It’s been a pretty busy week for us here in Charleston. On Tuesday, we headed downtown to the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon. This building is very important in Charleston’s history, having been built by the British Colonial Government back in 1771. Originally the site of public meetings and the office of the King’s Customs Collector, the building was also used as a prison for pirates and many early American patriots, as the site of an elaborate 3-day ball attended by George Washington in 1791, and as a Post Office for the Confederates during the Civil War. Some of the original brickwork from the old city wall around Charleston can even be seen in the cellar of the building.

On Saturday, we visited Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. It is the oldest plantation home on the Ashley River and has been owned by members of the Drayton family since 1676 (11 generations!). Originally 2000 acres, the plantation is currently about 500 acres in size and has been famous for its beautiful gardens since the late 1800s, with something in bloom during every season of the year. The home itself is filled with many early American antiques and family heirlooms dating back as far as the Civil War, including a hand-stitched quilt that, due to its intricacy and closeness of stitches, took the quilter about 30 years to complete. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the house itself, but the alligators in the ponds and old rice fields on the property seem to love posing for pictures.

We went for a carriage ride around part of downtown Charleston on Sunday morning, passing the line of brightly painted homes and buildings known as Rainbow Row, several churches (Charleston is home to over 180 churches, including the only independent French Huguenot church in the U.S.), and a bunch of other historical landmarks in the city. Once that was over, we strolled through the City Market and around some of the downtown area, stopping for brunch at The Blind Tiger, a quaint little pub that (surprise, surprise) is housed in a building dating back to 1803. The food was very good, and I took advantage of the $3 mimosas, sipping one while I ate my shrimp & grits with a side of home fries. Lewis had an absolutely enormous western omelet which he pronounced to be delicious and a Sam Adams. We felt a bit naughty drinking so early in the day (it was just barely past noon), but consuming alcohol seems to be a great Charlestonian pastime – everyone does it and it’s not too unusual to pass someone on the street who looks and acts as sober as a preacher but smells like a distillery.

Now it’s time to relax from all this week’s activity. We may visit a couple more things before we leave for Savannah on Sunday, but if we don’t get around to doing them, it’s no big deal.

Since Lewis was in a holding pattern on Thursday morning while waiting to hear back from the correct supervisor for the job he’s currently working on, we decided to head out to Fort Sumter. After stopping at the Charleston Visitor Center to purchase our tickets for the 2:30pm ferry out to the fort, we hopped on one of the free city trolleys to do a bit of sightseeing before our ferry ride. It’s really amazing that Charleston, a city of around 150,000 people, can have such a small town feel. Maybe it’s all the old historic buildings, or the fact that there are no skyscrapers because of city codes that prevent the building of any structures taller than the tallest church steeple. Either way, Charleston feels very quaint compared to other cities of similar size.

As the time to catch our ferry out to Fort Sumter rolled closer, we hopped off the trolley and walked down Calhoun Street to the museum and ferry dock at Liberty Square. The museum is fairly small but there are several interesting displays and a short film about the history of the fort. After this introduction, we proceeded to the ferry dock and onto the ferry for the 40 minute ride out to the fort itself. On the way to the fort, the ferry passes several important historical sites from that era, such as Castle Pinckney (location of a small prisoner-or-war camp and artillery position), Fort Johnson (from which Confederates fired the first shot of the Civil War onto Fort Sumter), and Fort Moultrie (where Union Major Robert Anderson was garrisoned before moving his troops in secret to Fort Sumter). Then we arrived at Fort Sumter.

Fort Sumter is honestly not that interesting aside from its place in Civil War history. The walls are currently only about 25 feet above low tide at their highest point, less than half of the 55 feet tall that they stood in 1860. During the Civil War, Union troops besieged the fort for 587 days, reducing much of it to rubble. It was used as an unmanned lighthouse station from 1876-1897, and a concrete blockhouse-style structure was built inside the fort during the Spanish-American War but never saw combat. After poking around in the ruins for an hour and taking pictures of some of the cannons and mortars inside, it was time to head back to the ferry and then back to the campground.

On Saturday, we continued our perusal of American war history by heading over to Patriots Point, which we found much more interesting than Fort Sumter. Patriots Point is the home of three WWII-era vessels: the USS Yorktown (an Essex-class aircraft carrier), the USS Laffey (a Sumner-class destroyer), and the USS Clamagore (a Balao-class diesel submarine), all of which can be toured. It is also the location of nearly 30 military aircraft, a Medal of Honor museum, a Cold War memorial, and a Vietnam Experience exhibit. All in all, if you have any interest in fairly recent military history, plan to spend at least half a day there and be prepared for lots of stairs, steps, and ladders (elevators are available on the USS Yorktown).

