South Carolina Birthday Trip: Part 1
Day 1 and 1/2:
This trip was an absolute dream!! As I said in my previous post, Tyler and I left town at the end of June. It was extra exciting because two days after our arrival home, Kameron was coming home from his mission. That definitely sped up the last two weeks waiting for him to come home.
Tyler and I caught the red eye from Spokane and arrived in Chicago early that morning. We had a layover there and dined on the finest Chicago breakfast. LOL.
The famous Garrett's Popcorn. They are the inventors of the Chicago Mix: caramel and cheese popcorn. We had to get the original Chicago Mix. Delicious. That and some energy drinks got us through our layover and onto our flight to Charleston, SC.
We had to circle the Charleston airport for half an hour because a big lightning storm had just hit. It took forever to get our luggage because the airport workers could not be outside in dangerous lightning and rightly so. It was crazy. It was pouring rain as we picked up our rental car and headed to our Airbnb, a cute townhouse, near Daniel Island. We also grabbed some drinks and a few grocery items from the Publix. After that we were starving. We wanted some southern food!! Tyler found a place online that was highly rated and we headed to Mt. Pleasant to eat at Page's Okra Grill.
OH. MY. GOSH!! We had one of the top 10 meals of our lives. It was incredible! Southern Living (my favorite magazine) had also featured this restaurant and all of the recommendations were so right. Wow!
We got a sampler platter as our appetizer. It had: fried green tomatoes, bbq pork and pimento cheese egg rolls, shrimp, and pimento cheese on flatbread. All were fantastic! I ordered grilled shrimp, pimento cheese grits, collard greens, and jalapeno hush puppies. Tyler ordered chicken baked chicken with country gravy, pimento cheese grits, collard greens, and cornbread. Then we split a piece of pecan pie for dessert. Every last thing was out of this world divine! I have eaten seafood all over...west coast, east coast, Gulf of Mexico... and I have never in my life had better shrimp/seafood than in South Carolina and in particular at this restaurant. We literally licked the plates clean and rolled to the car to check out Charleston.
The rain had stopped so we headed downtown and drove around to get the lay of the land and to see some of its famous streets. Then we headed to The Battery, a beautiful seawall and promenade, that looks out over where the Ashley River and the Cooper River meet to form Charleston Harbor. This whole trip I wished that I was a photographer so that I could capture even the tiniest bit of the beauty there and do it justice.
We walked along The Battery and admired the views. We drove around and looked at some of the different areas of the city and made plans for the next day. After that we were thoroughly exhausted, and headed back to our townhouse. In the middle of the night another giant crashing thunder and lightning storm hit again. It sounded like the world was ending. It was pretty cool!
Day 2:
The next morning we got up early and headed downtown. Our friends had recommended Baguette Magic so we went there for breakfast. The chocolate almond croissants were delicious!
After breakfast we went to Waterfront Park which is the home of the iconic pineapple fountain. We walked around the park and enjoyed the harbor views.
After that we took a historical carriage tour of downtown Charleston. It was also recommended by our friends. It was so fun and we learned a lot!
The tour was very interesting. I was prepared for a lot of Civil War history but I forgot how much Revolutionary War history also took place in Charleston. I forgot that the city was founded so early... 1670.
I am in love with crepe myrtle!!
It was blooming while we were there and it is lovely!
I love both the white and pink varieties!
Rainbow Row
It was interesting to learn about the architecture of the area and the difference between verandas, porches, and piazzas and what their functions were for, including the doors to the street.
I've read so many books set in Charleston. It was fun to see Broad Street, Tradd Street, and Legare Street where some of my favorite books are set. Not to mention streets like King Street, Queen Street, Church Street, and East Bay Street.
It's hard to believe that such a beautiful city has such a sinister and evil history but it definitely does. I felt like the tour touched on the horrors of slavery and the part that Charleston and SC played but not enough. Our guide shared more about the Revolutionary War and pirates and things like that which while interesting kind of glossed over the more horrifying parts of the city's history.
After our tour we shopped at the Charleston City Market. Our friends had told us to stop here. They were right. We found some great things! Shoes, jewelry, hats, and an ornament to commemorate our trip but these babies were my absolute favorite find:
Words cannot describe the deliciousness of southern pralines. These are the size of large cookies. I bought some pretty much every single day in every place that we went. They are divine!
