Charleston vs Charles Town

 Good Evening from Charleston! As usual today has been a very busy day. Lots of sightseeing and more walking. We have loved every part of this trip and are so excited to be heading home tomorrow. Adam is ready to be back on the farm and I am ready to see Roscoe. Either way we are heading out tomorrow, but for right now I will bring you some more knowledge about Charleston.

This is a very typical house in Charleston built in the 1800's. Several things to note about houses down here. Do you know the difference between a "porch" and a "Piazza"? I did not either, the answer is: where it is located on a house. A piazza is located on the side of a home in Charleston to catch the south wind and in the summer time the families would sleep outside to keep cool, of course these was in the older times before air conditioning. The reason they were on the side of houses instead of in the front of the house is when Charleston was owned by England the owners of the house were taxed by how much sq footage you had on in the front of your house. So if you had your porch on the front then you got taxed for all that room. Where as if you had it on the side then you could call it a piazza and then you don't get taxed on it. Many of the ceilings of these piazza's are colored baby blue to ward off birds, wasps, and such. The baby blue is different from the sky blue so the wasps and other critters will not build their nests there. Another fun fact is there is always a door leading to your piazza from the street and in earlier times it was so that woman would have a little privacy while sleeping on their piazza's. It also served as a hospitality much like the pineapple does. In the South there are universal signs of hospitality. One is the pineapple. If the pineapple is on the mantle then the hostess is welcoming friends into her house. If the pineapple is not on the mantle or is taken down after once being on the mantle then the hostess is not wanting guests or is wanting her guests to leave. The second is the door. If door on the piazza  is shut then the hostess does not want guests. If the door is open then knock and come on in.

These blocks behind this car on the sidewalk are in front of houses all over in Charleston. There were to help woman down from carriages.

This house astonished me. It was owned by a dentist who painted it pink to represent healthy gums and the white trim represent white teeth. That is not what astonished me, what blew me away was that these homes were built facing the Ashley River and they housed one family and were only lived in six months out of the year. The reason they were only lived in six months were because down here they are S.O.B's and before I offend anyone, that saying came from Charleston and stands for "South of Broad" which is where the rich folks lived. So many of these people had house south of Broad St.and had houses either out in the country or of course north of Broad St. and when the mosquitoes got so bad they would pack up and live in these houses along the river until the first freeze when the mosquitoes died and they would move back to their original homes.

This was a beautiful S.O.B (I love that I can say that now as much as I want) house. Rich folks that lived in the city that had slaves treated their slaves much differently than the plantation owners that owned slaves. City folks often had their slaves dressed a little nicer and had them a little more educated and often ate the same food as the master did. . The reason being is when you lived in the city your slaves often lived right behind your house so you kept a closer eye on them and expected more out of them. While on the plantation slaves often lived closer to the fields than by the house so the slaves were more free (funny to say that and slave in the same sentence) to do as they please and come and go as they pleased.

Another neat fact is that often porches on older homes had a right and left staircase leading up to the porch. That was to allow males and females a different way up. See in the olden times a male was not allowed to see the ankle of a female unless he is wanting to marry that girl. My how times have changed.

This a close up of the fence in front of the house. Do you notice the barbed type iron on top of the fence? They were afraid the slaves were going to revolt and would climb over and get in the house and possibly burn it or take it over. In the South iron is a sign of money. The more iron you had the better off you was.

This is the smallest house in historic Charleston. It is 12 feet 6 inches wide and is not built square it bows around to fit on the lot.

This is the only insured statue in the United States. It is a statue dedicated to the confederate soldiers that defended Charleston during the battle at Fort Sumter.

Here is something else that is cool. Do you see the green circles above the door and then above the windows. Let me try to get this straight. These are like giant screws that go through the whole house Since Charleston sits on an earthquake fault line these houses had these built in so that if the house experiences a earthquake and gets lopsided then you can turn these knobs and straighten your house.

Let's turn to churches of Charleston.This was the first Baptist Church in Charleston. All Lutheran Churches in Charleston have Red doors. Lutherans view this as the blood of Christ. The St. Matthew's Lutheran Church has the tallest steeple not only in Charleston but in all of South Carolina at 255 feet. It was founded in 1840. Now no building is allowed to be built taller than that steeple in Charleston, so there will be no skyscrapers.
Another fun fact: Do you know the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery? I did not know either. A graveyard is on the same grounds as a church. A cemetery is located away from the church. In Charleston, if you were born in Charleston then you go buried in a graveyard, if you were born somewhere else and then moved to Charleston then you were buried in a cemetery. Charleston is known for all the churches that are located here cause of the religious freedom that the early settlers had.

