More Fun in the Holy City

We’re leaving Charleston tomorrow and have plans to head back into town one more time to visit the United Daughters of Confederacy Museum. We tried to visit there yesterday, but they have limited hours and were closed. So, we tooled around the Old Slave Market, which begins just behind the museum. There, we found some cool Civil War stuff and bought Dr. and Mrs. Levin a little thank-you gift for letting us stay at their wonderful condo for nearly a week. It was our 7-year anniversary, so we dined out at a swanky restaurant called Hank’s, which specializes in low country cuisine. Although quite expensive (my bottle of mineral water was $6), it was a nice place. Houston, who had been virtually perfect up until this point, decided he didn’t want to nap and was thus a whining, squirming little mongrel. I tried to get him to fall asleep by taking him outside of the restaurant and rocking him, but that didn’t work. So Stephen took him for a walk in the stroller. That didn’t work either, but Houston eventually drifted off as I rocked him inside the restaurant in his stroller. We were able to finish our meals and get some yummy desserts. I do believe Houston is simply worn out from all the fun we’ve had. He has slept through the night great, but has napped sporadically and only for very short periods of time. I think my boy will be glad to get back home, as will Stephen and I. Charleston has been a blast, but we’ve run ourselves ragged and still haven’t done all the things we wanted to do, like visit the USS Yorktown, tour some of the old houses and churches downtown, as well as the nearby plantations. I suppose we’ll just have to come back again!

Trip to Charleston

We’re starting our third day here in Charleston. So far, we’ve been to downtown a couple of times. We went to the Old Exchange and Provost, one of the oldest buildings in the US. It’s the building where South Carolina delegates met to vote to ratify the Constitution. Yesterday, we took a boat out Fort Sumter. It was something of a pilgrimage. The fort was full of monuments to the Union general that initially defended and re-took the fort from Confederate possession, but at least the Confederate flags were flown in the fort. Also, surprisingly, the narration from the park rangers was actually slightly balanced and factually correct. They mentioned twice that the abolition of slavery was not a cause of the Union’s declaration of war. We’ve hit two different restaurants in downtown Charleston. We did the Southend Brewery and a Southern cookin’ joint called Jestine’s Kitchen, which was awesome. We had corn bread, fried green ‘maters, fried oyster po-boy, fried chicken, fried okra, collard greens, pecan pie, and ‘nanner puddin’. There was some yankee scum in there whom Rebecca overheard asking his friend what collard greens were. Houston’s been great so far, it’s been a pleasure to go see all the sites with him. Other than taking extra time to feed and change him, it’s really not affected our travels at all. Today, we’re going to try to see the Confederate submarine, the H. L. Hunley. Also, I just tried South Carolina, mustard-based BBQ for the first time. Awesome! I just had a couple bites of my buddy’s sandwhich. I’ll have to head up to Melvin’s and try a full meal. We’ll post pictures of our travels when we get back home and Rebecca can tweak her pictures.