We had a long day in Charleston today. We got up pretty early so that we could get breakfast in the lobby of the La Quinta where we are staying. (La Quinta really has the best hotel breakfasts.) From there we went to downtown Charleston where we started out at the Visitor’s Center. I was really impressed with the facility since I didn’t know what a tourist destination this city is. We decided to book a horse and buggy tour of the city, figuring that it would give us a great overview of what to see (it did). One thing that it strange/cool about these tours is that while there are a bunch of companies that do them, the city tightly controls the tours. As each tour is ready to go, they have to go to this station where there is a bingo-style lottery for which tour you will go on. There are a total of 5. The point of this we learned is to make sure that none of the companies are given favoritism, and to make sure that the tours are spread throughout the city — smart.
After this we got hungry, so we found this little tropical restaurant (I know, we leave Florida to go to a Florida-style restaurant, complete with Jimmy Buffet playing) and had a nice meal. From there, we decided to do a little exploring. Bionca was especially interested in the different churches and the graveyards that they have. From there we decided to take the tour of the historic Nathaniel Russell House. Bionca was worried that I didn’t want to go here, and while it generally isn’t my thing, I did enjoy myself (which I can usually do anywhere…). The really nice thing was that when we went there was no one else on the tour, so it was just us and the docent/tour-guide, so we got to ask all the questions that we wanted.
After this, we walked down to Battery park and had fun taking lots of pictures. It really is a beautiful park. From there, we went to the Old Slave Mart museum. It wasn’t really what we were expecting. It was new (21 days old) and small. There was a lot of information, but it was more of the walk-through book with some recordings and a really nice but annoyingly-repeated field song. There were some artifacts upstairs, and they did talk a little about the daily lives of the African American slaves in general, and the ones in Charleston in particular, but mostly it was just some education on the slave trade, both foreign and domestic. I would have liked to learn more about how those poor people maintained family ties, spent their off-time, and managed to survive. Oh well… Hopefully they will get better. Now that I showed the guy up front how to work the air-conditioner thermostat they will hopefully at least have the place a more comfortable temperature.
We ended our day at this little crab house. I thought that it was a bit touristy, but the food was okay. Their crab and artichoke dip was great, and Bionca got to have her crab legs while I had a crab lasagna (a little weird). After dinner it was getting a little late, so after checking out the market (what was left of it) we headed back to our hotel room, where I am spending a ton of time putting this together, while Bionca is playing Guitar Hero. I’m off to join her!
Included is a college of some of the pictures that we took. So if anyone is keeping track of our progress, I hope you enjoy them!
After this we got hungry, so we found this little tropical restaurant (I know, we leave Florida to go to a Florida-style restaurant, complete with Jimmy Buffet playing) and had a nice meal. From there, we decided to do a little exploring. Bionca was especially interested in the different churches and the graveyards that they have. From there we decided to take the tour of the historic Nathaniel Russell House. Bionca was worried that I didn’t want to go here, and while it generally isn’t my thing, I did enjoy myself (which I can usually do anywhere…). The really nice thing was that when we went there was no one else on the tour, so it was just us and the docent/tour-guide, so we got to ask all the questions that we wanted.
After this, we walked down to Battery park and had fun taking lots of pictures. It really is a beautiful park. From there, we went to the Old Slave Mart museum. It wasn’t really what we were expecting. It was new (21 days old) and small. There was a lot of information, but it was more of the walk-through book with some recordings and a really nice but annoyingly-repeated field song. There were some artifacts upstairs, and they did talk a little about the daily lives of the African American slaves in general, and the ones in Charleston in particular, but mostly it was just some education on the slave trade, both foreign and domestic. I would have liked to learn more about how those poor people maintained family ties, spent their off-time, and managed to survive. Oh well… Hopefully they will get better. Now that I showed the guy up front how to work the air-conditioner thermostat they will hopefully at least have the place a more comfortable temperature.
We ended our day at this little crab house. I thought that it was a bit touristy, but the food was okay. Their crab and artichoke dip was great, and Bionca got to have her crab legs while I had a crab lasagna (a little weird). After dinner it was getting a little late, so after checking out the market (what was left of it) we headed back to our hotel room, where I am spending a ton of time putting this together, while Bionca is playing Guitar Hero. I’m off to join her!
Included is a college of some of the pictures that we took. So if anyone is keeping track of our progress, I hope you enjoy them!
2 Comments on “Our Day in Charleston”
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I love the pics! Thanks for taking the time to share them with us as you go along. Looks like you guys are having an awesome time.
*hugs*
Posted on November 21, 2007 at 1:55 am.
Really great pics! I really liked them. Thanks for sharing them.
Posted on November 28, 2007 at 12:10 am.