Then we drove to Sullivan's Island which is also a setting of many novels that I've read. This island was basically the Ellis Island for slavery. Nearly all slave ships came through Sullivan Island. It was the entry point. It was incredibly sobering to think about what transpired there especially now as it is an incredibly affluent beach town.
It was also an important outpost in the Revolutionary war and the Civil War. It is the location of Fort Moultrie. Edgar Allan Poe was stationed there from 1827-1838 and has left a lasting impression on Sullivan's Island and Charleston. Who knew? We learned a lot of Edgar Allan Poe history while we were in Charleston.
After Sullivan's Island we continued on to the Isle of Palms. It is another affluent barrier island. The beach houses were amazing! We ate an incredible meal on the Isle of Palms. We had the best luck on this trip. Somehow we managed to stumble onto and eat at several of the best restaurants in the area. This was one of those occasions.
We just happened to drive past when it was opening and we were starving. I guess we have great instincts when it comes to restaurants especially on this trip. We didn't have a single bad meal. This one was fabulous!
We ordered fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese as our appetizer. Tyler ordered a short ribs, pecan chicken, truffle mac and cheese, and collard greens combo. I ordered a grilled shrimp, scallops, crab cake, pimento cheese grits, and collard greens combo. Then we split a piece of the best key lime pie of our lives. Utterly fantastic! Every last morsel.
After that we needed to walk it off so we headed to Folly Beach at the most gorgeous time of night. Then sun was setting and it was sheer perfection! Does this look like a Pat Conroy novel or what?!
I am a water person. It calls to me like none other. I literally ran as fast as my legs could go to get in that water! Tyler was still paying to park and I was already in the ocean. The water was bath water warm and very reminiscent of Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico although slightly less silty.
Tyler humors me and goes along with things. He knows there is no dragging me out of any body of water. Once I'm in... I'm in. I wanted to be in the water and watch the stars comes out. He's such a good guy!
The beach houses are glorious!
My mom revealed herself in a beautiful pink sky. I felt her with us this entire trip. This would have been her jam. She was the original "coastal grandmother." Someone somewhere years ago must've seen Victoria McClellan in all her glory and she inspired the whole aesthetic! LOL. Even the crab cake I ate that night was for her. She would've have loved this trip.
The southern light is unlike any other. Where we have golden sunsets in the west, in the south it is like the color fades into the most beautiful pastels. It's amazing. No filter needed.
Day 3:
Tyler made a run for Dunkin Donuts that morning. We don't have them in Spokane. We were out and about early because we were headed to tour Magnolia Plantation which was built on the Ashley River. I was filled with trepidation about going. I didn't know what to expect and I was uncomfortable but it is also a part of history. At one point 235 enslaved people were owned at Magnolia. We booked three different tours at Magnolia: house, garden train, and the slavery to freedom.
This isn't the original house. The original house was built 1676 by Thomas and Ann Drayton which Ann was given by her father as her dowry. The original house burned down due to being struck by lightning. British and American troops occupied the land during the Revolutionary War. The second house was burned to the ground by the Union army. The current house was built in several stages on top of the burned out structure after the Civil War. The plantation originally had 2,000 acres. Now it has about 500 acres. Most of the land was sold after the Civil War. This was a rice plantation. Rice was the major crop grown in SC due to the abundance of water.
The grounds were incredibly beautiful. The gardens are in the romantic style rather than an English formal garden style. After the Civil War, the owners (now 13th generation Draytons) opened up the grounds for tourism. It's the oldest public tourist site in the Lowcountry and the oldest public gardens in America. It opened its doors to visitors in 1870.
Horticulturists and arborists come from around the world to visit the gardens. It is where the first azaleas and camellias were introduced to America. The awe-inspiring giant live oaks draped with Spanish moss are so incredibly beautiful.
It hard to capture the scope of how HUGE these trees are. This was the biggest one on the property. They guess it to be over 500 years old.
Here we are on the banks of the Ashley River trying to catch a breeze. I don't know how anyone survived the South Carolina summer heat... those working themselves to death in the rice fields and those in giant hoop skirts and paraphernalia. No wonder swooning was a thing and so was dropping dead in the rice fields.
