriage ceremony reading from 1st Corinthians in the New Testament.  After a couple was married, they ‘jumped’ over the broom that was laid at their feet.  They would then put the broom over their bed or under it.

Great trip we are having!

2021 - South Carolina - Day 04 - Myrtle Beach Kids Day

 Good morning!  Yesterday was a really fun day.  We started the day by sleeping in a bit.  We did not head off to breakfast until around 9:30 AM.  We bought a package for this hotel that included breakfast and what a hearty breakfast that was.  Huge portions on the food.  And it was pretty good too.  We get to do this again today before we check out and leave for Charleston.

After breakfast, we got into our swimsuits and headed to the pools and the beach.  We were like little kids as we were the first to go to the ‘Lazy River’ here on the hotel property.  We just floated around and around for a good hour then hung out by this pool conversing with people as they floated by.  We got great details from folks from Ohio, West Virginia, upper state New York, New Hampshire and Virginia.  It is always fun for me to strike up conversations with others.  You learn so much from them as you talk with them.  Good times.

Once lounging at the pool started to burn our bodies, we headed to the beach and

 went for a lazy walk.  The wind and the surf were up a bit making it a red flag day which meant here that you could only go into the water up to your waist.  The water was a bit colder than the pools but it was swimmable.  None of us really go in though.  I was the most tempted and did wade out almost to the top of my thighs.  The beaches here are lined with hotels and I would imagine that in prime time, this place is hopping with people and families.  But now, I would guess the town is about 25% full which is nice for us.

I guess around noon we returned to our rooms to get showered and to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day.  We had decided earlier on that we would go bowling at the alley here at the hotel.   But then we decided to be even more kid like no go mini golfing....which we did.  They have lots of amazing mini golf places here.  We drove down the main drag a bit and chose a jungle themed one.  We had a lot of fun.  I think the Wayment’s kicked mine and Denise’s booties.  Ilene had two or three hole in one’s...which is not all that easy on these nice courses.

Following our mini golf session, we all started to get hungry.  So we churned over where to go and in the end we drove about 30 minutes to North Myrtle to a place called Barefoot Landing where they have lots of nice shops, the Alabama Theater (which had not shows going due to Covid) and lots of eateries.  In the end, we chose to eat at a place called Taco Mundo, which was referred to by a friend who comes here often.  This place sat right on a water way that I was told stretched all the way to Florida.  It was a very nice setting to eat some really good tacos.

After ‘linner’, Denise and Ilene wanted to find the candy shop named ‘Wee-R-Sweets’.  Ilene put it into her GPS and we followed it to....an Alligator Adventure park.  The GPS told her that the sweet shop should be exactly where this Alligator zoo thing was located.  So funny as we parked in a wine tasting establishments parking lot and then wandered the street wondering how the GPS could be so off.  In the end, we did find it back down the street a bit a ways away.  Denise read it was across from a McDonalds.  So when we saw McDonalds and looked across....sure enough...there it was.  It was a nice little shop.  They make their own taffy there...tons of flavors.   We bought a bit of that.

Once we were tired of sweets, we headed back to the hotel to go bowling.  We raced back there as the 50% off deal ended at 6 PM and we were pushing it.  In the end, Kim raced up there to the alley while Ilene, Denise and I went to our rooms to get the coupon and to get socks.  The nice girl at the alley honored the coupon and we aggressively bowled for an hour.  So much so...I was sweating.  It was warm.  We actually got 2 games and 9 frames in...almost three complete games in an hour.  The system there kept track of combined scores.  And this time, The Tiner’s got the Wayment’s....pay back after our disheartening loss at the golf course earlier!  We had a lot of fun.

Lastly, we went up to our rooms, got cards and headed down to the pool to play cards there.  I got in my swimsuit as I was hot and sweaty and wanted to cool down with a quick swim....which I did...one lap around the lazy river.  We then tried to play cards by the pool.  But after a few hands of Hearts, it was obvious that the wind was too strong and we returned to our room to play cards the rest of the night.  I must say that everyone was quite mean to me while playing Hearts as they kept giving me the Queen of Spades...over and over....and quite soon I hit 100 points and the game was over.  I think I won....not!

It was a fun active day.  I think we all really enjoyed Myrtle Beach.  Off to Charleston to explore it a bit in the 48 hours we will have there.  

Some pictures:

From our balcony looking out across the Atlantic Ocean....

Beach walk....really enjoying being by the ocean again.  

Happy card players in our room at the Coral Beach Resort Hotel....

Bowling a 145!  Got worse from there.  Loads of fun though for an hour or so.  The resort has some fun things to do.

Lazy river floating and swimming.  Little kid stole my tube!  <No...just kidding.  Needed todo a little swimming.>

Ilene and Denise enjoying the really slow float around the lazy river.  On one side, due to the wind, you’d just stop and have to paddle your way through that section.  Pretty funny.  Not a very strong current at all.

Mini-golfers at the Jungle course.  We chose this one because it had a fair degree amount of shade.  None of us are sun seekers!

Lounging by the pool.  So relaxing.  It was a really down, relaxing, day.

Eating Tacos at Taco Mundo Kitchen and Cantina.  Great location.  Food was yummy too.

Another great day on the South Carolina coast line!