A Walk About Town

Sunday, February 19

Steve and Kathi's daughter and SIL came to visit.  Mark is in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, VA.   They took a trip to downtown and we stayed around the iHome.   We rode bikes, did laundry, messed with the computers, and before we knew it, the day was gone.   Steve cooked steaks and we had a nice meal there.  I did contribute a salad, our baked potato and our steaks.  We aren't complete moochers!

Monday they headed for Fort Sumter.  As we were planning to go see that when our friends come, we drove with them into town and spent a couple of hours walking around town while they rode the ferry out and toured the fort.  A free trolly stops right outside the Fort Sumter National Park building.  We hopped on and rode to the visitor's center to get some maps, as we did not manage to bring any with us.  We took a nice walk to the City Market and walked through this again so see if we needed anything.  There were a lot more venders here on Sunday than during the week.
On the way there we passed a fire station.  Around the side of the building were two statues of firemen for the firemen lost while on duty.

We noticed that 9 firemen were killed in 2007.  I googled it and found they were killed in the Charleston Sofa Super Store fire, in which a flashover and structural collapse occured.  Super Sofa Fire 
This must have been a terrible loss for the Fire Department and Charleston.

It was the Noisy Oyster for lunch.  My brother had suggested it.  It is right at the far end of the City Market.

Those big "windows" are on garage door rails and while we were there they opened them all.  So basically, you are sitting "outside" inside with people on the sidewalks passing by.

Good beers.  Mine (right) is getting darker every time. 

crab cakes and fried green tomatoes!  This was an appetizer.

Al had some kind of a shrimp gumbo

This was our delicious dessert.  Coconut cake.  It was amazing.  Wish you all could taste it.

If the cake wasn't enough, we had to have a free sample of warm pralines.  OMG!  They are amazing.

Some of the houses

The Apple Store.

 We just looked at it from afar!  Knew we could get in trouble if we went in.

Al getting some artistic shots.

 Charleston has a very nice trolly system that gets tourists around the historic parts of Charleston.   We rode it a couple of times.

Then it was time to get back to the harbor to wait for Steve's family to get off the ferry and head home.

A Walk on the Beach

Saturday February 18

No major plans for this day so we decided to drive out to the beach and walk around.  This day we decided to go to the Isle of Palm.  Though after reading all the do's and don'ts, we didn't know!

 Parked the car and did some:

Shell seeking

 Saw some:

Sand Castles

Dog walkers

Kites flying

Tide at it's lowest

Sun worshipers?

Beach bums?

After a nice trek on the beach, we walked back to the car by way of the road and had fun looking at all the beach houses.  Then we drove down to the harbor and decided to have lunch at a restaurant on the water.  On the way, Al found a fisherman and had a chat.

I had the shrimp and grits.  Had never had it and it was delicious.

 

Al had the scallops.  A big helping of them!

We wanted to take a bike ride before the rain that was predicted came in, so got back to the iHome and rolled out the bikes.  There is a really nice fishing pier that we have stopped at before.  A woman and her son have been there both times fishing and crabbing.  They had one huge blue crab.  I had never seen a real live one.  The blue is amazing.

These pictures were taken on another ride, but the people, bikes, and trail were the same!

Pier boardwalk

My guy on the dock

Fishing Pier

The blue crab.  Sorry the pic is not great.  It was in a cooler and I was using my phone.

Old Charles Towne Landing

Friday February 17

If you ever visit Charleston, don't miss this gem.  We almost didn't go, as there was not much written up about it, and it was very inexpensive.  We figured how good could it be if it only cost $7. 50.   But, we had a nice day and thought we would give it a try.  It was also only about 5 miles from where we were.  Old Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site sits on a marshy point, located off of the Ashley River, where a group of English settlers landed in 1670 and established what would become the birthplace of the Carolinas colony.

The interactive  museum in the visitor's center is one of the best I have seen.  Just enough info and hands on displays to keep you interested.  It did not overload us with too much info.

The audio tour was $5 with a special of buy one get one free.  What a deal.  We were very glad that we did spring for the audio tour, as it was very interesting and we were not just wandering around reading the signs.

Al leading us in the right direction.

Beautiful old live oak.

Replica of a 17th century trading vessel called a ketch.

cannons to protect the colony

Tempting Fate

We strolled through the beautiful grounds where a private home had been built.
The Legare-Waring House

this tree is 700 years old!  Imagine that!

They also have a little animal compound with the animals that would have been found there in the 1700's.  It was a nice little natural habitat.

One of the main things we learned today:

 Oysters live in these little clumps!  I thought they just crawled around on the bottom of the ocean and dug into the sand.  We had no idea!   Land Locked Okies!