The last cool thing I want to share about Charleston, along with the beautiful houses Charleston has beautiful landscaping. There are so many flowers blooming right now you would think it was late Spring instead of early Fall. These are Palmetto Palm Trees and they are everywhere in Charleston. Notice how the tree to the left has spike looking bark sticking out beneath the green palms and the tree on the right does not. You can pull those spikes off if you would rather have the smooth looking bark instead. It does not hurt the tree either way. Just depends on your preference.

After we got down with our city tour we traveled by boat to Fort Sumter. This Fort had the first known shot of the Civil War. Originally this fort was built three stories high, not during the first battle but during a two week fight later on in the Civil War it was attacked hard and bucked down. It also had the first fatality of the Civil War, while a solider was loading the cannon it somehow back fired and shot his arm off and he then died shortly after.

This is a shot from the top looking down. All around the Fort there was dolphins swimming around. I was more interested in them than the Fort, so I don't have as much information to give to you on it. I am truly sorry. I have a feeling though that a lot of you would be just like me.

After the Fort we went onto this massive ship it is the USS Franklin. It was a major battle ship during WWII and that is all I have to say about that.

We are leaving tomorrow to head home, please pray for a safe trip and stay tuned tomorrow night for the highs and lows of this trip along with many valuable lessons learned. Should be a hoot.










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Sweet Southern Magnolia

 Today we toured the market area of Charleston and then the outskirts of Charleston. The market area of Charleston is the neatest area. They have one block that will be vendors and two blocks over will be stores such as Gucci, Marc Jacobs, and Chanel.

This is the market area. There were three buildings like this that are open. There are vendors selling scarves, jewelry, and the big seller is baskets made out of bamboo. Every other booth was somebody selling baskets. There were beautiful but pretty pricey.

This was the inside of the market. For a Wednesday morning I was surprised by the amount of people there. I found some fabulous and colorful scarves that I can't wait to wear when it is not 80 degrees.

After the market we headed out on a tour of The Magnolia Plantation. I have fallen in love with this historic part of America. I want a big ole house with a huge porch to entertain on.

This is the road leading into the plantation, doesn't it make you think about the old movies that show these long covered lanes leading up to the house.

The lane led up to the back of the house. We ate here at the plantation, not in the house but out of a little shed. They were showing a movie about the Drayton Family that owns this plantation so we grabbed our lunch and ate it while watching the movie. This particular family has owned the plantation since the 1600's. The house has burnt down twice, once by lightning and the other time during the Civil War. This house has stood since the late 1800's and was lived in until the 1970's. The family still lives on the property.

This was a slave house about 200 yards from the main house. The more skills a slave had the closer to the main house they would live. This would be were the house servants and their families lived and where the meals were cooked and then took to the house. A slave used to have to whistle while taking the meal to the house so that the master would know that they weren't eating the masters food. A slave can not whistle and eat at the same time. We also learned that the saying "Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite" came from this era. Beds instead of having wooden slates to hold had ropes tied across the bed frame. Before climbing into the bed you had to pull your ropes tight so that they wouldn't come undone in the middle of the night. The bed bugs came from the burlap sacks that the slaves used to cover up with. There would be chiggers in with the burlap that of course would "bite" in the middle of the night. Makes you appreciate the nice beds we have now, huh?

These were more slave houses farther away from the main house. These were where field workers would live. They grew Carolina Gold Rice here on Magnolia Plantation. They also have a massive garden that they are known for. Every spring thousands of Azalea Plants are in bloom.

Where the rice use to grow in now a swamp area. It is called the Audubon Swamp area. We rode a tram through this and saw many alligators. None were ever close enough to get a really good picture but there were hanging out on this wooden planks.

This is the front of the house. It points to the Ashley River.

This is a bridge off the back of the house. Today it was kinda of gloomy so the bridge doesn't look as lovely as it could be. There are pictures of it in the Spring with all the flowers in bloom and it is beautiful.

Ya'll come back now, you hear. We are having the best time.







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Taste of South

This morning was perfect. It was sunny and breezy the perfect weather to go on an Old Town Trolley Tour. These were lovely green and orange trolley's that took you around Savannah and gave you the history of it. You could get on and get off as many times as you would like and we got off many times and walked around many, many blocks. All while walking around in flip flops. Myself, not my husband.

So my blog today will be taking you back in history and showing you some of the sites that we deemed worthy of pictures. Here is the first one. This church is where Woodrow Wilson got married to his first wife and also is about a block away from where Forrest Gump sat on his bench and said "Life is like a box of chocolates" It was so funny, every once in a while you were the trolley conductor yell "Run Forrest, Run" and here would come a guy in khaki pants, blue shirt, red hat, carrying a suitcase running from down the street.

This is the house where Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts lived.

This isn't really a historic site, but it is Adam making sure the sun dial is right on time. Please note that he is wearing his TS Performance shirt with two skulls on it, but won't go on a ghost tour because ghosts scare him. Funny how irony plays a role in your everyday life.

