Charleston City Tour

After hiking Chimney Rock, we headed to Charleston, South Carolina. We brought an air mattress and a few supplies and were planning to stay in our empty rental house.We needed to come to Charleston to finalize some things on the rental house. We had found the house while we were on spring break, but they wanted it rented starting April 6. Because it was a newer house in a good location in excellent condition with exactly what we needed, and there was a big demand for it, we decided that we better act quickly, so we agreed to rent it starting April 6. This meant we had to fill out the move-in inspection and get the keys now even though we wouldn't be moving until the end of May.

After a miserable night on the air mattress, I woke up with a horrible backache. I wasn't sure that I could tolerate another night of that. Eric was miserable too. I spent most of the night turning from side to back to side trying to find a position where my back didn't hurt. I know I kept him up because I couldn't stop moving around. But, I wasn't going to miss out on this great day to see some of my top sights, so we got up and found a nice local restaurant for breakfast.

This was banana, pecan, and caramel french toast

We took advantage of this time to do some sightseeing in historic Charleston. First, we went to see the famous Rainbow Row.

Hidden gardens behind the row houses

Just down the street from Rainbow Row is the ocean or the "battery"

We decided to take a city historical tour to learn more about the area. The horse-drawn carriage tours looked like a neat experience, so we did that. We went with Palmetto Carriage Tours.

This is Palmetto's big red barn where they keep the horses and everyone waits for their carriage tours

We found a nice bench to wait for our tour to begin. (We have kind of crazy selfie eyes here.  LOL)

The tour was great! We learned a lot about Charleston. Below are some of the things we saw on the tour. Unfortunately, I can't remember all the names of the places since I waited too long to post this.

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, a National Historic Landmark, houses the oldest congregation in South Carolina and was the first Anglican church established south of Virginia. This church is the third building to house the congregation, which was formed by Charles Town colonists. The first church, built in 1681, was a small wooden building located at the present site of St. Michael's Episcopal Church. In the early 18th century, the congregation built a second brick church at the site of the current church. Its construction was partially funded by duties on rum and slaves. After suffering from one fire that was extinguished by a black slave, who was given his freedom for this act, the church completely burned in 1835. The current St. Philip's was constructed from 1835 to 1838 by architect Joseph Hyde, while the steeple, designed by E.B. White, was added a decade later

The Powder Magazine is the oldest-surviving public building in South Carolina. It was erected in 1713 by colonial settlers as a place to safely store and centralize their gunpowder supplies. It was also involved in the 1780 siege of Charleston.

View of St. Michael's church

St.Michael's church is an historic church and the oldest surviving religious structure in Charleston, SC. It is located at Broad and Meeting streets. It was built in the 1750s

Because downtown Charleston is mostly all historic homes, there are no garages because there weren't garages back in the day. However, some people will get lucky and actually have an alley between homes that they turn into a driveway. These homes along the battery are mostly million dollar homes, so there will be BMW's and the like all parked along the streets.

Most of the older homes in Charleston have these side porches with a door that looks like a front door opening to the porch. The porches were built on the side to conserve space and also take advantage of the ocean breeze. Although the door to the porch looks like the front door, it was used traditionally to let people know if they were taking visitors. If the porch door was open, then people were welcome to visit. If the porch door was closed, this meant that either they were having a private party and did not want to be disturbed or they wanted their privacy for other reasons. If the porch door was closed, it meant you better avert your eyes from their porch if you were walking by. When I took this picture, Eric said that I should be averting my eyes since the door was closed. :) Of course, this isn't the way it is today. If the porch door is open, that doesn't mean you can walk in. :)

Usually the upper porches were used as a sleeping porch in the summer

One of the rare garages found downtown. Probably was an out building converted to a garage. Also notice the crepe myrtle trees. These flowering trees with the smooth branches are very common in this area. I love the smooth bark.

The homes were built narrow and long for functional purposes. When they didn't have air conditioning, they could open the back windows and the front windows and the breeze would go right through and cool the house off quickly.

When Bill Clinton visited Charleston while President, he used this government housing as an example of what all government housing should look like. It is very well kept and maintained.

Greek Revival landmark built in 1841 offering Civil War history & tours by women's-group docents

Custom House where all people were required to pass through when coming to Charleston by boat before entering the city.

A local restaurant where we enjoyed a Charleston signature dish: BBQ cheesy shrimp and grits. Shrimp and grits of some variety is on the menu in nearly every local Charleston restaurant.

City market where people sell handmade type items. This used to be a slaves market where slave sold items. The darker brick on the bottom of the wall indicates the line where the downtown area floods 11-15 times a year.

Here is a picture of the inside of the same market pictured above back in August 2012. When the combination of heavy rains and high tides (and watch out if the full moon is in the mix too!) is just right, flooding occurs. This area is called the Lowcountry for good reason, and much of the city was built directly on top of water. Market Street was once a river which is why it tends to flood here. Apparently the stores are used to it and prepared to handle it because it doesn't seem like a big deal to anyone.