4-19, 4-20 2017 Charleston

Charleston is a bigger city than Beaufort SC.

We found this magnificent sailboat along our travels.

We stayed at the Harborage at Ashley Marina and glad that we did. They didn’t have a courtesy car, but the next best thing. They will drive you to places close by. We didn’t need to grocery shop or run errands, so we just played tourist. We went right to the Historic District. They had a large market in several long buildings that have been the market since 1807.

. It was mostly jewelry and craft items. Seeing we have little room on the boat we didn’t buy anything. It was fun to look.

We took a historic carriage ride. We enjoyed the last two that we did, and learned so much we figured why not. Well our driver wasn’t that great AND there are so many carriages in the historic district that the city manages each carriage. We pulled up they told our driver which small section we got to see. They also keep track of how many carriages are in an area and hold you up until one comes back. We didn’t get the whole feel for the city but we got to see some beautiful homes, but didn’t get the fun stories like we got in Beaufort.

This is how you buy your tickets for a carriage ride. Each company has their horse and carriage on the side of the road with their cell phones that take the credit cards. Talk about mixing up two different worlds.

This was our horse…..know as the slowest carriage horse in town. Great. Honestly we think it is the driver that was the slowest in town.

Here we are in line waiting for our assigned route to be determined by the official guy in the blue shirt.

One of the first places we saw was one of the old barns which is still used today to house horses for the carriage rides.

The houses were described as singles and double, much like mobile homes are today. This is a single. Love the iron work on the window!

Many homes were set up like this. The main door entrance was off the porch. They put doors on the end of their porches for privacy.

Many homes had history plaques on them like this one. Although this one has seen better days. It was hard to get good photos from the moving carriage.

Magnificent building. Again we were attracted to the roughed iron work.

We found the original Charleston Fire house. It holds this horse drawn apparatus and an old engine.

It also held this truck still. Scott says it needs more sun to ripen. Hee hee.

I feel like this alley is the same as it was 100 years ago except for the sign.

So many classy places. This gazebo is obviously new but they did a great job making it classy.

We walked down by the dock and found this lovely fountain at the entrance. There were kids playing in it. So much fun.

A short ways down the boardwalk we found this lovely Pineapple fountain.

We met fellow Loopers Mark and Karen from Captain’s Choice at Low Country Bistro for a late lunch. It was great catching up with them again. Scott had their famous Chicken and Waffles. I am not a fan of mixing dinner and breakfast. I had they Jumbalaya. Talk about southern meals!

Mark and Karen from Captain’s Choice with us for a late lunch.

We walked through a huge cemetery next to a huge church. One of the signer’s of the United States Constitution and one of the signers of Declaration of Independence is buried there. I don’t know why we find old cemeteries interesting. There is a certain mystery and sense of history walking through them.

These were a few of the headstones in the cemetery right next to that Steepled Church. St Philips.

Here’s the information we found. Hope you can read it.

This was the gate to the rest of the cemetery across the street. They were locking it up as we arrived.

The next day we visited the Citadel. We learned it is a state run military college. I can’t explain it, but there was a an air about the place that made you want to go to school there. Good think it’s too late for me I would never make it through the work outs. We went to their Museum, the church and were able to walk the grounds. It was oddly interesting. Glad we went.

This was the first thing we saw when we were dropped off at the Citadel. It is beautiful!

The small museum had this replica with original pieces of what the barracks were like.

They had a ring from every year the Citadel has been open. I found it interesting that Miniature versions of the Citadel ring was created for cadets to give to their girl friends. These rings were often used as an engagement ring and were given during the Christmas Hop. I wonder how girls today would feel about that engagement ring??

This is the chapel. Love the saying above the door.

Inside the beautiful doors this is what you see.

f Inside the doors if you look up you see these pipes.

This is one of the barracks. Everything is kept clean and in perfect repair everywhere on the campus.

See description in next photo. Fun fact. Do you know why these are called tanks? Pieces of them were manufactured at different plants. It was top secret. The workers were told they were making parts of tanks ie a vessel that holds liquid. Thee name stuck.

This is a F-4 Phantom. Scotts Dad, Nat, was a test pilot for this plane.

There was a huge park across the street from the Citadel so we walked through it and enjoyed the trees, flowers, pond, fountain and trails. We made a full day of it.