I’m excited to get to this southern state as it’s been on my list for a while. This is no. 32 of the 50 states for me, it’s been a while since I’ve ticked a new one off the list. We arrive from Chicago and pick up a car – it’s really hard to do any travelling in the USA without one. Here’s our baby for the next few days.
We had a small pastry in the airport this morning before our flight so we are ready to have a southern lunch. We stop at Boxcar Bettys for a fried chicken sandwich and it doesn’t disappoint.
I’m doing the driving and Shane is navigating and we easily make our way to Charleston where we are staying downtown in a “loft” which is essentially a tiny little two story apartment. It’s very compact and really close to the main drag. We park the car, drop our gear and head out to explore. There are tonnes of shops in the downtown area and while I’d love to do some shopping here, I haven’t a hope of fitting stuff in my bag at this early stage of the trip! Best to stick to admiring the many churches….
And the homes are beautiful too…
And there are more churches as we continue to walk to the river.
We are going to see lots of Civil War monuments and memorials in this neck of the woods but in Marion park we see the Charleston Holocaust Memorial. In addition to the structure in memory of the six million Jews murdered, there’s an inscription wall that lists survivors who settled in South Carolina. The wall also includes the names of 24 major concentration, transit, and extermination camps positioned east to west to reflect their extent throughout Europe.
We see the beautiful Customs House building or as I like to call it the Tariff collection house!! 🤣
Continuing to the Waterfront park we see the famous pineapple water fountain. There are little kids splashing away in it so I did well to get this photo in between their play. It’s warm but it’s not that warm!!
After a lot of walking, we agree we are still full from lunch so won’t go out for dinner tonight. We find a corner store and get some milk for tea and then it’s back to our tiny “loft” for an early night.
Next morning we set off for a day exploring Charleston. The fire department is a block from our place.
I have a craving for biscuits and gravy (sure you’d have to when you’re in the south), so we go to Callies Hot Little Biscuit and the biscuits and gravy are delicious. The gravy has big lumps of sausage meat which is quite different to what I’ve had before. I really like it! Carrie Morey is the proprietor and she serves us – she’s a bit of a celebrity as she’s got a couple of cookbooks and has been on tv. She adds a couple of cookies to our order as she has no English breakfast tea and I have to provide my own (Bewleys) emergency teabag from my handbag!!
We continue walking along King Street and visit a gallery where there are beautiful photos of Charleston – lots of trees with Spanish moss and doors, kind of like how you see the beautiful Georgian doors in Dublin. We take a few photos of our own although ours aren’t filtered enough to compare!!
We walk through Marion square and see a large stone which is from a fortress that protected Charleston during the Revolutionary War. It was destroyed long ago, but remnants of its formidable tabby walls (tabby is cement made with oyster shells and it’s very popular here and in Savannah) lie just below the surface of the park. This fragment is preserved above ground as a reminder of the structure that once stood here.
We arrive to Fort Sumter National park and walk toward the water and Liberty square.
From Liberty Square we see the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge which is a prominent landmark connecting downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant over the Cooper River.
We have booked a boat trip to Fort Sumter which is on a small island, about 45 minutes away. We sit in the half open deck and the wind is extremely gusty. We are blown out of it but we suffer on and are glad when the fort comes into view.
Upon arrival we listen to Ranger Walt (an extremely expressive young man with a booming voice!) give us the history of the fort. This is considered the place where the civil war began. In the early dawn of April 12, 1861, a mortar shell fired from Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor burst over Fort Sumter, inaugurating the American Civil War. For 34 hours Confederate forces bombarded the fort, forcing the Federal garrison to surrender. On April 14 victorious Southern troops claimed their prize.
For the next four years Fort Sumter remained a Confederate stronghold despite frequent Union attempts to capture it. Between 1863 and 1865, determined Confederate soldiers kept Federal land and naval forces at bay for 587 days – one of the longest sieges in modern warfare. By February 17, 1865, the fort was virtually demolished and the Civil War was nearly at an end. The Confederates reluctantly abandoned the fort, leaving it to be re-claimed by Federal troops. And that my friends is the American Civil War in a nutshell!
For the return boat trip we decide to sit in the lower deck where we are protected from the wind. When we get back we visit the Old Slave Mart Museum, which was where slaves were traded.
It’s a sobering thought to be standing in the “salesroom” of what was Ryan’s Mart, built solely for slave auctions. Crowds of slave traders and buyers did business here in the seven years the building operated. It’s hard not to feel enraged and deeply sad at the thought of it.
After that tough history reminder, it’s time for a little respite so we head to a brewery called Palmetto. Shane has sussed out a free bus that will take us close-ish and we walk the rest of the way, through streets that we hope aren’t too dodgy!! Shane enjoyed the beers and the cider is good. There is even a red stout named after County Cork! From here we go to dinner at Rodney Scott’s bbq which is on our list to try. This place is famous for its collard greens (which are fantastic) and its whole hog bbq cooked low and slow. The meat is exceptional.
Walking back into town we go for a drink in a bar called The Dispensary and I try a local cider which is terrible. It’s not often that happens to me but I actually can’t drink it. The barman is really nice and says he’s had other people complain about it so I try a different cider which is like Ribena (not an apple in sight!!) and sure that’s grand!!
We get home just before a crazy rain shower that is so loud it would wake you up… luckily it ends before bedtime!
Next morning we are leaving Charleston and driving to Savannah, Georgia but first it’s time for a Big Bad Breakfast! I do love my biscuits and gravy and although these are quite different to yesterday’s they are still delicious. Shane’s shrimp and grits are super tasty, seems nearly too spicy and flavourful for breakfast and you could have them for your dinner!!
We have two places we’re going to visit on our way to Savannah. The first is Angel Oak and it’s down this lovely road…
The famous giant Angel Oak tree is in Angel Oak Park on Johns Island and it really is huge. Experts believe it’s age is between 400 and 500 years.
The tree measures an impressive 8.5 metres in circumference, and its branches stretch outwards to cover an area of approximately 1,600 square metres. The span of its longest branch reaches a staggering 57 metres from tip to tip. The sheer scale of the Angel Oak is a reminder of the incredible potential for growth in nature, given time and favorable conditions. It’s hard to capture its massiveness in a photo but to give you an idea, it took a few minutes to walk all around its branches.
Next stop is Cypress Gardens nature reserve which has 170 acres of extremely picturesque swamp!
They also have a butterfly house, birds (parrots and macaws), fish, turtles, peacocks and a couple of giant alligators on show!
We do a loop walk around the swamp and gardens and just past this sign….
…. A frog jumps in front of me and frightens the life out of me… while I’m looking at the frog Shane points out that the reason he jumped out of the swamp toward us is because there’s an alligator in the water. Hopefully you cans see him in this photo…
Having clocked up plenty of steps we continue on our way and stop for lunch at a diner in Goose Creek that does a shrimp po-boy and it is delicious.
We cross the river into Georgia state and say goodbye to South Carolina.
odohertyelaine 