The first tour that we did was the house tour. It was interesting. I am fascinated by old houses. Unfortunately they didn't allow photography inside the house. Bummer.
After the house tour, we took the nature train tour through the swamps. We saw a lot of flora and fauna. We saw about 8 alligators which was incredibly exciting to see but hard to photograph. They are fast if they are out of the water and if they aren't you can only see their eyeballs in the slime and duckweed.
There were also a lot of interesting birds. All of the bird watchers on our train were going crazy. Tyler and I were like, "pretty"...ha ha. It was lost on us! Although we are now big fans of the beautiful white snowy egrets. One night on Daniel Island we saw about 100 in a giant green tree. It was an incredible sight! We were too stunned to even grab our phones. It was unreal.
Next we took the Slavery to Freedom tour. It was really good. Our docent was incredible. She did such a good job discussing the horrific history of slavery at Magnolia. She shared some of the stories of the enslaved people who worked the plantation and we were able to tour some of the living quarters. That was a humbling and moving experience.
This slave cabin dates from 1850. They are tiny and multiple families lived piled up in them. I kept thinking about how hot it was and how they had to have a fire going all day to cook. There were open holes for a window. One on each side. No doors allowed. Millions of mosquitos. Inhumane seems too kind a word.
The first two cabins are from the 1850s. The third cabin is a freeman's cabin from the 1870s following Emancipation and during the time of Reconstruction. Former enslaved people lived there who chose to remain on the property and work for a *wage*. Not much of difference. There were more windows (some with glass), doors, and a table, and these were still two family cabins. That was about it for the upgrade. Sad.
The last cabin was from the 1920s during Jim Crow through the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement. Still not a giant difference. Horrible.
There were several other tours we could've taken. We would've liked to take the boat tour too.
After several hours at Magnolia Plantation, we were tired and roasting, so we headed back to Charleston. Look how pretty the South Carolina countryside is:
I didn't imagine that SC would be so green, beautiful, and lush.
When we got to back to Charleston we decided to walk around and check out some of the old churches and graveyards. Fun fact: We learned that graveyards are attached to churches and that cemeteries are not.
Our first stop was St. Michael's Church that was built in the 1750s. It has survived fires, wars, hurricanes, and a very large earthquake. On our history tour, our tour guide told us that George Washington attended services here after the Revolutionary War.
George Washington famously worshipped and prayed in pew 43.
I prayed in pew 43 too.
We tromped around in the graveyard where a vice president, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and two signers of the Constitution are buried.
Then we walked over to the Circular Church:
It has the city's oldest burial grounds with some stones dating from 1695.
After that we were starving and headed to Amen Street Fish and Raw Bar restaurant for Charleston's famous She Crab Soup. Charleston is famous for this soup and our friends said that we HAD to try it! So despite it being over 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity I ate hot she crab soup with sweat pouring down my face to the incredulous looks of the diners around us and I don't regret it! It was the best soup that I have ever had in my life! We also ate our weight in fried green tomatoes. They are so good!
Then it was time for our ghost tour. That was really fun! It was also a carriage tour. It turns out the two churches and graveyards that we had just been stomping around in are haunted. LOL. One of the graveyards is allegedly haunted by the famous Annabel Lee of Edgar Allen Poe fame. She is buried there.
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Tyler roamed around in the dark cemetery and took pictures of the Annabel Lee graveyard. I did not.
Before it got dark we went to White Point Garden that is on the Battery and checked that out. It is also a supposedly haunted site.
22 pirates were hung there and their bodies were left to rot...including Stede Bonnet aka the gentleman pirate. There is a lot of pirate history in Charleston too especially about Blackbeard who famously blockaded the port. Then because it was so incredibly hot, we needed something cold and frozen fast. I ordered what is truly the best drink in all of South Carolina. The frozen mint lemonade! It is fantastic! I had several while in Charleston and I downed another large praline! After that we drove over to the Citadel to check it out. It was very impressive and rather intimidating. Pat Conroy definitely did it justice in his book
The Lords of Discipline. It looked just like he described. It was another jam packed and amazingly fun day!
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