This is St. John's Cathedral. A very old and very breathtaking church. The outside of it was amazing but when you walked in.

 It literally took my breath away. It looked so holy and you felt in awe to stand inside of it.

 This was in the balcony of the church. It was a massive pipe organ. I would have loved to hear it play.

This really doesn't have any historic value, but was where Grace King Bichon aka Julia Roberts saw her husband cheating on her with another woman in the movie "Something to Talk About"

We ate lunch at this little Tavern, it was originally the Cotton Exchange for Savannah. They had sandwiches and soups. As usual, very good. We also found this amazing candy shop that let us taste pralines. Yummy! Adam bought some of those while I stuck to chocolate covered oreos.

We sat by the river for a while this afternoon and saw this massive barge come through. It makes you wonder how something so huge can stay afloat. It looked like it barely cleared the bridge that connects Georgia to South Carolina.

We have arrived at Charleston and are heading out to a plantation tomorrow.  I am also trying to talk Adam into going to one that makes tea, I think that would be fascinating.






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The Easy Path

Well the forecast in Savannah is gray with a good chance of rain for the rest of the week. Which is good or bad depending on how you look at it. Good that it does keep the temperature down to around 80 - not like the fall like temps that we are having back home. I was kidding with Adam that we will probably bring this back with us and create a couple more days of summer. On the other hand it is bad when most of your sight seeing is done on foot. Today we headed downtown Savannah to do a little walking around and start seeing some of all the historic buildings down there. We had just started on a foot tour when the skies clouded up and it got dark. So we raced back to the vehicle and headed to the beach. Tybee Island to be exact. There is a lighthouse there that is the tallest and oldest in all of Georgia. I do want to stress the word TALLEST. 178 steps to be exact, but who is counting? Oh yea, me. Up every step all the way to the top!

I did have my own cheering team that consisted of my husband laughing at me and reminding me that there was a family with young children that will catch up with us if I went any slower. His exact words "Get out of Granny low and kick it up a gear." Of course it was said with love.ha. I am getting ahead of myself though. These pictures were taking the first time we pulled into the lighthouse. As you can tell the weather is not cooperating with our vacation and the lighthouse was closed due the inclement conditions. The tour guide said that it has been hit before by lightning and they do not take any chances. So we snapped a couple shots outside and then headed to the beach.

The water on the other hand had no problem with the weather, it just rolled right with it.

The birds had no problem with the weather, well maybe a little bit. I did see a couple having  trouble flying into the wind. They stayed mostly perched.

The beach had no problem with the weather. It didn't mind not having anyone on it.

My hair did have a problem with the weather. No matter how much product you have on it, fine hair does not withstand wind and drizzle.We went out on a pier and that was neat to see the ocean hit against it and how high we were standing looking out over the edge. There were several people fishing on the pier.

The guy on in the blue denim shirt had just caught a baby shark. I know my picture does not show it very well. There was signs posted everywhere that you can not keep sharks, so the guy had to cut it loose and let it go. This picture is him cutting it loose. He is standing behind the wood pillar cutting it loose.

So after we left the pier there was a break in the weather and we headed back to the lighthouse and sure enough it was open so we hurried and I do mean hurried up the stairs wheezing, hacking, and coughing (mostly me) to the top of  it before another storm blew in. I do have some beautiful pictures taken from the top of the lighthouse but those are on my other camera which is located in my vehicle which is hopefully located at a nearby Starbucks getting a Pumpkin Spice Latte. My treat for being such a trooper. Adam was probably right to push me, as soon as we stepped out of the lighthouse they were closing it again cause another storm was blowing in. The real treat tonight was where we dined at. Wait for it.....

 Lady and Sons owned by none other than Paula Deen. We made reservations earlier today for dinner tonight. The building her restaurant is in is so neat. This is another side of it. I am literally falling in love with all the buildings down here.

 We had the buffet which had fried chicken, pork loin, collard greens, green beans, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and rice. It all was so yummy. After one trip both Adam and I were stuffed. But not enough to turn down dessert. I had a peach cobbler that I can't even describe it was so good and Adam had banana pudding which I when I asked if it was good got a head shake "yes", so all was wonderful.  It seems like all we have done this trip is eat. The proof is in the pics.

Adam goes every picture we are in has food in it. I guess he is right. The southerns just know what is important in life, sweet tea and fried food. If that is the culture I have to get accustom to while I am down here then I will just have to make that sacrifice. So here is to another great day on vacation. It seems like we have seen and done so much and have only been gone 4 days. We are sightseeing downtown Savannah tomorrow and then heading to Charleston S.C. Much more to do and take pictures of. Stay tuned and please say hi to my new BFF (Best friend forever, for those of you that do not know a teen, text, or generally don't keep up with lingo's)

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