The USS Yorktown is also known as “The Fighting Lady”. She was heavily involved in the WWII Pacific Offensive during 1943-1945, served off Vietnam from 1965-1968, and was the ship that recovered the Apollo 8 capsule and astronauts after their successful journey as the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. She was decommissioned in 1970, but as we ascended and descended through her several decks and levels (some currently being restored), it wasn’t hard to imagine what she must have been like when she was home to over 3300 naval officers and enlisted men.

The USS Laffey and USS Clamagore were much quicker to tour, being much smaller and not as well preserved/restored as the USS Yorktown. The USS Laffey is also called “The Ship That Would Not Die”, as she was attacked by 22 Japanese bombers and kamikaze aircraft while operating off Okinawa on April 16, 1945. Five of the kamikazes and three bombs actually struck her, and 2 additional bombs scored near misses upon her, but the heroic crew managed to shoot down 11 of the attacking aircraft and save the ship. She was repaired and went on to serve as a support ship for the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll, earned two battle stars during the Korean War, and served in the Atlantic Fleet until 1975. The USS Clamagore submarine served 30 years during the Cold War, having been commissioned just a bit too late to serve in WWII. She was upgraded to more modern underwater performance and technology via the GUPPY II AND GUPPY III conversions of 1948 and 1962-1963 respectively and is the only GUPPY III submarine preserved in the United States.

The Vietnam Experience exhibit is designed to simulate life in a wartime base during the Tet Offensive and Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968. A PT boat, three Vietnam-era helicopters, an ambulance, a Howitzer, and several facilities such as a mess hall, bunker, and observation tower can be found in and around the small enclosure, and the sounds of aircraft overhead and daily life issue from speakers located here and there within the compound.

But enough with the history lesson. Until next blog post…

Lewis called his mom to chit-chat and check on her end of the upcoming plans for meeting up in Williamsburg. After discussing it, however, it looked like we’d only have a couple hours to spend together – not really enough to justify a campground bill of $320 for 6 days, especially after we had just dropped so much money on new tires. And that didn’t include the one or two weeks we’d spend somewhere along the way. So we all decided to just skip meeting up this fall and perhaps try for Gettysburg in the spring when we’re heading up to Maine.

Hmmm, what to do with our time before heading back to Wekiva Falls in Florida at the beginning of December? Let’s get away from this chilly weather and head to the coast, specifically Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. So it’s off to Lake Aire RV Park & Campground in Hollywood, SC, a few miles outside of Charleston, to take advantage of the Passport America rates offered there. Gives us more money to spend on sightseeing in Charleston proper, and there are a lot of things Lewis and I would like to see in and around town. Things like Fort Sumter, Patriot Point, Rainbow Row, and at least one of the plantations for starters.

But of course, with the way our luck has been running, we brought the cruddy weather with us. It’s been raining pretty much off and on since we left Ver-El on November 1. And since most of the things we want to see in Charleston are outdoors, we’re having to find other, indoor, things to fill our time. Today we visited Irvin-House Vineyards and Firefly Distillery, two unique sides of the same property on Wadmalaw Island (about 30 minutes outside of Charleston). Irvin-House is Charleston’s only domestic vineyard and winery, and produces 5 distinct labels from 4 varieties of the native muscadine grape. Firefly is the largest distillery in South Carolina and its products include several vodkas (including the world’s first sweet tea vodka), a bunch of moonshines, 3 rums, a couple of whiskeys, and a handful of liqueurs. The winery offers a tasting of all five labels for $5 and the distillery’s tasting is your choice of 6 varieties for $6. Plus you get to keep the glass used for each. Not a bad deal, and a fun way to spend a couple hours. We enjoyed ourselves, got to drink alcohol a few hours before “strictly proper” (hey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?), and learned a bit about both distilling and wine making. Plus we purchased a couple bottles from both sides of the property to savor down the road. Well, not literally when going down the road, but you know what I mean!

And to cap the day off, we had dinner at a little restaurant named Old Firehouse Restaurant in Hollywood, SC. The restaurant is in the area’s old firehouse (hence the name), and serves Lowcountry Eclectic food, meaning all those tasty South Carolina dishes like shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, and pimiento cheese, along with other dishes such as various kinds of pizza, burgers, and beef stir-fry. It was a wonderful meal and consisted of very large portions – definitely a place we might go back to someday.

But that’s all for now. Maybe I’ll make another blog post later this week, assuming I remember to actually do it!